Sir Keir Starmer used a Shakespearean actress to help him get over stage fright as she admits he would ‘shut down’ when he was out of his comfort zone.
The premier first called in communications coach Leonie Mellinger in 2017 as he set his sights on becoming Labour’s next leader.
Mellinger, who has acted alongside Sir Patrick Stewart at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Rik Mayall in The New Statesman, first witnessed him give a public speech in Brighton.
She described his performance as ‘wooden’, a brutal honest assessment that left his aides in shock.
But Starmer called her to Westminster for help and Mellinger set about what she described as teaching him how to ’emotionally connect’ and ‘bringing words to life’.
She told The Sunday Times: ‘I told him that what I could see was that when he was in the unnatural situation, as I call it – or the uncomfortable zone – what happened to him is what happened to many people, which is if you don’t have the skills, you shut down and close off your personality.’
She added: ‘I think the main thing is the discomfort he felt when – when the cameras switched on – or where – where he was under pressure, in the spotlight – but that really is the case for many people.
‘I mean, it was the case for Gordon Brown, exactly the same, but Gordon Brown didn’t work on it, whereas Keir did.’
Sir Keir Starmer speaks at a press conference, during his visit to the European Commission headquarters in Brussels — October 2, 2024
Communications coach Leonie Mellinger attending the Woman of the Year awards lunch at the Intercontinental Hotel Park Lane in London — October, 2014
Mellinger appearing alongside Sir Patrick Stewart in Titus Andronicus at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon — 1981
For five years she was at front and centre of Starmer’s core team, aiding him to become less wooden and even counselled him when he was contemplating quitting after the Tories’ triumphant Hartlepool byelection victory in 2021.
She has since been one of his biggest cheerleaders and even has a photo of herself, champagne glass in hand, with her arms raised in the air on the day Starmer delivered his Labour leader acceptance speech.
As Starmer worked on his pre-recorded speech, he was being coached by Mellinger’s voice being beamed out of his iPhone that was propped up on his living room mantlepiece.
Indeed, the PM appears on Mellinger’s website where in a glowing testimony he thanks her for ‘all your help and support along the way which made all this possible’.
Mellinger’s X feed is littered with praise for her protégé . In 2020 she declared alongside a repost of Starmer’s leadership bid video that she was ‘with him’.
In July last year she described his first press conference as PM as ‘impressive’.
She wrote: ‘@Keir_Starmer looking and sounding like a leader, comfortable in his skin, answering every question head on with #conviction and #substance #Leadership #Impact.’
In 2021, she helped him in his preparations ahead of an emotional appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories on ITV.
Ahead of the interview Starmer had been criticised as being unemotional and even ‘boring’, but during the three hour episode her broke down in tears as he opened up about his mother’s illness and his regret of not telling his dying father that he loved him.
In July last year Mellinger described Starmer’s first press conference as PM as ‘impressive’
Mellinger was sitting with a champagne glass in hand and her arms aloft when she was left delighted by Starmer’s acceptance speech when he became Labour leader
Mellinger pictured at her home in in Hampstead in 1988. She also appeared alongside Rik Mayall in The New Statesman
Mellinger attends the Women of the Year Lunch and Awards at Royal Lancaster Hotel, in London — October 7, 2024
Mr Morgan at the time described the interview as ‘spine-tingling’ saying: ‘I’ve done 100 shows and I’ve rarely seen such raw emotion from any of my guests. People often ask, ‘Who is the real Keir Starmer?’ Well, there is a lot more to him than people think.
‘This is the interview that shows the real him and it is one of the most searingly honest and intensely emotional interviews I’ve ever done.
‘You are left with a real sense of a man who comes from humble beginnings who has worked extremely hard and has had to overcome terrible adversity and a string of family tragedies, all of which have shaped him into the person he is today.’
