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Lammy was speaking after Starmer gave an extended interview to Sky News, in which he described how his mother had Still’s disease, a rare type of inflammatory arthritis.
He said his father spent most of his time looking after her, and this had “squeezed” his “emotional space” and made him more emotionally distant from his children.
“I probably should have addressed that before he passed, and I wish I had, but I didn’t,” Starmer added.
Kitty Donaldson, a political journalist in the UK, told Business Insider that this interview marked a turning point in Starmer’s public display of emotion.
“Up until that point, Starmer had been very stiff, very practical, very straight-laced,” Donaldson said. She said that Obama “unlocked” and “gave permission” for Starmer to open up.
“In terms of his leadership style, it’s had an impact,” she said. “Obama is quite laid back. This campaign has been more laid back than we have seen, and he seemed to enjoy going up and down the country speaking to people.”
Tom Packer, an honorary research fellow at University College London who specializes in US politics and elections, told BI that Starmer’s backstory had become a “theme of the campaign.”
He said it helped challenge the idea that all UK politicians come from a “posh background” without struggle.
Obama could advise Starmer on how to deal with Trump
Obama’s and Starmer’s relationship is likely to continue if Starmer wins the election on Thursday.
Obama has helped Starmer since at least 2021, when The Guardian reported that they were involved in two hours’ worth of private talks with Lammy about how center-left parties could return to power.
Speaking to Politico’s Power Play Podcast in September, Starmer said Obama was the US president that he spoke to “most frequently.”
“I’ve spoken to him a number of times, and his analysis on the world is always interesting, his challenges, and just going through with him what he faced, how he rose to the challenges,” Starmer said.
“It is always useful to test my ideas on people who won elections, people who’ve taken difficult decisions in power because that helps me think about how we might approach some of the decisions we might have to take if we do win that election,” he added.
Packer said Obama and Starmer’s relationship made sense, given the decadeslong ties between the UK’s Labour Party and the US Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, Donaldson suggested Starmer may seek advice from Obama on dealing with Donald Trump, if the former president is reelected in November.
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Trump is leading the polls, and Biden’s shaky performance during the first presidential debate on June 28 has led Democrats to panic and urge him to step aside for another candidate.
Speaking to Politico last September, Starmer said his team had been in talks with Biden, adding, “It’s clear what my desired outcome would be.”
Packer told BI that Starmer and his team won’t want to put “their eggs in one basket” and will be eager to secure “some kind of relationship with Trump that works,” regardless of their political differences.
Trump “finds it hard to be nasty about people that are nice to him,” Packer said.
He said a Labour government could end up with a good relationship with Trump “even if they disagree with him on policy” if Starmer is “nice.”
He pointed out that Starmer has been careful to avoid making anti-Trump comments during his election campaign.
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 last week, Starmer was asked if he agreed with Lammy’s 2018 description of Trump as a “woman-hating neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” and a “profound threat to the international order.”
“Those aren’t words that I’ve ever used,” Starmer responded.
“I know the job of the person who leads our country is to deal with the leaders of other countries, who are elected by their people. You don’t always get to choose the leaders of other countries,” he continued.
Lammy has also softened his stance. He told a summit in May that Trump’s position on European defense was “misunderstood” and he merely “wants Europeans to do more to ensure a better defended Europe,” Politico reported.
After Trump was convicted of paying Stormy Daniels hush money, Starmer called it “unprecedented.”
But he added, “We will work with whoever is elected… We have a special relationship with the US that transcends whoever the president is.”