How Much Did Starmer’s Voice Coach Cost?

Sir Keir Starmer must ‘come clean’ over who paid for his voice coaching, MPs have said.

The Prime Minister received five years of voice coaching from Leonie Mellinger, a former Royal Shakespeare Company actress – including in-person meetings during the COVID lockdown.

Now Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden has written to Sir Keir asking for transparency over the cost of the training, who paid for it, and whether it was properly declared.

In a letter seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Holden asks the PM: ‘What was the source of the funds used to pay for her services?’, adding: ‘This is essential for ensuring proper transparency and accountability across government and to ensure that you have followed the rules at all times.’

He also points out: ‘Your largest donor – Lord Alli – was found, in October 2024, to have breached four parliamentary rules over his registration of interests.’

Asked last night as to who paid for the voice coaching, Downing Street refused to comment.

For five years, Sir Keir had voice instruction from Ms. Mellinger, who had previously performed on the same stage as Sir Patrick Stewart. This helped him with media appearances and public speaking.

The work started in early 2017 when Sir Keir was Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Brexit Secretary. It continued until late 2021, after he’d done an interview with Piers Morgan for Life Stories on ITV and given a well-received party conference speech.

Controversially, No 10 has also said that Ms Mellinger was a ‘core part of a small team’ who helped Sir Keir in a meeting on Christmas Eve 2020, during strict Tier-4 Covid restrictions.

Mr Holden told the MoS: ‘With so many questions to answer about lockdown laws and his voice coach, it’s beyond time for Sir Keir Starmer to come clean.

‘He has been unwilling to reveal any more details regarding his voice coach and her Christmas Eve dash to Labour HQ, much less whether her services over a significant period were paid by Labour or indeed donated, and if so by whom, and where this was declared.

‘With Lord Alli as Sir Keir’s biggest personal donor, it’s only fair to ask if he paid – and if not Lord Alli, then who?’

A spokesman for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said it was ‘almost unimaginable to disagree’ that there had been ‘a clear breach of the COVID rules’.

Labour has said that Ms Mellinger had ‘key worker’ status during the pandemic, that the regulations were followed and that Sir Keir believed it was not reasonably possible for her to carry out the work with him from home.

So, we common folk couldn’t see our families, attend funerals, or go to work. Our children couldn’t go to school, folk couldn’t have a holiday or see a doctor. We had to wear face masks and were coerced into an experimental vaccination, yet it was okay for Starmer to have one-to-one voice coaching sessions.

Additionally, our late Queen had to follow the rules at the time and go to her husband’s funeral by herself. The fact that Starmer decided a vocal coach was necessary, however, says it all!

If I were her, then I don’t believe I would be citing the work as a success nor would I want to use Starmer as a reference, and long before the voice coach training numerous people knew just how wooden he was. The droning way he talks, and the way his delivery verges on rude by failing to address questions.