Keir Starmer should stop politicking over pandemic – Bill Carmichael

At one point the Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth stood up 
in the House of Commons and said: “A 
full national lockdown lasting for weeks and weeks would be disastrous for society.”

He quickly added: “I don’t believe anyone in the House is proposing that.”

Maybe he should have checked with his own party leader first, because just a couple of hours later Sir Keir Starmer called a press conference and proposed precisely that – a full national lockdown lasting for up to three weeks. Don’t they talk to each other? The answer is probably, not much.

Sir Keir argued for a country-wide “circuit breaker” lockdown that would see pubs and restaurants close, non-essential offices close and people encouraged to work from home, although the schools would apparently stay open.

This is a dramatic change in Starmer’s stance as previously he has backed the Government’s regional approach to lockdowns. He was even gaining a reputation as a bit of a lockdown sceptic.

For example, a few days ago he was criticising Ministers for forcing the pubs to close at 10pm. Now he wants to close the pubs altogether.

In short, Labour’s response has been all over the place. Take Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham who supports a national lockdown, while opposing a tougher regional lockdown in his own city.

Run that past me again? Labour’s policy is apparently in favour of a jobs-destroying national lockdown, including in areas like Cornwall and parts of North Yorkshire, where cases are comparatively low, while opposing local lockdowns in cities where cases are spiking alarmingly. I may be missing something here, but this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I have been an admirer of Sir Keir since he became Labour leader in April. He has returned a level of credibility and competence to the party that was missing under his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

And this fact is reflected in the opinion polls, which have put Labour more or less neck and neck with the Conservatives – although it has to be said with an election possibly four years away, this matters less than it would if voting day were a bit closer.

But he has got this one badly wrong and has damaged the notion that if he were Prime Minister the fight against Covid would be handled more effectively.

To be fair to Sir Keir, he says he has now studied the scientific evidence and has “genuinely concluded that a circuit break is in the national interest”, although he obviously neglected to inform all the members of his Shadow Cabinet of his change of mind.

But I reckon more base political motives are at play here. He knows that if Boris Johnson is forced to order a national lockdown in the next couple of weeks, as many of his scientific advisers are suggesting he should, he will look weak by following in the Labour’s leader’s footsteps.

My question is this – at a time of national crisis can we afford all this petty politicking and jockeying for position? Is it too much to ask that politicians of all stripes put aside their differences temporarily and come together in a united effort to defeat this horrible disease?

This week Conservative peer and newspaper columnist Daniel Finkelstein argued that we need national unity to accept the massive sacrifices and restrictions of liberty required to combat Covid – but this is beginning to fray.

His solution is that Johnson should “hug Starmer close”. In other words, the Prime Minister should give Sir Keir and at least one other Labour front bencher a place on the emergency committee or the National Security Council so they have a role in setting the rules and driving policy, although he added that this co-operation should fall short of a formal coalition.

It is an interesting idea, although I am sure there are many who would point out that the role of Her Majesty’s Opposition is to oppose the Government, not to make life easier for the Conservatives.

But these are desperate times and when our country is threatened with calamity maybe the normal rules should be ignored? Perhaps we should give it a try. Surely anything is better than the current bickering and petty point-scoring?

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Thank you

James Mitchinson