Lost in Labour limboland

The Hull MP in suspended animation

The last time I saw MP Karl Turner looking so hacked off was on the night of the 2019 General Election.

The result in the Hull East constituency had just been declared. He’d held his seat but only just.

A 1,239-vote majority might sound comfortable but it wasn’t. His nearest challenger, Conservative Rachel Storer, appeared shocked earlier in the evening when it initially seemed possible she might come close to pulling off a sensational victory.

After all, this was the same constituency where Turner’s predecessor John Prescott once chalked up a thumping 23,973 majority.

As it was, his bacon was probably saved by Brexit Party candidate Marten Hall who finished third with just over 5,700 votes. Ordinarily, most of those would have probably gone to the Tories.

After the declaration, I spotted him in a huddle with small group of party activists. Ashen-faced, he looked like death warmed up. There was zero sign of celebration.

“Can I have a quick word?” I asked. “Give me a minute, Angus,” he replied before peeling away from the group and heading towards one of the long, straight corridors running either side of the first floor in Hull’s Guildhall.

He paced up and down the corridor on his own for the next couple of minutes, presumably gathering his thoughts. For a while, I wondered whether he would ever return. I caught the eye of his election agent who made an instantly-recognisable gesture with both hands - leave him be for a bit.

Eventually, he emerged from the corridor and re-joined the group, ready for the interview. He still looked as if he’d just bumped into Banquo’s ghost. He didn’t need to wait to be asked a question because one was already on his lips.

“What the f*** was that all about?” he barked.

Karl Turner (left) at Thursday’s council election count at the Guildhall

On Thursday we were both back at the Guildhall for the city council election count.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since that winter’s night in 2019. We’ve had Brexit, a global pandemic and four different prime ministers. Meanwhile, the Hull East MP has gone from a spell of relative anonymity on Labour’s backbenches at Westminster to being the go-to guy for a quote on Labour’s national woes having been suspended by the parliamentary party over his vocal opposition to proposals to limiting jury trials.

As a result of the suspension, he’s currently sitting as an Independent MP.

Having cheered the demise of a trio of Tory PMs, the current Labour one was keeping Turner busy in between visits to the room in the Guildhall set aside for counting votes in wards in his own constituency.

Inside the room the votes were not going Labour’s way. Outside, TV cameras and radio mics were on hand to record his latest views on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership as news of Labour’s broader collapse across the country filtered through.

This time I didn’t bother with a formal interview. Instead we chatted casually for a while when he settled in another room reserved for the media, him watching the TV with gritted teeth and me keeping an ear on the build-up to the next declared result being announced in the council chamber.

It was more like a conversation in the pub between two old acquaintances but without the beer.

I asked about his suspension. Was there a timescale on it?

“No, nothing. I’m just suspended, full stop, no end date. That’s it.”

Forever?

“Well, I get asked to the whips’ office every so often. I’m asked if I’ve changed my mind over jury trials. I’m never going to change my mind on that, not in a month of Sundays, so I tell them and that’s it until next time I get called in. Bloody ridiculous, frankly.”

While stopping short of demanding Starmer be hung, drawn and quartered, it’s clear he has no faith in the current Labour leadership team. I certainly didn’t get the impression David Lammy is on his Christmas card list.

I decide to bring up the alleged briefings against him by shadowy Labour figures which made for some uncomfortable recent headlines questioning his mental health.

“Yeah, they said I was on suicide watch. They also claimed my Missus had done a runner. It was all bollocks pushed out by McSweeney mob.”

Before delving further into his obvious antipathy towards Starmer’s recently departed chief of staff, the conversation switches to who might move into 10 Downing Street should the current resident move out unexpectedly in the near future.

Turner namechecks Andy Burham and Angela Rayner without committing to either. Wes Streeting is also mentioned but with a few added words of caution. “He’s got a chance but….er, um, he’s not for me.” I suspect he favours North over South.

“Beyond them, it’s a bit thin on the ground. There’s no one else really, is there?”

I jokingly suggest he might throw his hat into the ring if the suspension gets lifted. He just stares at a window and the darkness outside and quietly whistles to himself. “Fat chance of that happening,” he adds.

Turner is a Marmite politician. Some love his abrasive, straight-talking style. Others recoil from it. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

A colourful expletive always seems to be in the horizon and, thanks to his new-found status as a rebel MP on speed-dial, he’s become the unlikely darling of the right-wing media in their ongoing efforts to see off Starmer.

I suspect many Labour MPs are hoping he’ll pipe down at some point. However, there’s little sign of him doing so anytime soon.

I ask him if he’s had enough of politics. He says he just wants to be part of a Labour government doing good things.

“We waited long enough to get into power but we’re not doing ourselves any favours at the moment are we?”

It strikes me that he’s arrived at a crossroads in his political career. He says the Labour Party is part of his DNA and always will be but it seems the Parliamentary Labour Party - or at least some elements of it - has become something of an alien being to him. He’s clearly not a happy bunny right now.

Being an ex-Bransholme High School pupil who become an antiques dealer and then a barrister working in the flotsam and jetsam world of Hull’s criminal courts sets him apart from most newly-elected Labour MPs who these days seem to graduate straight into political internships before landing a seat in the Commons.

He’s a square peg in a board of round holes, a throwback to a time when MPs had real-life work experience on their CVs.

In the 2024 General Election Turner increased his majority to 3,920 with Reform UK replacing the Conservatives in second place.

Two years on, he watched from the sidelines as Labour’s painful night at the Hull council election count unfolded.

In his own constituency, Labour lost three seats to Reform UK. Three other seats held by the Lib Dems also went turquoise. In two other seats held by the Lib Dems, Labour limped across the finishing line in fourth place.

Overall, Labour lost seven of the eight seats it was defending across the city while Reform UK won ten seats - the first ever successes for the party in a city council election. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems remain the largest group at the Guildhall with 26 seats although they no longer hold an overall majority.

The direction of travel couldn’t be more obvious.

While the current parliamentary cycle has yet to reach its midpoint, Hull East already looks to be the most vulnerable of Labour’s three seats in the city at the next General Election.

Whether its current incumbent fancies another crack at it remains to be seen and I didn’t get the chance to ask him about it.

Before I could say another word, a head popped into the room and said: “Karl, the BBC are looking for you” and he was off for another interview down the line to London.

Whether he does stand again might depend on the stalemate over his suspension being resolved at some point in the future.

If he does and if the current political headwinds persist for much longer, I suspect another encounter with a Shakespearean spook might be on the cards which ever way the result goes.