Woe betide the first Labour backbencher to be found doing something that appears a little dodgy, the commentators said. They would be out on their ear, as Starmer showed he wasn't going to tolerate any misbehaviour.
It hasn't turned out like that. Nothing happened when, to his shock, the poor condition of flats let by the new Labour MP Jas Athwal was revealed.
And now we have Angela Rayner defending accepting a free holiday in New York because she has declared it and didn't break any rules.
I like Angela Rayner, not least because it's such a change to have a Northern and working-class voice in the cabinet, but this won't do.
Most voters earn a lot less than Rayner now does and manage to pay for their own holidays. Why should she be any different, particularly when the risk of someone buying undue influence over a senior politician are clear? (I'm sure Lord Alli has acted from generous motives, but not everyone is so public spirited.)
If such a holiday is within the rules, then the rules must change. But rich people do like receiving perks.
The Labour reaction to this news story, and to similar ones like that on Starmer's new wardrobe, has been to say the Tories were worse.
The Tories were worse - much worse - but whataboutery won't get Labour far as a defence when voters were led to expect they would be different.
And, deep down, I have a fear that Keir Starmer has more in common with Boris Johnson than we imagined. He's been very good at saying what people want to hear - a gift that deserted him as soon as he became prime minister - but does he have any strong political beliefs of his own?
3 comments:
It beggars belief that Labour can't see just how bad all this appears. Of course it's within the rules and certainly they have declared it all, but clearly they just don't realise how this will appear to voters who really believed Starmer's Labour Party would be different from the Tories. Anyone with any common sense would have decided to accept nothing apart from campaign donations. Voters are fed up as it is. This sort of behaviour poisons our politics even further.
An obvious brand value for Labour would have been New Puritan.
People understand that, and their team could have got On Message.
The Covid investigation could have been a Moral Crusade, after Wilson.
They did not do any such thing, so there is no overall narrative.
The Jas Athwal thing is extraordinary. Bearing in mind the general problems of Labour candidate selection in Ilford, I would have thought that the central Party would have made quite sure that it's candidate was 100% squeaky clean. There was also another story recemtly about him being an ex-Director of a company running private nursery schools, but not very well. He is no longer a Director, but his wife is! If the Tory press wanted to go after Labourt sleaze, these are the stories they should be covering.
I trust the Lib Dem By Election Machine is currently well maintained, properly oiled, with a full tank and ready to be put into action, because I have a horrible thought that it's going to be needed sooneer than we realised.
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