Labour has faced criticism from one of its own parliamentary candidates after paying the Sun to advertise Keir Starmer's policies on its homepage. Visitors to the Sun's website on Monday were greeted with full-site takeover adverts featuring Starmer's face, urging readers to 'vote for change'. The exact cost of the advert is not yet known, but industry sources suggest it would typically run into tens of thousands of pounds.
Kim Johnson, the Labour candidate for Liverpool Riverside, criticised the party leader for paying the newspaper, which remains boycotted in much of Merseyside due to its false reporting on the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Johnson said the city would be 'very disappointed' that Starmer had broken a promise he made during his 2020 leadership campaign, when he told a Liverpool audience he would not write for the Sun.
Starmer had pledged to boycott the Sun during the leadership contest, stating: 'This city has been wounded by the media – the Sun … I certainly won’t be giving an interview to the Sun during the course of this campaign.' However, since becoming leader, he has adopted a more welcoming stance, writing articles and agreeing to interviews with the paper. In 2021, he angered many Merseyside Labour MPs by writing an article in the Sun.
Labour's relationship with the Sun has been fraught. The party won the paper's endorsement under Tony Blair, but Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn were more critical. The Sun has backed the Conservatives for the last four elections and has yet to endorse a party in this contest. Labour buying advertising from News UK, the Sun's parent company, is notable given Starmer's history as director of public prosecutions, where he brought cases against Sun journalists during the phone-hacking scandal.
A Labour spokesperson pointed to Starmer's 2023 comments, where he said he understood the boycott but wanted to prioritise communicating with as many people as possible to achieve a change in government. Increased spending limits for this election have allowed Labour to buy adverts in other newspapers, including a full-page advert in the Mail on Sunday.
