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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Pippa Crerar Political editor

Keir Starmer was beaten up as teenager trying to defend gay friend, book reveals

Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer: ‘People forget about the ways Britain has become less cruel and less full of hate.’ Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Keir Starmer was beaten up in a nightclub in Cornwall as a teenager after trying to defend one of his friends who was attacked for being gay, a new book reveals.

In an incident that the book’s author, Tom Baldwin, suggests demonstrates Starmer’s values, the Labour leader describes how he was disgusted that his friend had been kicked out of the family home in the 1980s for being gay by his father who told him “you’re no son of mine”.

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