Top Labour donor 'ready to inject fresh cash' under Keir Starmer's leadership

Labour’s biggest donor, who was a fierce critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, tonight reveals he is ready to pump cash into the party again.

In the latest boost for Keir Starmer’s leadership, millionaire shopping channel tycoon John Mills said he was considering injecting funds into Labour coffers.

Mr Mills gave Labour £1.65million worth of shares in his company JML under Ed Miliband’s leadership in 2013.

But he stopped filling the war chest during Jeremy Corbyn’s four-and-a-half years in charge – though Labour continued to receive dividends from the shares.

Now, in an exclusive Mirror interview, he says he could turn on the money taps once more.

“I think I might do,” he said, agreeing it would be a vote of confidence in the new leadership.

“Labour has got quite a strong team now.

“ Keir Starmer is a really very impressive figure. You’ve only got to see him at the Despatch Box to see there is somebody who is a potential Prime Minister.”

Mr Mills, Labour’s biggest non-union funder, last donated £10,000 to the party in February 2015 – seven months before Mr Corbyn’s landslide leadership triumph.

“I was never a Jeremy Corbyn supporter – his style of politics isn’t my style of politics at all,” he admitted.

“I was very sorry to see the Labour Party going in the direction it did, and I’m very happy to see it coming back to where it is now.”

Mr Mills pumped £5,000 into Lisa Nandy’s leadership bid this year and voted for her as his first choice.

Though Mr Starmer was his second choice, Mr Mills is delighted with the winner’s performance in the two months since his victory.

“I think Keir Starmer is really doing a very good job,” he said.

“He seems to me to have struck the right note between supporting the Government (over coronavirus ) and being critical of what it’s done.

“He has been very effective in the House of Commons.

“He’s obviously finding his way but the polls are going in the right direction.

“His attitude on a whole range of things is one which I would very much support, and I’m very pleased with the way things are going.”

Brexiteer Mr Mills was the founder of Labour Leave and spent years warning the party had become disconnected from its roots in industrial towns in the Midlands and North, where many traditional Labour voters backed Brexit.

As Shadow Brexit Secretary, Mr Starmer was the architect of Labour’s plan for a second EU referendum – a position some blamed for collapse in Labour support at December’s general election.

Mr Mills, 82, said: “I think the Red Wall that came down was very largely Brexit-related.”

But he said Mr Starmer had been placed “in a pretty impossible position” adding: “Jeremy Corbyn had his own agenda on all this and Keir Starmer had to try and weave something together that held the picture more or less together”.

Since becoming leader, Mr Starmer has refused to back calls for an extension to the Brexit transition period, during which the UK and EU are negotiating the future relationship.

The Government has insisted the 11-month deadline is enough time to strike a trade deal – and it will not extend the transition.

Mr Mills praised Mr Starmer as being “very adroit about not campaigning for extensions beyond the end of this year on the negotiations”.

He added: “To say that, ‘The Government has promised it’s going to get it all through by then’ and, ‘Let’s wait and see if they can do this or not’ is a much cleverer strategy than saying, ‘It’s all a disaster, we want an extension’.”

Many observers believe it will be impossible for Labour to win power at the next election, due in 2024.

They think the party should focus on slashing the Tories’ 80-seat majority and aim to seize power at the following election.

But Mr Mills said it could be “a surprisingly short time” for Labour to repair its relationship with voters.

Pointing to the Dominic Cummings affair and the harm it is causing Boris Johnson, the businessman believed Labour could benefit from a “resurgence”.

He highlighted the fall in Conservative support in 1992 after Black Wednesday, when the UK dropped out of the exchange rate mechanism.

That economic humiliation came just five months after the Tories won a shock general election victory.

Mr Mills, who recently published the first report from his think tank, the John Mills Institute for Prosperity, said: “The Government’s popularity just plunged and never recovered, then the Labour Party got in with a huge majority in 1997.

“The world changed very rapidly after we came out of the ERM. I think there is a parallel.”

Hailing Mr Mills’ praise for the new leadership, a Labour source: “It’s encouraging to see more and more people returning to Labour.

“Under Keir’s leadership, the Labour Party’s priorities are clear: unite, rebuild and focus relentlessly on winning the next election.”