Words from a critical friend

I'm a tribal Labour supporter and that's where I'll be voting (directly or by proxy as a 'vote swap') in the next General Election. But that's not to say that I'm happy with their direction of travel and the questions that will be asked of them during the forthcoming campaign. The key question that many potential voters will have is: what is the point of Keir Starmer’s Labour party? And I write this critique as a critical friend. These are real issues that beg a clear response.

There is no doubt that the UK is in dire need of change and, quite rightly, people will be looking at precisely what changes a government led by Starmer is going to bring about. And he's not making it easy for people to understand what these might be. It seems that every day there’s another U turn as Labour abandons any policy that’s vaguely left wing or progressive. Long gone are the promises to nationalise the rail, water and energy companies as are the previous commitments to end outsourcing in NHS England. Labour health spokesman Wes Streeting said he’d hold the door wide open to private sector involvement in the NHS in England. Starmer once promised to abolish the cruel and capricious Universal Credit introduced by the Tories. We are now told that a Labour government will introduce unspecified changes to the benefits system but Starmer’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth said Labour agrees with the concept behind Universal Credit. The promise to abolish tuition fees is long gone, as is the original plan to expand childcare to all children. The promise to increase taxes on the top 5% of earners, that too has bitten the dust. Neither will there be a wealth tax or an increase in Corporation tax.

Just the other week we saw Starmer shred his previous commitment to ensure that Parliament approved any military action taken by the British armed forces when he gave his whole hearted support to the decision to bomb Yemen, even though this was carried out without Parliament being informed, never mind its consent being sought. Starmer then tried to fool us by claiming that this promise had only ever applied to military boots on the ground. Just what other of his remaining promises have similar weasel word caveats attached to them that Starmer won’t reveal to us until after the fact?

That list of remaining promises is rapidly diminishing. The much vaunted commitment to spend £28 billion annually on the green transition has just been finally axed after being repeatedly watered down.

Also axed was the plan announced to great fanfare when Gordie Broon’s long awaited constitutional review was published. Remember how we were breathlessly told that that insult to democracy the House of Lords was going to be abolished and replaced with an elected ‘House of the Nations and Regions’? Well colour me unsurprised, that’s not going to happen either.

Now what we’re going to get a promise to legislate to abolish the 91 remaining hereditary peers. The remaining 692 appointed life peers will, no doubt, soon have their numbers boosted by new unelected appointees who are the beneficiaries of political patronage. It was only in December that Starmer insisted that the unelected chamber was “indefensible” and “undemocratic” and swore that his party would replace it with an Assembly of the Nations and Regions. Fast forward a couple of months and apparently it’s not that indefensible or undemocratic after all. (STOP PRESS: It's already started. The government has announced today, 13 new peerages, including several donors to the Tory party, and the youngest ever member of the House of Lords. And Labour has lobbed in a few cronies as well.)

Even one of Tony Blair’s former advisers is exasperated with Starmer. John McTernan, a former senior adviser to Tony Blair has admitted to wondering “What is the point?” in response to the Labour Party under Keir Starmer. When you’re too right wing even for the right wing of the Labour party under Tony Blair, then you are a Tory in all but name. The ‘change’ that Starmer promises is changing Rishi Sunak with him.

Starmer most likely will win the next general election but will then rapidly become very unpopular as millions of people look upon a Westminster system which is unwilling and incapable of change and ask themselves, “What is the point?”

At the moment, the answer to that seems to be "he's not a Tory" and whereas that might be enough in the short term, it's certainly not going to be good enough for continued success.