Sir Keir Starmer relied for five years on an actress and communications skills coach to improve his public speaking and interview performances, a new book has revealed.
The prime minister relied on the advice of classically trained dramatist Leonie Mellinger to help him communicate with the public from his successful Labour leadership bid through to his campaign to become prime minister.
The actress has detailed in Get In, a history of the Labour Party under Sir Keir, how the transformation in his speaking style “has been enormous”. And Ms Mellinger described in the book, being serialised in The Times, how she counselled the PM when he considered resigning in the wake of the 2021 Hartlepool by-election.
Ms Mellinger, who has acted alongside Sir Patrick Stewart at the Royal Shakespeare Company, was recruited to work for Sir Keir in 2017, when he was plotting his rise to power as Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary.
In one of their first meetings, following a speech he had delivered in Brighton, Ms Mellinger feared she had been too candid in telling Sir Keir “I don’t think it was as good as it could be.”
But she was then invited to Westminster for a debrief on the speech, describing how the work was then “very intense” in the build up to his 2020 leadership race.
In the latest extract from the book, Ms Mellinger said: “As soon as the cameras were on, or he would be up in front of people with the autocue, he didn’t really speak with them. So I was working with him on how to emotionally connect, because if the speaker doesn’t emotionally connect with themselves, they cannot bring words to life, and they cannot expect to connect with the audience.
“He took it extremely seriously, and he was fantastic to work with. He was totally open to receiving this guidance, and extremely quick to take the notes, so I would then work with him on scripts and help him bring the words off the page.”
Major set pieces which Ms Mellinger helped Sir Keir with include his 2021 party conference speech, during which he spoke about his toolmaker father, Rodney, and his ITV Life Stories interview with Piers Morgan, which saw him weep at the memory of his mother’s illness and his regret at not telling his dying father he loved him.
Sir Keir has followed the approach of former PMs including Margaret Thatcher, who hired a coach from the National Theatre to help lower her voice.
His coach became a close confidant, with Ms Mellinger revealing how he “really wasn’t having a good time at all” after the humiliating defeat in Hartlepool, which saw him tell aides he was quitting.
She said: “I remember it very well. And I think that was the moment he said to me, ‘I didn’t come into this to be prime minister, it was just not something I thought was going to happen’. I think it’s really important that people understand that Keir never came into it wanting to be prime minister, he wanted to do something good.”
In a sign of Sir Keir’s appreciation for Ms Mellinger, a testimonial on her website stated: “Thanks for all your help and support along the way which made all this possible – Sir Keir Starmer.”
