Keir Starmer insists he is proud to be ‘patriotic’ after criticism voters don’t know what he stands for

Keir Starmer has insisted he is proud to be “patriotic” after damaging criticism that voters are confused about what Labour stands for.

Under pressure over his leadership, Sir Keir also ruled out a liberalisation of drug laws – saying he had “seen too much damage” in his past role as a prosecutor.

And he called for stronger trans rights laws to replace the current “demeaning” legislation, without going into details on the controversy over access to women-only spaces.

Asked about leaked Labour focus group findings suggesting voters believe he must “stop sitting on the fence”, the Labour leader said he had a “driving determination to root out inequality”.

“Yes I’m patriotic – that was one of the issues that was in this report that was leaked,” Sir Keir told Sky News.

He added: “The whole Labour movement is very patriotic We are in politics to change our country for the better – you can’t get more patriotic than that. I’m very, very comfortable with it.”