THE Labour leadership should follow the example of US President Joe Biden and listen to the left of his party, Senator Bernie Sanders suggested over the weekend. 

Mr Sanders was asked for advice on how the Labour left can establish a relationship with “centrist” leader Sir Keir Starmer as the Democratic left has managed to do with Mr Biden. 

Addressing Mr Sanders via video link at The World Transformed, a fringe festival of the Labour Party conference in Brighton, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “I’ll let you in on a little secret — we have a centrist leader as well. 

“But we’re having problems in order to ensure we have a working relationship on the left with that leader. You’ve achieved that — how’s that been done?”

Since taking over from former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Sir Keir has been accused of purging left-wing members and shifting party politics to the right. 

Mr Sanders agreed that the US president had always been a moderate centrist but said his boss had embraced the left of his party calling for radical change. 

Mr Biden “is a good human being and he does not like to see suffering or racism or sexism around him,” the US senator said.

“To his credit — and I think he deserves enormous credit for that — he looked around and saw the kind of movement that we helped develop and the excitement of young people in wanting transformative change.”

Mr Sanders admitted that he had disagreements with Mr Biden but added that the US president had the “courage to think big.

“He understood that the only way we can bring people into the political process is by talking about the pain that they are now experiencing, we cannot continue to ignore that.” 

At the end of the meeting, Mr McDonnell told socialists that when the new Labour leader was elected, the Corbyn team promised not to resort to the same tactics of “personal attacks and abuse” meted against them.

The former shadow chancellor described facing “monthly coups,” when Mr Corbyn led the party. “It wasn’t just the chicken coup,” he said. 

He added: “It’s not the left that are undermining Starmer.”

“It’s Starmer that is undermining Starmer.”