Keir Starmer gets utterly ratioed on social media after claiming he’s working class

Keir Starmer took to Facebook to claim that he had a hard upbringing. And, the majority couldn’t help but laugh. The prime minister said:

Growing up, we didn’t have much. I remember our landline being cut off because we couldn’t pay the bill. I know what it’s like to sit around your kitchen table worrying about the cost of living. People want more money in their pocket to do the things that matter to them; give the kids a treat, go out for a meal, have a holiday. That’s why the upcoming Budget will be a Labour Budget, with Labour values running right through it; focused on protecting our public services and improving the cost of living. That’s what I’m focused on. That’s what this government is all about.

Starmer: not the best approach

Respondents quickly ratioed the post with 26,000 laugh emojis and 24,000 comments compared to 2,700 likes at the time of writing. And a number of users pointed out a flaw in his story of early woes:

You must have had a few quid to have a landline most of us used a phone box then.

In 1970, when Starmer was growing up, only 35% of households had a landline.

Another user commented:

Had your land line cut off ; your dad owned a factory !!

Whether Starmer’s dad owned a factory is unclear, but he did own Oxted Tool Company. Besides, the idea that a person’s background means they cannot join the elite through protecting them in parliament is questionable. Margaret Thatcher was born into a lower middle class family with a grocer for a father and she conducted far-reaching class war in favour of elites, privatising public assets, deregulating the financial sector, and crushing unions.

On the flipside, Friedrich Engels was born into an upper class German family and he went on to co-author the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx. These examples show why Starmer’s ‘my childhood was tough’ mantra falls flat, on top of the fact he’s lying: he was clearly reasonably well-off.

Starmer publicly mentioned his father’s job as a ‘toolmaker’ at least 29 times from 2020-2024.

Starmer’s government

What’s more, it’s clear that this Labour government is not “protecting our public services” nor “improving the cost of living”. Since Starmer came to power, NHS privatisation has increased by up to 71% in some areas and at an average of 10% in just one year. This means private corporations leeching more money from public healthcare budgets.

And Labour is doing nothing to address the root causes of the manufactured cost of living crisis. In the past five years, UK food prices have gone up by 37% under the neoliberal system Starmer is protecting. Over the same period, Tesco’s operating profit has skyrocketed from £1.8bn in 2020/21 to £3.1bn in 2024/25, an increase of 72%.

And, as of 2023, the super rich extracted a whopping 45% of the UK’s entire national income in profiteering rent, meaning everyone could almost be twice as well off. On the flipside, only 55% of national income went to working people.

While there’s a role for the free market with small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), it’s clear that capitalist extraction shouldn’t serve as a blueprint of the whole of society. Nonetheless, Starmer ditched his pledges to bring key utilities back into public ownership, which would reduce costs for every household and business.

No one’s bothered about Starmer 50 years ago – what’s important is what he’s doing now. As he descends further in the polls, it’s time for him to pack it in.

Featured image via the Canary