If anyone knows not to take a Labour general election victory for granted it’s Neil Kinnock. The potential parallels between the former leader in the run up to the 1992 election and to Sir Keir Starmer today are all too clear. Back then polls gave the Conservatives no chance of victory .
Despite Labour’s lead dwindling in the final days, every forecast come polling day had Labour as either the largest party in a hung Parliament or winning a small majority. Instead it was the Tories who prevailed. Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty, as he is officially now known, does not expect history to repeat itself this year with another wholly unexpected Conservative victory.
But the 82-year has some words of caution for his successor. “The polls are right at the time that they’re doing them, but the election is going to be in October or November,” he warns in his familiar booming valleys lilt. “That’s a long way away, and the polls will tighten.
“Where I am is that we’re not going to lose the election. But whether that means Labour is the largest party or wins a majority, I don’t know.” Kinnock has plenty on his mind.
In a wide ranging interview with i from his north London home, he discusses George Galloway, Donald Trump and a wider uncertainty in the world faced by younger generations that brings him to tears. But Labour’s immediate future is also something he has obviously given plenty of thought to. If there is a hung parliament he does not believe that Starmer will b.
