Lonely at the top: who are Keir Starmer’s allies as daunting May elections loom?

Starmer will need real allies as Labour heads into local elections expected to be disastrous for the party. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenStarmer will need real allies as Labour heads into local elections expected to be disastrous for the party. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/AFP/Getty ImagesKeir StarmerAnalysisLonely at the top: who are Keir Starmer’s allies as daunting May elections loom?Peter Walker Senior political correspondentPrime minister has shed trusted staffers but can still turn to many genuine friends in and out of governmentSun 26 Apr 2026 09.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 26 Apr 2026 09.36 EDTShareGiven that the signs of an embattled premiership are all around – defensive-sounding interviews insisting he will be in post at the next election; a rush of stories about supposed cabinet plotting – now, more than ever, Keir Starmer needs real allies. And here, at least, there is something to feel positive about.If you talk to most Labour MPs, Starmer most likely will not lead Labour into the next election. He may even not remain in No 10 much beyond a set of Scottish, Welsh and local English elections on 7 May, which are expected to be disastrous for his party.All that said, Starmer is not totally isolated. Unlike some prime ministers, whose connections in parliament felt largely transactional, there are people in Starmer’s working life who are genuine friends.Additionally, as a relatively late entrant to politics, he has a large and varied collection of pre-politics friends, a group that those who know the prime minister say he leans on even more closely.So who can Starmer count on amid a job that even at the best of moments, as he told the Sunday Times in an interview this week, can be relentless and thankless?In the cabinet, his oldest friend is Richard Hermer, the attorney general, someone Starmer first got to know 30 years ago as a fellow lawyer, one of a number of people the PM stays in touch with from his former profession.Lord Hermer is castigated by some newspapers and commentators as an ultra-liberal policy whisperer by the side of the throne, something insiders argue is overplayed. Starmer does, however, evidently trust Harmer on international law, with the attorney general’s initial advice about the UK steering clear of the Iran war helping shape a policy widely seen as one of the government’s few recent successes.In the same camp of ministers who can also be counted as friends are Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, and Jenny Chapman, the Labour MP turned peer who is the international development minister.One sign of the trust Starmer has in Thomas-Symonds, who like him entered parliament in 2015 after a career outside politics, is his brief, which involved charting the way towards the reset in UK-EU relations.Lady Chapman spent three years working alongside Starmer on the shadow Brexit brief. After losing her Darlington seat at the 2019 election, she chaired Starmer’s campaign to become Labour leader, then working as his political secretary, before becoming a peer.Then there are ministers who, while not necessarily close friends, are highly trusted. One is Pat McFadden, the work and pension secretary, often the person sent out on the most bruising morning broadcast rounds, for example after the Gorton and Denton byelection.In a similar group is Darren Jones, whose loyalty and sheer organisational zeal – more or less every media interview with Jones includes a reference to his…

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