TEAM Starmer stands accused of lying about the Labour leader’s predecessor again for cooking up a tall story about the state of the party HQ when it was handed over.

A media blitz to mark the third anniversary of Sir Keir Starmer’s takeover included an anonymous briefing to Guardian deputy political editor Jessica Elgot in which “one senior aide” told her of finding the offices in a tip — with a sleeping bag in Jeremy Corbyn’s, a bin full of shredded documents and “an assortment of revolutionary flags.”

“You could not have pictured a more symbolic scene,” the source said. But photographs of the offices at handover posted on Twitter by author Alex Nunns showed they were clean and tidy with none of the suggested paraphernalia in evidence.

“Jeremy Corbyn gave the Labour right the fright of their lives, and everything Team Starmer has done is about ensuring the left never leads the party again,” Mr Nunns told the Morning Star today.

“That includes destroying the reputation of Jeremy and his staff in every way — even down to making up petty stories about the office being left in a mess. They know the office was tidy. Jeremy was even concerned to leave good stationery for his successor as a polite gesture. 

“But they wanted a metaphor to show Keir Starmer had to clean up a mess so they just invented one.”

The Times, he noted, had published a piece last week which documented a false story put about by Sir Keir’s aides concerning a plot by Mr Corbyn to run for mayor planned in Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s office.

“The fish rots from the head: Starmer has mocked the Labour membership by ignoring the left-sounding pledges he made to win the leadership, and his staff appear just as happy to put out false stories about his predecessor. Journalists might want to bear that in mind.”