The Tories are facing backlash after criticising Keir Starmer for saying he wanted to make time to spend with his children after 6pm on Friday nights.
The Conservatives claimed the Labour leader’s comments, made in an interview with Virgin Radio, would make him a “part time prime minister” if he wins the election on Thursday, with Rishi Sunak telling reporters: “I haven’t finished at six ever.”
But the attack has been criticised as “desperate”, with many pointing out that Sir Keir’s wife Victoria is Jewish and the family observe traditional Shabbat dinners on Friday nights. Sir Keir said protecting time to spend with his son and daughter, 16 and 13, made him more relaxed and a better decision-maker.
He told Virgin Radio: “We’ve had a strategy in place and we’ll try to keep to it, which is to carve out really protected time for the kids, so on a Friday – I’ve been doing this for years – I will not do a work-related thing after six o’clock, pretty well come what may. There are a few exceptions, but that’s what we do.”
A Conservative Party attack on social media said: “Keir Starmer has said he’d clock off work at 6pm if he became prime minister.
“You deserve better than a part-time prime minister. The only way to prevent this is to vote Conservative on Thursday.”
Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis said: “Let’s hope Putin doesn’t choose 6.01pm when he wishes to go any further with his illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine.”
And Grant Shapps added: “Virtually every military intervention we’ve carried out has happened at night, partly to keep our servicemen & women safe. The British people will wonder who would be standing in for Starmer between 6pm & 9am – Angela Rayner, David Lammy, Ed Miliband? Defending Britain’s security isn’t a daylight hours only job.”
Editor of the Jewish Chronicle Stephen Pollard were among those criticising the attacks on X.
“Disappointing to see Shapps piling in on this, which is a ludicrous distortion of what Starmer said,” he tweeted. “Grant Shapps knows full well what trying to keep Friday night free for Shabbat with the family actually means. And he knows it’s not clocking off and a refusal to be disturbed (unless you’re an Orthodox Jew).
And former Union of Jewish Students president Joel Rosen told Jewish News : “At the end of each week, I pause for Shabbat. It is a sacred and restorative time for me and many in my community“It is unedifying to see the Tories use this tradition in a cheap attack, sneering at a father for spending time with his kids whilst respecting his wife’s traditions.”
A Labour source hit back at the attacks, saying: “The only person who’s clocked off early in this campaign is Rishi Sunak at the D-Day commemorations.”
But, doubling down on the attack line, health minister Maria Caulfield even accused the Labour leader of planning to work a four-day week if he becomes prime minister while finishing at 6.00pm every evening.
“Work life balance is extremely important but he has indicated he wants a more flexible approach... and that is just not possible,” she told Sky News. “I am just a junior minister and I work seven days a week, often close to 20-hour days at times, and so it is slightly concerning that this is the approach he has taken.”
Sir Keir said his son and daughter are his “pride and joy” and “I don’t want to lose that time”.
He said that in politics “some people think, if you fill your diary 24/7 and don’t do anything else, that makes you a much better decision-maker”.
“I don’t agree with that, I think you’ve got to make space, so we do it.”
In an interview with Chris Evans , who used to play football with the Labour leader, Sir Keir suggested his children appeared unimpressed with his political career.
After winning a Spectator politician of the year award, he said his son asked “How did you blag that, then?”
And when he was speaking at a fundraising dinner his daughter asked: “Why would anyone pay to hear you speak?”
“They keep me very, very grounded,” Sir Keir said.
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