Sir Keir Starmer has said Sir Rod Stewart “reflected the mood across the country” when he told Sky News live on air the current government needs to go and Labour should step in.
The Maggie May singer called into the Your Say segment of Sarah-Jane Mee’s show on Thursday to discuss the ongoing crisis in the NHS.
After listening, he offered to buy private cancer scans for up to 20 people who are on waiting lists worried about their illnesses
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But Sir Rod also revealed his change of heart when it came to politics, telling the show: “I personally have been a Tory for a long time but I think this government should stand down now and give the Labour Party a go, this is heartbreaking.
“In all my years in this country I’ve never seen it so bad… change the bloody government.”
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Sir Rod Stewart unexpectedly took part in Sky’s NHS phone-in and offered to pay for viewers’ lifesaving scans
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer expressed his delight at Sir Rod’s switch to his party and said he thinks the rockstar said what many people are feeling.
Sir Keir said: “I’ll go along for a singalong with Rod Stewart and thank him for his words yesterday.
“I think he actually reflected the mood across the country, that so much is broken and not working.
“I think there’s a real frustration that things have been brought to this point by this government.
“There’s a general sense also that Sir Rod picked up on that this government is clapped out frankly, it’s run out of energy, run out of ideas.
“It’s time for them to go and have a reforming Labour government come in, fix the immediate problems then set out a longer-term solution.”
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Sir Rod ‘gave voice to people’s frustrations’
Earlier, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner told reporters: “Rod Stewart has given a voice to many people’s frustrations at the moment, including Conservative voters.
“Because what the Conservatives have shown themselves to do, especially over the last couple of years, is not what they would consider to be Conservative.
“We’ve had low growth, high taxes, we’ve had cuts to our public services, we’ve had the economy that has been crashed, so I am not surprised that Rod Stewart has looked at that, anyone can look at this government’s record and see that they’ve failed and that we need change now.”
‘We had to change’
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Stammer and deputy leader Angela Rayner during their visit to Harlow Ambulance Station in Essex
She said the support from the singer and “the fact that Rod Stewart was able to see also the plan that Labour has is humbling for me and Keir and the rest of the Labour team who knew we had to change the party, knew we had to listen to the voters and that hopefully they can see we have a plan to make things better into the future”.
Ms Rayner added: “It is a sign, first of all, that the Conservatives are really on the wrong track and people can see that now.”
Earlier, Sir Keir joked that he and his deputy would be popping over to Sir Rod’s house to “have a singalong”.
Speaking to LBC, the Labour leader welcomed the “headlines” that came after the musician’s appearance on Sky News, but added: “I actually think what prompted Rod Stewart to say that was two things – this real sense that after 13 years now, pretty well everything is broken across the country, you just can’t get anything to work, and that is frustrating for everybody.
“But also when he said to this government, ‘step aside, give Labour a chance to fix this’, essentially I think there is strong sense that this government is just clapped out now. They just don’t have the energy.”