Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer leaving Europol in The Hague
/ PA Wireright here’s a brand new parlour recreation being performed in all of the pinko-liberal-remainiac north London dinner events I knock about at. It’s known as “However What The F*** Did Sir Keir Starmer REALLY Imply When He Mentioned He’d Make Brexit Work?”
Guidelines are easy. Somebody kicks off by saying: “I see Starmer has categorically dominated out the UK rejoining the EU in any approach, form or type underneath a brand new Labour authorities.”
Company then spend the subsequent two hours providing opinions as to why that is, in truth, a charade designed solely to maintain Crimson Wall voters on aspect till he turns into prime minister.
The sport concludes with a unanimous settlement that we’ll all be again within the EU earlier than you possibly can say “that’s a terrific little bit of goat’s cheese … from La Fromagerie?”
I’m aware, nevertheless, that up there on the Crimson Wall they too are enjoying a variant of this recreation. Solely theirs is named “However What The F*** Is It About ‘Labour Will Make Brexit Work’ These Daft Islington Tossers Don’t Get?”
It is a useful place to be for a pacesetter of the Opposition, tip-toeing by way of a Brexit minefield that will but blow up his path to energy. Quick ahead a few years, nevertheless, and you’ll wager a minimum of one lot of us, perhaps even all of us, might be feeling deeply let down.
After 13 years of the Tory circus plus Labour’s near-death expertise underneath Jeremy Corbyn, many argue that Sir Keir will be forgiven for concentrating on profitable the election subsequent 12 months and sweeping up the mess afterwards.
His journey to Paris this week was a typical masterclass in his political obfuscation in relation to Brexit.
On Tuesday lunchtime, I obtained a mess of WhatsApps cheering the truth that Emmanuel Macron had opened a door (okay, a small door; extra of a catflap) to the UK’s European rehabilitation underneath Labour.
By teatime, there’s a second wave of messages; gloom that Sir Keir had apparently dominated such a return out as a non-starter. I replied to all of them, earlier than and after, with precisely the identical message: “Who is aware of what he’ll do? Does even he?”
Sir Keir’s Brexit coverage du jour — to hunt “nearer ties” with the EU when the partnership deal is reviewed in 2025 however by no means taking Britain again into the customs union or single market — is a traditional Sir Keir don’t-scare-the-horses fudge.
He is aware of the EU isn’t occupied with serving to him repair the UK’s Brexit psychodrama. They’ve moved on.
It’s not simply on Brexit the place he retains us guessing on what he actually thinks. If politics is a puzzle, has there ever been a extra cryptic politician?
His huge pitch of late has been about restoring belief in politics, however he will be grateful that the bar for political integrity is nowadays set so low, even Rishi Sunak couldn’t limbo it.
The Labour chief is, because the previous joke has it, a Marxist of the Groucho tendency: ‘These are my ideas and for those who don’t like them… properly, I’ve others’
The Labour chief is, because the previous joke has it, a Marxist of the Groucho tendency: “These are my ideas and for those who don’t like them… properly, I’ve others.”
He made a slew of guarantees when campaigning for the Labour management, a lot of which have since been discarded with such brazen shamelessness as would make Boris Johnson blush.
Public possession of public providers, union tuition charges, abolishing the two-child cap for advantages and elevating revenue tax for high earners. All these cast-iron pledges, made at a time when soliciting the votes of Labour Occasion members, have been casually binned one after the other.
More often than not he hasn’t even bothered masking his cynicism. “We’re prone to transfer on from that dedication,” he mentioned when challenged about tuition charges. “I don’t see [the word] ‘nationalisation’ there,” when challenged about his pledge to position vitality firms into frequent possession.
These usually are not trifling changes, however the abandonment of core coverage guarantees that obtained him elected as chief. It’s nearly as if Sir Keir’s model of political integrity is elastic sufficient to incorporate cynically telling folks no matter they need to hear.
Westminster’s sample of dishonest pragmatism, or pragmatic dishonesty for those who want, over Europe that started with David Cameron’s bluff being known as over the 2016 Referendum and peaked with Boris “two Telegraph columns” Johnson, runs on and on.
What was as soon as a Conservative Occasion contagion over Europe has now contaminated Labour. Till our political leaders display the final word integrity — the braveness to inform voters truths they don’t need to hear — we’ll all endure.
Matt Kelly is editor-in-chief of the New European.
