Keir Starmer - The Man Who Will Lose Labour The Next General Election.

Sir Keir Starmer and his Deputy, Angela Rayner, were recently cleared by Durham Police of any wrongdoing in relation to a party held in that city during a COVID19 lockdown in 2021, and not fined, as the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and former Chancellor of the Exchequer (and now Tory leadership candidate) Rishi Sunak, were over a party at 10 Downing Street, which was in breach of COVID19 regulations. Starmer and Rayner had both promised to resign from their positions if they were found to be in breach of regulations and fined, in contrast to Johnson and Sunak, who did not, but this, of course, proved to be unnecessary.

Starmer's and Rayner's positions in the Labour Party are thus unchallenged, and seemingly unchallengeable. The Left despises them, and the feeling is mutual, but the Centre and Right of the Party seem content with their leadership, which is a pity, for they are being led like lambs to the proverbial slaughter.

As I have already noted, the 10.2% national swing from the Tories which Labour obtained to win a landslide victory in 1997 would not win them a majority in the House of Commons at the next General Election. They would win a bare 1 seat majority with a swing of 10.52%, and would struggle to govern with that, just as they did during the October 1974-March 1979 Parliament, when they finally lost a vote of no confidence by one vote.

To win a working majority, Labour needs the kind of swing from the Tories it got in 1945, which was 11.8%. That, however, was on the basis of a radical socialist programme, and Keir Starmer would sooner eat his own hands off than present such a programme to the voters.

Starmer has set his face against proportional representation, restoring free movement of labour and re-joining the Single Market - thus making a "Progressive Alliance" with the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party impossible. The latter two of these policies are economically essential to this country, and for him to pretend that Labour can make the Tory hard-line Brexit "work" is both nonsensical and a lie.

Furthermore, Starmer has now come out in favour of private sector outsourcing of NHS services, which is an absolute betrayal of all of us who believe in a public NHS, and of the socialist principles on which the NHS was founded.

As if that wasn't bad enough, his Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who likes to boast of her credentials as an economist, has committed the Labour Party (obviously with Starmer's blessing) to a continuation of the Tories' austerity. We can expect further fiscal conservatism (back to the days of Philip Snowden!), with tax increases and spending cuts in order to bring down public sector borrowing. Unfortunately for her, the effect of such policies, especially if combined with a restrictive monetary policy, is economic recession - which means less tax revenue, regardless of any tax rises, higher public spending, because more people are out of work and needing social security benefits - and thus more public sector borrowing! Such policies are self-defeating, as recent experience under Tory Governments has shown - but Labour doesn't seem to have learned the lessons.

If Starmer has any views on the environment and climate change, he keeps them very well hidden indeed. Like all too many politicians, he is far too focussed on the short-term, so that issues like the cost of energy matter more to him than the consequences of subsidising fossil fuels. Does he care about rising CO2 emissions? I very much doubt it. Does anyone in the Labour Party? With the possible exception of Ed Miliband, no. Let's say I'm wrong, and this is a gross calumny. What, then, are they prepared to do about them, if they win power? What concrete steps will they take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the UK? Will they stop the drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea? Will they end all subsidies on fossil fuels? Will they actively promote renewables, and the insulation of homes? Will they encourage people to stop using their cars, and use public transport instead, making much of the latter either free, or very cheap, to use? Will they stop all funding by British firms of deforestation overseas, and of foreign oil and gas projects? Will they end British Government "aid" to such projects?

Why haven't we heard more robust condemnation from Starmer of such vile Tory Government policies as the deportation of refugees to Rwanda? Why isn't Labour fighting tooth and nail, line by line, clause by clause, against its Rights Removal Bill? Why wasn't it far more vigorous in its opposition to the Nationality and Borders Bill, and to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (both now Acts, of course)? The instinctive authoritarianism of this wretched Government is, unfortunately, echoed on the Opposition frontbench. Our rights are not safe in either Tory or Labour hands. 

The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer, QC, MP, former Director of Public Prosecutions, now Leader of Her Majesty's (far too) Loyal Opposition, is leading his Party on the primrose path to defeat at the next General Election. It is ahead in the polls at the moment (Labour was ahead in the polls prior to its defeats in 2015, 2017 and 2019, too, even if only just, in the latter case), but a new Leader will give the Conservatives the opportunity to say they have "moved on" from the Johnson era, and made a "fresh start".

It will be an abject lie, but cognitive dissonance is a very powerful force indeed, and the Conservative voter, swayed by the Tory press and Tory-supporting social media, will be only too willing to believe it, and ready to back them in the polling booths again, confident that they can, in Penny Mordaunt's words, get Brexit re-done. And re-done... and re-done again. After all, if the UK still belongs to anything with the words "Europe" or "European" in its title, there's still something to leave, isn't there? European Convention on Human Rights, Council of Europe, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe... Cooperation in Europe? Oh, we don't want any of THAT, do we?