Hard not to feel sorry for Starmer but many problems are of his own making - Ismail Mulla
I’ve been critical of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in this column quite often. And, frankly, he is well deserving of the ire that is being directed his way in recent weeks from all quarters. Somewhere along the line, the PM has become what he himself once excoriated.
However, it is hard not to feel sorry for him to a certain degree. There’s no doubt that he is a principled man. He is someone who wants to do the right thing. It just happens that he doesn’t know what the right thing is too often. Instead, a cabal of decision makers around him have led the PM off track and sadly it looks like there’s no recovering for Starmer.
As he has shown on the international stage, there is a leader there. A considerate, ostensibly smart leader, who is a very capable statesman. But on the domestic front he is far too often seen to be absent.
He has also been too willing to be advised by factional groups within the Labour Party. This has been to the heavy detriment of his premiership. The ill-fated move to bring back Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US was an example of this.
The warning signs were there. Social media is no barometer for public sentiment. Nor should it be used to make political decisions but the fact that every time Mandelson’s name cropped up there were pictures of him and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein together being posted by social media users should have at least made the PM think twice about what he did or didn’t know about the association between the two.
However, as Starmer supporters rightly point out - the PM is not on the so-called ‘Epstein list’ and is not known to have had any association with the pedophile financier.
There is a bitter irony that in the US there are powerful people whose names are associated with Epstein but they still face no consequences as a result.
Meanwhile the PM here is facing a political crisis that some may believe he may not make it through as a result of his poor judgement in appointing someone who had a close association with the disgraced financier.
In a way, it’s almost reassuring that standards for public life in this country have not been eroded to such an extent that politicians can shamelessly carry on without even so much as flinching in the face of embarrassment.
That’s why Mandelson had to go. That’s why former Tory MPs looking to launder their reputation through Reform UK need to be careful.
So where to for the beleaguered Prime Minister? The parliamentary recess will provide some respite but Starmer needs to come out fighting. Not his own party, as he has been often seen to do but for policies that he believes will shape his premiership.
The reality is that the Government is performing poorly on all domestic fronts and when it comes to the difficult decisions it’s not been able to make them stick.
It started all the way back with the Winter Fuel Allowance. They started with proposals to cut the payment, then following a backlash decided to come up with a fudge. It’s a pattern that would become all too familiar as the U-turn became the de facto move for the PM. Welfare reforms, U-turn. Changes to inheritance tax, U-turn. Business rates relief being ditched for hospitality business, U-turn.
The Government is resembling a rudderless ship in an increasingly tempestuous sea.
What should have been a honeymoon period for the PM has turned into a deep nightmare. One which if Starmer does not awake from his slumber will end his political career and the hopes of the Labour party.
The only way to salvage his premiership is for Starmer to get policy right in the first place. It’s all well saying that the repeated U-turns are a sign that the Government is listening but it is also a sign of incompetence. People expect the Government to get things right the first time and have the courage of conviction to see policy through.
Where Starmer could actually benefit is by drawing from the understanding of more MPs from different factions within his party. Instead of sidelining, even ostracising, some elements of the party, he needs to start listening to their concerns. At the very least it will help the PM head off embarrassing U-turns such as the ditching of welfare reforms. It may have even raised enough questions for the PM to think again before appointing Mandelson.
The only issue is that the Gorton and Denton by-election on February 26 could end up a hurdle too far and the PM may find himself running out of track. He may never get a chance to build consensus.