Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: general election, Keir Starmer

Three Days To British General Election- Keir Starmer, Once And Future

Rich Johnston looks at the heir apparent, or should that be Keir apparent? Sir Keir Starmer, thane of Glamis, of Cawdor and King hereafter.

Rich Johnston, founder of Bleeding Cool, is a British political cartoonist. This is the fourth of several columns in the run-up to the General Election being held by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on July 4th.

Sit Keir Starmer is the Leader of the Labour Party, Leader of His Majesty's Opposition, and, barring some kind of natural disaster, in four days' time, will be going to see King Charles III as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The fourth Prime Minister we've had in the last two years, but one with an unassailable majority of Labour MPs, the like we may never have seen before. He will be untouchable… so plenty of people will try.

He got his knighthood after spending time as the UK's Director of Prosecution, so he is a prospective Prime Minister who has actually done something, which makes a nice change. Before his recent political career, he was best known for being the pro bono lawyer who successfully defended the anti-McDonald's activists against accusations of defamation in the UK's longest-ever trial known as McLibel. He was also believed to be the human rights lawyer that Helen Fielding based Mark Darcy of Bridget Jones' Diary upon. He was elected as leader of a Labour Party that had had an extraordinarily bad General Election in 2019 against Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with leader and leftwing firebrand Jeremy Corbyn. Despite the defeat, Corbyn was still hugely popular in the party, and so Starmer has to make promises to the left of the party that he has systematically ignored in the four years since, as he has also taken out other left-wingers one by one. Accusations of anti-Semetism against Labour members for those who were most strenuously opposing Israel and defending Gaza has seen Starmer pull the Labour party to the right, expel more troublesome members, and redeem Labour in the eyes of the electorate. Though it has also alienated the left of the party, some of whom have split, and some of whom look like they are waiting to split, the second Labour is elected.

This has given Keir Starmer the nickname of Captain Flip Flop after reversing position on so many policies. Jeremy Corbyn, suspended on accusations of anti-Semetism as well, never had his case assessed within the party and so was unable to stand as a Labour MP in his constituency. So he is standing as an independent and is likely to win his Islington seat he has held for decades.

Diane Abbott, the first black woman MP elected in Britain and former romantic partner of Corbyn, faced similar charged, but apologised, did a course or two, and a deal done between Starmer's people and Abbott that she would be made a Labour MP again, and would then resign before the General Election, her name restored. The early election announcement scuppered those plans, one of Starmer's team leaked the deal, and Abbott kicked off. Starmer was forced to say that Abbott was free to stand as an MP, and that's what she is doing, no sign of retiring. Labour seems to have decided that it's better to have Abbott elected as a Labour MP than have another Corbyn situation on their hands. Abbott effectively turned the tables on Starmer, took back her position in the Labour Party, her seat, and her dignity and threw away any plans of retiring that might have made Starmer's premiership a little bit easier. This led to this cartoon, that a member of her team reached out to get a copy of. Nothing from Keir's team, sadly.

Another name of note is George Galloway, Another former Labour Party left wing firebrand for decades, he was expelled after he called for British troops in the Iraq war to refuse to follow out their orders. He formed the anti-war Respect Party and was elected as an MP again, and then returned recently to Parliament after forming The Workers Party. If there is to be any split in the Labour Party, an alignment between Corbyn, Galloway and Abbott might give them brand name recognition, putting aside differences to attract a significant part of the elected members who are quite considerably left of Starmer.

But for now, Sir Keir Starmer is trying to do nothing. He did not appear on the BBC's pre-Election interview show on Sunday, though Sunak did and performed well. He is trying not to promise anything to anyone, given that anything he could say might offend someone else, and – like Blair – is doing his best to be the best candidate he can be in people's minds, without anything like reality getting in the way. It's not that he's trying not to scare horses; he is trying not to scare anyone – right-wingers, left-wingers, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus; he can be all things to all men. As long as he doesn't say anything other than that his father used to be a toolmaker and worked in a factory, then nothing can go spectacularly wrong.

It's also why he doesn't seem overly bothered with Conservative claims that he is going to put up income taxes, despite promising that he won't. He's already won the election, it's not an argument he needs to have. What comes afterwards? Well, he'll have a majority big enough to deal with anything that will follow. Almost anything. Flip flop!

As I previously said, the madness will kick in on the 5th of July, and while all eyes will be on the Conservative Party tearing itself in two, Labour is very likely to follow suit as well. By the end of the year, there will be big changes. But possibly even by the end of the week, right Nigel?

Tomorrow… we're going down the pub.

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