People tend to have short memories, so let’s just remember Keir Starmer’s ignominious record when we’re treated to the sanctimonious nonsense that will follow his resignation today and in the coming days.
As Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer:
- Worked behind the scenes with Labour Together and other right-wing factions to undermine Jeremy Corbyn as leader, particularly on the antisemitism witch-hunt and Brexit, where he fuelled the People’s Vote / second referendum split.
- Made a conference speech in 2018 which explicitly went against the carefully agreed policy of the party, adding the unscripted, “nobody is ruling out ‘remain’”. Whatever you think of Brexit, this destroyed Labour’s ability to resist the Red Wall capitulation.
- Continually undermined Labour’s position on Brexit in his shadow Brexit minister role by engaging in ‘fake’ negotiations with Theresa May’s team, which were designed to fail.
During the ensuing Labour leadership campaign, Starmer:
- Made a series of pledges that misrepresented his position and which he had no intention of keeping to.
- Dishonestly presented himself as a continuity candidate, supportive of Corbyn’s policies, while all the time colluding with right-wing apparatchiks in Labour’s hierarchy to exclude and marginalise the left-wing membership.
- Cynically manipulated the antisemitism crisis to stigmatise the left of the party and members who were supportive of Palestinian freedom and critical of Israel.
As leader of the Labour Party, Starmer:
- Embarked on a two-year long witch-hunt of Labour members, targeting members previously supportive of Corbyn and his policies.
- Manipulated the whip and internal party rules to expel the previous leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, on fabricated grounds. When the decision to suspend Corbyn was reversed by the NEC, he then used unaccountable parliamentary Labour Party processes to force Corbyn out.
- All but extinguished any due process within Labour’s disciplinary mechanism, overseeing a party that suspended people at will, took retrospective action and provided no evidence of wrongdoing in many, many cases.
- Shrank Labour’s internal democracy, reducing the NEC, conference and other representative bodies to mere appendages of the leadership.
- With the help of a pliant NEC, and Labour Together factionalists like Morgan McSweeney, he gained complete, centralised control over candidate selection, creating a list full of right wingers, business people, ‘centrist’ local government bureaucrats and executives and excluded almost every left-wing candidate.
- Completely reneged on even social democratic reforms proposed in Labour’s manifesto and his own campaign pledges and oversaw the watering down of the remaining transformational parts of Labour’s programme, for example the New Deal for Working People.
- Sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey, his leadership opponent and embarked on a long, determined campaign to undermine and exclude any shadow cabinet members with any left-wing credentials.
- Wholeheartedly supported Israel’s murderous campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza, to the extent that he gave an interview to LBC where he said that Israel was justified in cutting off electricity and water supplies to a fleeing population in Gaza (a war crime).
As prime minister, Starmer:
- Continued to not only defend Israel’s actions, but refused to call out their attack on Gaza’s unarmed civilians, refused the description of it as a genocide, actively helped to arm Israel in their relentless slaughter and bullied backbenchers who questioned the approach.
- Suppressed the civil rights of those who protested against the genocide of the Palestinian people, repeatedly stigmatising marches for peace and a ceasefire and weaponising antisemitism once again against protestors.
- Severely curtailed the right to protest, employing draconian legislation to lock up activists taking direct action against weapons manufacturers supplying Israel and encouraging the police to enforce authoritarian rulings against individuals and protest marches.
- Waged a massive authoritarian campaign against due process and the rule of law (home and abroad), just as he had internally within the Labour Party.
- Continued to use Jewish communities, especially, as a vehicle to win political battles, including the weaponisation of antisemitism whenever possible, without regard for the welfare or relations between different communities.
- Repeatedly parroted the language of the far right on immigration, fuelling fears and dividing communities and laying out the red carpet for far-right narratives and Reform’s electoral victories.
- Instituted a defence review designed to commit the UK to much higher levels of arms expenditure, at the expense of welfare and public service. Again, bullied left-wing backbenchers with the threat of suspension – e.g. for supporting the Stop the War campaign.
- Stuck rigidly to incredibly damaging economic policies based around some arbitrary fiscal rules which not only baked in austerity in our public services, but was used as a justification to maintain the two child limit on child benefit and abolishing the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners, to name just a couple of high-profile policies. He also punished rebel MPs with suspension for opposing these draconian measures.
To be honest, I could go on almost infinitely – the dishonesty around the attack on Iran, the subservience to Trump and the deceit around spy flights. No doubt people will add other crimes he’s responsible for. These are just a smattering of the catastrophic and vicious things Starmer has overseen. I haven’t even mentioned his robotic, cold approach to almost everything and his fabrication of a life story to garner sympathy and popularity alternately.
So, no, let’s not have any soft soaping, please. If there is a legacy, it should be that the Labour Party should never be led by such a poisonous agenda again – one that had no positive vision, not even a social democratic core, just a terrible bitterness and a determination that a left leadership will never happen again, after 2015-19.
I personally doubt that the party will understand this or learn the lessons. It may be that Starmer has destroyed it for ever. Goodbye and good riddance.
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