A year ago, Keir Starmer penned one of his first articles since becoming Prime Minister. It focused on immigration. ‘I will make it clear that secure borders are a priority for my government,’ he declared, with chronically misplaced bravado. ‘What did all the rhetoric and grandstanding of the previous government amount to? A legacy of failure. When I say we must smash the gangs, I mean it.’
He concluded with this peroration. ‘My government is rolling up its sleeves and getting the job done. Grown-up politics, back in the service of working people.’
Set aside the fact the smuggling gangs are doing a roaring trade. And that far from securing the borders, the Government has allowed the number of small-boat arrivals to surge to record levels. Instead, let’s focus on the Prime Minister’s words, and in particular his pledge to return to an era of ‘grown-up politics’.
Because whatever you may think about Sir Keir, at the time they were strong words. Robust. Clear. The confident oratory of a man properly grasping the scale of the challenges facing his nation. Now compare them with the interview he gave a week ago, marking his first year in office.
Again, the subject was immigration and about his speech warning that Britain was becoming an ‘island of strangers’. A comment some said had been used by Enoch Powell. ‘I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn’t know either,’ he pleaded. ‘But that particular phrase – no – it wasn’t right. I’ll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it.’ He then admitted he hadn’t properly read the speech at all. He should have ‘held it up to the light more’, he conceded.
Just as he made clear a couple of days later that he hadn’t bothered to properly engage with his flagship benefit reforms. He’d been focusing on foreign affairs, he claimed.
‘My full attention really bore down on this on Thursday,’ he said. At which point his bill – and entire welfare reform agenda – promptly imploded.
In the wake of the benefits fiasco, an ally of Keir Starmer’s told me: ‘The problem is the parliamentary Labour party are so self-indulgent. The truth is they’re just not serious people.’
Wrong. The problem is that the leaders of the Labour Party are not acting like serious people. And as a result, instead of returning the governance of the nation to the grown-ups as was promised, Britain is being run by children.
Rachel Reeves has insisted people respect her privacy over the personal issue that saw her break down in tears last week. So let’s deal solely with the public-facing aspects of her role.
On Wednesday, the Chancellor entered the House of Commons chamber, and in full view of the public gallery, engaged in an ongoing spat with the Speaker.
In the course of their exchange she was overheard by several colleagues to exclaim: ‘I’m under so much pressure.’ She then sat down on the Government front bench, and began crying so vigorously that at 11.43am Conservative Party whips contacted their Labour opposite numbers to ask what was happening.
PMQs commenced 17 minutes later. Her distress was so evident rumours began to circulate she had been sacked, or resigned. Market turmoil ensued. Downing Street officials claimed not to know what was going on. So did the Prime Minister. Finally a statement about a private personal matter was issued.
The next morning, Reeves unexpectedly appeared at a press conference on NHS reform. She spoke, but failed to address the issues of the previous day. Journalists were told she would not be doing so, and would not be taking questions. It was only when financial news agency Bloomberg dropped a flash message ‘REEVES DECLINES TO ANSWER MEDIA QUESTIONS ON TEARS IN COMMONS’, that the Chancellor, clearly worried about fresh market upheaval, hurriedly agreed to a terse pooled media clip.
A Prime Minister who doesn’t properly read his own speeches, then publicly disowns them. Who doesn’t properly focus on his own flagship legislation, then publicly abandons it three hours before a parliamentary vote. A Chancellor who publicly opines about the pressure she’s facing, sheds tears in the Commons chamber, precipitates market chaos, then expects everyone to act as if nothing happened. This is not how grown-up politicians – or leaders of any serious national body – behave. Tears. Tantrums. Superficiality. Irresolution.
It is literally what Sir Keir used to pillory Johnson, Truss and Sunak for. And yet they have become the hallmarks of his own first 12 months in office.
And they go beyond mere optics or presentation. On Friday, the Chancellor was again wheeled out to downplay what was now being dismissed as simply ‘a bad day at the office’. Could she guarantee she wouldn’t have to raise taxes as a result of the welfare capitulation she was asked. ‘I’m not going to, because it would be irresponsible for a Chancellor to do that,’ she declared.
But that’s literally what she did last November. ‘Public services now need to live within their means because I’m really clear, I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes,’ she told the CBI. So by her own admission, the self-styled Iron Chancellor has become the Irresponsible Chancellor.
Reeves was technically correct in her tetchy TV pool clip where she said: ‘The thing that’s maybe a bit different between my job, and many of your viewers, is that when I’m having a tough day, it’s on the telly, and most people don’t have to deal with that.’
But many working people – teachers, police officers, nurses, shop assistants – have their own stressful, public-facing roles. And are still expected to conduct themselves with discipline, maturity and professionalism. The least they can expect is for their Prime Minister and Chancellor to do the same.
There are many serious people on Labour’s backbenches. And on its front bench. Over the past year ministers such as Hillary Benn, John Healey, Pat McFadden, Yvette Cooper, Steve Reed, Bridget Phillipson and Jonathan Reynolds have carried on the business of government calmly, and without fuss.
No, the blame for the crushing failure of Labour’s first year rests squarely on both sides of Downing Street. From Lord Alli’s freebies, through a series of screeching policy U-turns to the collapse of the Government’s economic and fiscal agenda. Self-indulgence and dilettantism at the top of government – so graphically on display over the past week – are what is dragging it down.
Twelve months ago Keir Starmer told us the grown-ups were back in charge. But the truth is Britain has been left home alone.
