The temptations and tough choices facing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer - Bernard Ingham

Well, capitalism is in crisis, though so is China. The Tory government is spending money like water and now pouring billions more into combatting the coronavirus. It is nationalising the railways and is being criticised over testing for the plague thanks, it seems, to the inefficiencies of Public Health England.

The EU is trying to prolong the agony and expense of our transition to an independent state, no doubt in desperate hope that, with pro-EU Starmer’s help, we give up. And the concept of the Tory “small” state is being queried.

No wonder Jeremy Corbyn is brassed off about his demise. Leave aside Europe, which he has always abhorred as a capitalist ramp, he must think he has been robbed of a great chance to build a socialist Jerusalem in this green and pleasant land. What then does Starmer do in circumstances his predecessor might describe as propitious?

This is where temptation comes in. Will he take the line of least resistance against the powerful hard Left forces in his ranks who never lie down – or demonstrate a sense of collective responsibility? Will he take every opportunity to criticise Boris Johnson and his crew for their handling of the pandemic? Will he pander to Remainers in spite of the attitude of the party’s former heartlands in the Midlands and the North?

What line will he take on public spending once the pestilence has been put to flight, especially when unemployment is surging? His party believes in spending its way out of trouble.

The questions about Labour’s new leader just tumble out and the flood is in no way staunched by the criticism of the behaviour of the banks, the crassest of capitalists and, not least, the Professional Footballers’ Association – as distinct from many players.

Unlike the 750,000-plus people who have volunteered to help old codgers like me in our isolation, they have not exactly shown they believe we are all in this together, though fortunately there are bosses and many sportsmen who have demonstrated a community spirit.

This is where the temptation of Keir Starmer intensifies. Will he just play the situation for all its worth politically? Is he a mere politician or a budding statesman?

The plain fact is that this capitalist crisis produced by a contagion requires a constructive response from politicians of all parties – Nicola Sturgeon especially please note.

Before the year is out we shall all feel impoverished. The economy will have taken an enormous hit. Many businesses will do well to survive, even with generous help from the Government. Unemployment will be rife. Taxes will almost certainly be rising. Life will be difficult.

It is as well to face reality now. And the inescapable reality for Keir Starmer is the urgent need to bring whatever sense of unity is possible to his party riddled with the uncompromising hard Left while demonstrating an unwavering determination to get companies back on their feet and employees back at work.

At the same time he faces the more difficult task, especially in the wake of Corbyn, of ending the class war and launching into a wholehearted campaign to build a new mixed-economy Britain in which all reasonably share.

He simply cannot do that if he fails to recognise the extent of Britain’s borrowing and the automatic consequence that vast amounts of our cash already go each year to service the national debt.

That is dead money doing nobody any good, apart from the creditors at our door.

What is more, the battle against coronavirus is damaging the concept of the “big” free-spending state. Our lifeline – the NHS – is unfortunately demonstrating that it is not what you spend that matters but how you spend it, or fail to spend it usefully, notably in anticipating problems such as pandemics.

For too long Governments of different hues have measured their virtue in spending rather than in the difference it brings for the public good.

I do not envy Sir Keir Starmer. Who would be a politician? But as with all temptation comes opportunity.

He will live long and honoured in the annals of his party if he can bring it back into the mainstream of politics. His reward could be No 10. But make no mistake: he faces 40 days and nights of temptation in a relative economic desert.

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