Starmer on Marr.

A very poor showing.

Keir Starmer’s appearance on Marr yesterday morning wasn’t quite a disaster, but it was a very poor showing from the LOTO.

Starmer’s answer on Freedom Of Movement made sense (such an effort would see Labour slaughtered nationally in the current climate) but it exposed his duplicity. The appearance of a smarmy lawyer unable to give a straight answer will only grow.

Sir Keir refused to lay out anything of much he’d have done differently during this crisis if he were Prime Minister, and proceeded to implore viewers to rally behind the government. I’ve never seen an opposition be so snivelling at anytime before (regardless of exceptional circumstances) in British politics. This is uniquely damaging, because it feeds into the perception no one could have handled this better, which is FALSE, and a mendacious fiction peddled by Tory apologists.

Starmer gave viewers no reason to take a look at Labour, and disempowered Labour voters and Labour members by dodging and dismissing questions of policy (besides a good answer on the scrapping of Universal Credit). It becomes very clear watching this that Starmer entered and left the studio as a vessel of nothing much but hot air.

Starmer looks the part and says nice sounding sentences, but the time for that is long, long gone. Empty platitudes and offers of competence will see 2024 devolve into an unmitigated disaster, no gains made, core support lost. In other words, if he doesn’t change course in his approach to these sort of settings, Starmer is courting total Labour meltdown.

It’s become quite clear that Keir Starmer has no vision for Britain at present, no clear direction on policy, and no overarching narrative. This must be rectified as an imperative, before this image sticks to Labour, as it is already beginning to.