“You’ve Sold Us Out!” — Starmer Booed by Own Supporters in Southport as Labour Turns on Its Leader

By Eleanor Graves, Senior Political Correspondent
SOUTHPORT – March 12, 2026

It was supposed to be a straightforward rally. A chance for Sir Keir Starmer to solidify support in a key northern constituency, to project unity and purpose ahead of the next election. Instead, it became a scene of open rebellion, as the Labour leader was drowned out by chants of “Traitor!” and a cacophony of boos from the very people who were meant to be his strongest supporters.

The extraordinary events in Southport last night mark a perilous turning point for the Labour Party. What began as a routine stump speech on economic growth descended into chaos, exposing a gaping chasm between the party leadership and its grassroots that many MPs now fear may be unbridgeable.

The trouble began almost immediately. As Starmer took to the stage at the Atkinson arts centre, a packed hall of 500 party members and local activists greeted him not with the usual polite applause, but with a low, rumbling murmur of discontent. Within minutes, the murmurs became shouts.

“Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!” a group near the front began chanting, holding aloft Palestinian flags. Starmer, attempting to pivot to his message of “stability and service,” was repeatedly interrupted. But it was when he pivoted to foreign policy, attempting to strike a balanced tone on the Middle East and praising the “special relationship” with the United States, that the crowd truly erupted.

“You’ve sold us out!” a voice screamed from the balcony. Then came the word that silenced the room: “Traitor!”

The accusation hung in the air like a thunderclap. Starmer paused, visibly flustered, as a chorus of boos and jeers erupted, drowning out his attempts to continue. For nearly three minutes, the Labour leader stood frozen at the lectern, awaiting a silence that never came.

The flashpoints were numerous and deeply personal. On Gaza, where Starmer’s initial reluctance to call for a ceasefire has never been forgiven by the party’s Muslim and progressive wings, the anger was visceral. “You have blood on your hands!” one woman screamed, before being escorted out by security.

On Brexit, a issue Starmer hopes to move on from, the crowd refused to let it lie. “You backed Remain, you campaigned for a second referendum, and now you say it’s settled!” a local councillor shouted from the floor. “What do you actually believe?”

But it was his recent, effusive praise for Donald Trump—whom Starmer recently described as “a friend to Britain” in a bid to smooth relations ahead of a potential second Trump term—that seemed to push the room over the edge.

“You called Trump a friend?” a young activist roared, his voice cracking with disbelief. “The man who mocks disabled people, who tears families apart, who threatens our allies? You praise him? You’re not a Labour leader. You’re a Tory in disguise!”

The backlash was swift and savage. Outside the venue, the scene was equally chaotic. Dozens of protesters lined the streets, their placards bearing stark messages: “Keir = Red Tory,” “Labour Cares About Gaza,” and “Not My Leader.” Inside, as Starmer eventually abandoned his speech and was hurried off stage by security, MPs present described a mood of “open mutiny.”

“This is catastrophic,” one Labour backbencher, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Guardian. “These aren’t Tories. These aren’t swing voters. These are our people. The ones who knock on doors, who stuff envelopes, who get us elected. If they’ve turned on him, we are heading for an electoral abyss.”

The mutiny in Southport did not emerge from a vacuum. For months, Starmer has pursued a strategy of “professionalism” and “electability,” distancing the party from the socialist era of Jeremy Corbyn and courting centrist voters. In doing so, he has alienated key pillars of the Labour coalition: the Muslim community, the anti-Brexit wing, the young left, and the pro-Palestinian movement.

Tonight, that alienation was laid bare for the nation to see.

As Starmer’s motorcade sped away from the scene, the chants of “Traitor!” still ringing in his ears, the question on every MP’s lips was simple: If he cannot command the loyalty of his own party, how can he ever hope to command the country?

The beginning of the end, many fear, has just begun.