Labour leader defends NHS after being kicked out of pub in Bath

He shouted “that man is not allowed in my pub” and “get out of my pub” as Starmer walked back out of the door.

The pair appeared to disagree over the handling of the pandemic, including lockdown, as the incident was captured on camera by reporters.

Starmer was told Labour had “failed him” as a life-long voter after his business was forced to close. 

The publican provided the Labour leader with a graph on the pandemic’s impact on the economy, only for Starmer to fold the piece of paper up and put it in his pocket.

Asking for ten seconds of his time after the incident, Starmer could be heard telling the landlord afterwards that he “really did not need lectures” from him about lockdown.

Explaining his wife works on the frontline of the NHS, he pointed out they had been “completely overwhelmed by cases” of coronavirus.

“They’ve been on the frontline keeping people alive, so I really don’t need lectures from you about this pandemic”.

Humphris later told the PA news agency: “I had heard that the Labour Party were coming round and he turned up and I told him what I thought of him, basically.

“I think he has utterly failed us as the leader of the opposition, he has completely failed to ask the questions that needed asking, like, why did we throw away our previous pandemic preparedness?

“Why have we just accepted lockdown?

“Why have we just accepted the loss of all our freedoms?”

Starmer later told reporters: “I think the vast majority of people here in Bath and elsewhere recognise that the lockdown was necessary, that the restrictions were necessary, that we need to come slowly and carefully out so we never go back into lockdown.

“But he took the opposite view, that we shouldn’t have restrictions, I profoundly disagree.”