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Keir Starmer’s old cocky soundbites about losing elections and ditching political parties have come back to haunt him, and people are relishing the bittersweet irony

Michael White. Updated February 28th, 2026

It has been another brutal week for Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, losing a once-safe seat in Gorton and Denton to the Green Party in an historic byelection.

Amid fresh calls for the prime minister to change tack and/or resign, two old clips have started going viral on social media of Starmer talking about election losses and how if you don’t like what a political party is doing, then you can leave it.

This is one of the clips, from the then leader of the opposition in 2020.

He says:

“When you lose an election in a democracy, you deserve to. You don’t look at the electorate and ask them, ‘What were you thinking?’ You look at yourself, and ask, ‘What were we doing?’”

The other is from 2023, and came in the context of how Labour’s leadership has changed under his rule.

Back then, he said: “If you don’t like that, if you don’t like the changes that we’ve made, I say the door is open, and you can leave.”

Well, after this week’s disastrous result for Labour, the two clips have taken on a whole new meaning – and people are revelling in the irony.

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Source: Twitter/X/evolvepolitics