Sir Keir Starmer is to leave the House of Commons, resigning on the first day after the summer recess and opening the possibility of a very difficult by-election for Labour in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, where the Greens have a very strong level of support, and Andrew Feinstein ran him a close thing in the last general election.
Let me relish the idea of Labour losing the seat of the former Prime Minister for a moment….
Now let me also say a few kind words about Sir Keir, his career, and his future in the House of Lords, the prospect of which he did not close down by saying that it was only his time in the Commons that he had brought to a close….
I struggled, but there are no such kind words to find. What is there to say about a man who lied his way to the leadership of the Labour Party, and then reneged on every promise he made?
What is there to say of a man who accused his predecessor of antisemitism, and then used his own Zionism to push out of the party so many whose natural political home was in it, as well as so many Jews who could not tolerate his positions on Palestine, the West Bank, and much more?
What also is there to say of a man who arrived in Downing Street without a clue as to what to do, and then proved that he never formed one thereafter, when the country was crying out for change, which was the banner under which he was elected, but the need for which he never understood?
What, too, is there to say of a man whose only achievement is to have moved Labour so far to the right that it cannot in any meaningful way now be considered a party of the left?
I struggled to answer any of these questions, but all I can say is that even Ramsay MacDonald did not sell out as badly as this.
Labour had poor leaders before Keir Starmer, but none as treacherous as him, a man who so clearly took office for what seems to be the sole purpose of advancing the interests of Israel ahead of those of the country that he was meant to govern.
My sincere hope is that Starmer will not be rewarded with a seat in the House of Lords, but I rather strongly suspect that is exactly where he is now headed. Burnham does, after all, want to set the precedent for his own eventual progression.
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Yes well put. I could not think of anything that Mr Starmer had done to warrant any praise. I had not thought of him going to the House of Lords, instead thinking he would probably get some well paid position, jet setting around and getting some degree of praise and attention. Hard to imagine how anyone so useless could be an MP let alone become PM. The UK is in a mess with a useless political class!!
It’s possible – probable? – that Starmer be shoved into the House of Lords as well as supping on the gravy train that seems to carry many ex-Ministers on to wealth and infamy.
Mediocrity seems to be no barrier for formerly politically ambitious…
Nothing positive? Again, I’m not a Labour supporter, but it was clear that he was one of the few that managed to directly contradict Trump without getting a completely hostile response. Under Starmer there were mistakes on disability support an the Winter Fuel Allowance, but there was an above-inflation increase in the minimum wage.
The Renters Rights Act and Employment Rights Act also both improved protection for the public, for tenants and employees, bringing day-one protections, SSP from the first day and ending (most) no-fault evictions. It has meant rises in median real incomes for the lowest income deciles.
I think that the undermining of support for new disability claimants by permanently reducing the uplift for Limited Capacity for Work-Related Activity may be the single biggest feature, and a massive betrayal as it took £200/month away from those with little to no means to make that up elsewhere, and pushed it through by protecting existing claimants (if it was the wrong change, it’s wrong for everyone, not just existing claimants).
I don’t support Labour, I strongly disagree with some of the changes, but to say there’s nothing good seems unfair.
That feels like saying of a plate of rotten food, where the Bisto had been correctly made, that the gravy was good.
Maybe that was true, but I look at the big picture.
Ah, the Curate’s Egg…
I think he is aiming for some role on the international stage which will no doubt prove beneficial to Israel and the defence industry. Starmer should be in the Hague along with many other supposed leaders but no doubt the current system will provide him a life of comfort. Why do we allow these ex- leaders to hang around and influence our political economy in the way that so many of them do. I simply do not agree with so many people who seem to think that Starmer was good on the international stage, only perhaps as Trump’s performing poodle?
I hear NATO knocking in his dreams.
And the Tony Blair Institute, if not….Viceroy of Gaza, maybe?
Please don’t sit on the fence!!!!
I’ve never knowingly done so.
I’m told it is overrated.
I can’t think of a good thing to say about him either. A cross between a calculating poltical chameleon and an unprincipled political courtesan.
Treacherous to “friends” and his country, dishonest, mendacious, ruthless in pursuit of injustice, racism, inequality and illegality. Brutal in his support for genocide and the facilitation of war crimes.
He transformed the Labour Party into the corrupt authoritarian right-wing failed sect it is today. If we are lucky, he will disappear without trace.
Personally, I would prefer it, if he could be retired to a dock, and then a cell at the Hague. He could move into Radko Mladic’s cell, now that is vacant.
The Holborn & St. Pancras by-election will distract the Westminster village for a while. The hypocritical political farewells will be nauseating.
I have a job suggestion – he should go and do a 5 year stint of pro-bono law at Ofer, Megiddo and Ktz’iot prisons in Israel/Palestine, representing Palestinian detainees before military tribunals (with underground accommodation next to the prisoners). When he isn’t giving legal advice to child detainees, he could look after the Nile crocodiles in the Ktz’iot prison moat.
Oh well another turd that won’t flush. England does have a problem with sewage! I just wish it wasn’t spread over Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
He belongs in jail, just like Blair.
The public support he gave for Israel’s attempts to cut off water & electricity in Gaza cannot be forgotten:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5HQYfsUAf3s
Wait, the House of Lords wasn’t abolished? These unelected twits , crocs and Boris’ kids are still there feed and paid? How?