Keir Starmer is finding that Government is really not as easy as it looks.
It is quite staggering just how quickly the honeymoon period has expired.
It is all beautifully summarised in Rosie Duffield’s letter to the Prime Minister as she voluntarily resigned the whip.
It is fair to say that Rosie Duffield has had a difficult relationship with the Party leadership due to her outspoken views on gender.
Her firm belief that men cannot become women and that women’s rights and safe spaces need to be protected is a mainstream position which would be supported by the vast majority of British people.
Yet it is a controversial position within today’s Labour Party. Rosie Duffield’s assertion that only women have a cervix was condemned by Starmer as something that should not have been said.
It took the intervention of Tony Blair to state that a woman has a vagina and a man has a penis before Starmer acknowledged that he agreed with what Blair said. Far be it for him to listen to the concerns of his female Parliamentary colleagues.
But as Duffield’s letter states, it isn’t just that. It is about leadership style and the choices that Labour in Government have chosen to make. Many Labour MPs were uncomfortable with the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance. In the event the rebellion was muted due to activity by the whips.
Labour in Government has already shown ruthlessness in withdrawing the whip from rebels. Clearly, with a huge majority, this is a luxury it has.
But it is a poor look to be cutting benefits for the most vulnerable while enjoying thousands of pounds of freebies from donors and lobbyists. It has been amusing to watch the incredulous expression on the face of Keir Starmer and his ministers as they have been questioned about the gifts.
The attacks they dish out to their opponents are considered out of order when put to them. It is as if they are so morally superior to their opponents that it doesn’t occur to them that some of this just looks wrong.
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Let’s be frank. Who wouldn’t take corporate hospitality when offered? And why shouldn’t a football club offer free hospitality in order to have contact with the action’s decision makers? But when you are in public life you must regulate your own actions. And be honest about it when you do take gifts.
When I was an MP, I took a very liberal position on tobacco. I was often invited to take hospitality from tobacco companies. I always declined as I did not want to have the suggestion that my position had been influenced by it.
Keir Starmer clearly likes football. If someone offers him hospitality in a corporate box, why shouldn’t he take it, provided it is all publicly declared? This nonsense that he can no longer sit in the stands just makes him look shifty.
Ultimately Keir Starmer is a career public servant who has moved into Politics. And I am all in favour of that. But in making the journey he has; he does not share the political experience many of his Parliamentary colleagues have. And it shows.
The appointment of Sue Gray is a perfect example. It is not surprising that this has ended as it has. It is one thing to appoint someone with experience in Whitehall to oversee the transition into Government. But politics is about more than public sector management.
The appointment of Patrick Vallance as a Minister shows a belief in bureaucratic leadership which will jar with Labour MPs who have worked hard and waited for government. And to see newly elected colleagues parachuted into Government without having even made a maiden speech is offensive to Labour MPs and contemptuous of Parliament.
It’s a poor start to be frank. It isn’t impossible for Labour to get its act together. If it doesn’t it is going to be a long four and a half years.
