Sir Keir once called Corbyn his “friend”, particularly in his campaign to win over the Labour membership in 2020, but they are now in a bitter feud. Sir Keir was a key figure in Corbyn’s team, but now says he “never thought they would win” the 2017 or 2019 elections. What does Corbyn make of this, I ask? “He didn’t say that at the time,” Corbyn says. “He never hinted at that, or intimated that at any stage to me. We did press conferences and events together in the 2019 election. He was part of the shadow cabinet that agreed the manifesto, and part of the Clause V [meeting of top Labour figures] who agreed the manifesto. Own it. I was there, he was there… and there were witnesses,” he says.
