The Mysterious Disappearance of a Spine: Keir Starmer and his Deafening Silence
Ciaran Picker lays down a searing critique of the Labour leader’s blatant inaction.
Ciaran Picker
27 January 2021
27 January 2021
This government is, in the nicest way possible, an absolute shambles. 89,000 preventable Covid-19 deaths (at time of writing), a complete balls-up of A-Level and GCSE results, voting against feeding underprivileged children, and negotiating a Brexit so hard that Katie Hopkins has tried to mount it twice – it should be the easiest job in the world to be the Leader of the Opposition at this point. And yet…
Where is Keir Starmer? Has anyone seen him? I’m a few days away from putting up ‘MISSING’ posters, ‘if found please return to the fence that he’s made himself a home on for the past nine months’. If this were a war film, he would have been presumed dead by now and replaced by a younger and more arrogant second-in-command, only to return topless carrying the head of Adolf Hitler in one hand and a chauvinistically dressed German teenager in the other. Maybe this is his great plan all along and I’m too early in my damning review of the man, but something tells me he’s less Rambo, more Rambler.
Before anyone very cleverly and originally points out that Jeremy Corbyn did just as bad a job as Keir has so far, I want to reassure you that I recognise Jeremy made mistakes. This piece is not a love letter to Corbyn (although if you are reading this Jezza, I miss you, please call me), but his time in Opposition was made significantly more difficult by the very same people who Starmer has now put in his Shadow Cabinet. The centrist branch of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) were set against Corbyn from the start, presumably because he had principles and was determined to stick to them, something previously unheard of in British politics. So, Keir should theoretically have the support of a much larger percentage of the Commons than Jeremy ever had, as well as all those New Labour voters who claimed they could never vote for a socialist party. Why, then, is he making it look like the toughest job in the world?
There are a myriad of reasons I’m sure, but the main one I can see is that he doesn’t actually stand for anything. I’m hard pushed to find a single policy that he has actually promoted with any real conviction, apart from ‘holding the government accountable’ and telling us that Johnson’s rabble have acted too slowly during the pandemic, although not until about six days after that became apparent. Admittedly, it was the vehemence with which Corbyn followed certain policies that led to people taking him less seriously; his obsession with nationalising the railways at a time when he should have been deciding on a more coherent Brexit policy certainly didn’t help his cause. So it’s likely that what Keir is actually doing is trying to appeal to all sides in hope that, once he gets into power, he can enact his actual policy demands. But he seems to be forgetting one important detail: you need to actually tell the public what your policy position is before demanding they vote to you.
When Kier first ran to become Labour leader, he ran on a ticket which may as well have read ‘I’m the furthest from Corbyn you could get, please vote for me’. With a policy packet as pallid as he is, it’s easy to see why young people today are turning their attention to US Politics in a desperate search for political passion. It’s little surprise to me that Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has become such an icon amongst younger people, with one guy I went to school with left gushing over how much he loves her, despite previously and genuinely declaring that he’d loved to have been the pig David Cameron notoriously had relations with at Oxford.
The most telling thing for me is that we’re now reliant on people outside of the political scene to hold the government to account. Marcus Rashford’s campaign to force the government into feeding impoverished children in school holidays did more in one week than Starmer’s Labour has done in one year. It is still madness to me that there was no great outpouring of disgust from Labour MPs as they watched government ministers, such as Health Secretary Matt Hanock and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson vote against free school meals. Unfortunately, the buck has to stop with Keir Starmer. He has made it acceptable to stay quiet and hope that the Tories rip themselves apart, without realising that it takes pressure from an Opposition to do that. If Keir wants to eventually lead the country, he has to be seen to be leading his party first.
In fairness, there have been moments where he has tried to be forceful, but they have invariably been at times when he didn’t need to completely blow his top. In contrast, moments that call for him to tear people to shreds have seen him try and be King of the Middle Ground. One example that has stuck in my mind was a phone-in on Nick Ferrari’s LBC Show.
A woman from Cambridge called up and openly declared racist views. She said in no uncertain terms that she wanted to repatriate black people (including those who were born and raised in the UK) as she feared becoming a minority as a white woman. Now, it goes without saying that this is white supremacist bile. They are views that have no place in our society, and frankly this woman needs to get herself an education outside of reading The Daily Mail and stalking Tommy Robinson’s Twitter page.
But what did Keir do? You guessed it, HE TRIED TO REASON WITH HER! Keir, mate, open your eyes! In a year where George Floyd was murdered, rates of hate crime increased yet again, and BLM protests occurred across the globe, I think it’s definitely ok to publicly say that you don’t agree with racism. The one chance he had to come out and show some gumption and passion, he instead chose the same limp, flaccid style that establishment politicians have touted for decades.
I’m firmly of the belief that if he grew a backbone, he could be a popular leader. He may not exude the charisma of Boris or the youthful flair of Tony Blair, but with a bit more personality and strength he could certainly lead a worthy campaign for Number 10. He could even steal policies from Corbyn’s Manifesto and do well. At the end of the day, Labour policies were popular, it’s just that Corbyn wasn’t. The pandemic has shown us that free broadband, a four-day week, and a state which properly pays their workers, both healthy and sick, would have left us in a better position to cope with lockdowns. All of these policies were originally put forth by, wait for it, JEREMY CORBYN.
It strikes me that Keir needs to decide who he wants to be. Does he want to be the kind of centrist, middle-class banker type who appeals to Tory Remainers and centrists in the PLP, or does he want to actually make some substantial social change? He has the power to do both I think, but he needs to decide sooner rather than later, or he risks losing substantial numbers of young people and Corbynistas that the party relies on. Corbyn got 600,000 people to join the party within a matter of months, including myself, but Keir is dangerously close to driving us out.
Where is Keir Starmer? Has anyone seen him? I’m a few days away from putting up ‘MISSING’ posters, ‘if found please return to the fence that he’s made himself a home on for the past nine months’. If this were a war film, he would have been presumed dead by now and replaced by a younger and more arrogant second-in-command, only to return topless carrying the head of Adolf Hitler in one hand and a chauvinistically dressed German teenager in the other. Maybe this is his great plan all along and I’m too early in my damning review of the man, but something tells me he’s less Rambo, more Rambler.
Before anyone very cleverly and originally points out that Jeremy Corbyn did just as bad a job as Keir has so far, I want to reassure you that I recognise Jeremy made mistakes. This piece is not a love letter to Corbyn (although if you are reading this Jezza, I miss you, please call me), but his time in Opposition was made significantly more difficult by the very same people who Starmer has now put in his Shadow Cabinet. The centrist branch of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) were set against Corbyn from the start, presumably because he had principles and was determined to stick to them, something previously unheard of in British politics. So, Keir should theoretically have the support of a much larger percentage of the Commons than Jeremy ever had, as well as all those New Labour voters who claimed they could never vote for a socialist party. Why, then, is he making it look like the toughest job in the world?
There are a myriad of reasons I’m sure, but the main one I can see is that he doesn’t actually stand for anything. I’m hard pushed to find a single policy that he has actually promoted with any real conviction, apart from ‘holding the government accountable’ and telling us that Johnson’s rabble have acted too slowly during the pandemic, although not until about six days after that became apparent. Admittedly, it was the vehemence with which Corbyn followed certain policies that led to people taking him less seriously; his obsession with nationalising the railways at a time when he should have been deciding on a more coherent Brexit policy certainly didn’t help his cause. So it’s likely that what Keir is actually doing is trying to appeal to all sides in hope that, once he gets into power, he can enact his actual policy demands. But he seems to be forgetting one important detail: you need to actually tell the public what your policy position is before demanding they vote to you.
When Kier first ran to become Labour leader, he ran on a ticket which may as well have read ‘I’m the furthest from Corbyn you could get, please vote for me’. With a policy packet as pallid as he is, it’s easy to see why young people today are turning their attention to US Politics in a desperate search for political passion. It’s little surprise to me that Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has become such an icon amongst younger people, with one guy I went to school with left gushing over how much he loves her, despite previously and genuinely declaring that he’d loved to have been the pig David Cameron notoriously had relations with at Oxford.
The most telling thing for me is that we’re now reliant on people outside of the political scene to hold the government to account. Marcus Rashford’s campaign to force the government into feeding impoverished children in school holidays did more in one week than Starmer’s Labour has done in one year. It is still madness to me that there was no great outpouring of disgust from Labour MPs as they watched government ministers, such as Health Secretary Matt Hanock and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson vote against free school meals. Unfortunately, the buck has to stop with Keir Starmer. He has made it acceptable to stay quiet and hope that the Tories rip themselves apart, without realising that it takes pressure from an Opposition to do that. If Keir wants to eventually lead the country, he has to be seen to be leading his party first.
In fairness, there have been moments where he has tried to be forceful, but they have invariably been at times when he didn’t need to completely blow his top. In contrast, moments that call for him to tear people to shreds have seen him try and be King of the Middle Ground. One example that has stuck in my mind was a phone-in on Nick Ferrari’s LBC Show.
A woman from Cambridge called up and openly declared racist views. She said in no uncertain terms that she wanted to repatriate black people (including those who were born and raised in the UK) as she feared becoming a minority as a white woman. Now, it goes without saying that this is white supremacist bile. They are views that have no place in our society, and frankly this woman needs to get herself an education outside of reading The Daily Mail and stalking Tommy Robinson’s Twitter page.
But what did Keir do? You guessed it, HE TRIED TO REASON WITH HER! Keir, mate, open your eyes! In a year where George Floyd was murdered, rates of hate crime increased yet again, and BLM protests occurred across the globe, I think it’s definitely ok to publicly say that you don’t agree with racism. The one chance he had to come out and show some gumption and passion, he instead chose the same limp, flaccid style that establishment politicians have touted for decades.
I’m firmly of the belief that if he grew a backbone, he could be a popular leader. He may not exude the charisma of Boris or the youthful flair of Tony Blair, but with a bit more personality and strength he could certainly lead a worthy campaign for Number 10. He could even steal policies from Corbyn’s Manifesto and do well. At the end of the day, Labour policies were popular, it’s just that Corbyn wasn’t. The pandemic has shown us that free broadband, a four-day week, and a state which properly pays their workers, both healthy and sick, would have left us in a better position to cope with lockdowns. All of these policies were originally put forth by, wait for it, JEREMY CORBYN.
It strikes me that Keir needs to decide who he wants to be. Does he want to be the kind of centrist, middle-class banker type who appeals to Tory Remainers and centrists in the PLP, or does he want to actually make some substantial social change? He has the power to do both I think, but he needs to decide sooner rather than later, or he risks losing substantial numbers of young people and Corbynistas that the party relies on. Corbyn got 600,000 people to join the party within a matter of months, including myself, but Keir is dangerously close to driving us out.
Image: Keir Starmer, 2020 Labour Party leadership election hustings, Bristol 3.jpg, by Rwendland, used under CC BY SA 4.0 / Colour edits made to the original