Keir Starmer has been revealed to be one of Labour’s most rightwing MPs in findings that will shock precisely no one.
The prime minister is less leftwing than almost all of his 401 Labour colleagues, according to the research by Chris Hanretty, a professor of politics at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Hanretty and his team compiled the results by asking 1,006 local councillors to compare their MPs and situate them against party leaders.
MPs were rated on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being the most leftwing and 100 being the most rightwing.
Reform UK’s Rupert Lowe and the Conservatives’ Suella Braverman were judged to be furthest to the right, with a rating of 95.
Starmer, meanwhile, was given a rating of 48, putting him roughly in the centre of the Commons but to the right of almost his entire parliamentary party.
He is slightly further to the right compared with the same study last year, a possible reflection of decisions his government has taken in its first few months, including removing winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners and refusing compensation for Waspi women.
The study also shows the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, sits to the right of her party, with a score that puts her political position closer to Nigel Farage, the head of Reform UK, than most of her own party.
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