Sunday, May 12, 2024

By welcoming Natalie Elphicke, Keir Starmer risks making Labour look desperate or devoid of principle

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When Natalie Elphicke crossed the floor last week, there were plenty of us who had doubts about Keir Starmer's wisdom in allowing her to take the Labour whip.

But there were also worldly commentators who criticised us as political obsessives. The average voter, we were reminded, knows very little about politics. All they will notice is that a Conservative MP has joined Labour, and they will conclude that Starmer and Labour must be doing well.

But it's now beginning to look as though the average voter will come away from this episode with the conclusion that Labour will take anyone and must be desperate or devoid of principle.

Longstanding readers of this blog will not be surprised. For Calder's Third Law of politics holds that:

When politicians do something which they think is very clever, it will eventually turn out to have been very stupid.

Kwasi Kwarteng's only budget exemplified this. Boy, did it exemplify it!

Incidentally, you can find all seven of my Laws of Politics in an earlier post on here.

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