In fairness to Keir Starmer, it took some nerve to turn up and tell deflated Labour candidates what had gone wrong at the local elections when even David Lammy, not a man know for his awareness of his immediate surroundings, had admitted that one of the most regular problems on the doorstep was the Prime Minister himself.
Yet this was precisely what he did. Having Keir Starmer turn up to your Labour post apocalyptic pity party is a bit like being hit by a car only for the person who ran you over to come to your funeral and give a lecture on road safety. It would have been reasonable for Starmer to stay blockaded in No. 10, having taken a sizeable number of sausages, sorry, hostages and only communicate via Darren Jones and a megaphone. We might, however, still come to that: he may well have chosen to get in early, while Labour were still only three figures down, not four.
Having Keir Starmer turn up to your Labour post apocalyptic pity party is a bit like being hit by a car only for the person who ran you over to come to your funeral and give a lecture on road safety
‘There is no sugarcoating this’ he told a room full of depressed looking activists. The PM himself looked terrible. His normal furious puce hue was replaced by a miserabilist grey, like old mince. Are we entering the era where, despite all his dishonesty, despite his government’s continued incompetence and vindictiveness, we feel sorry for Keir Starmer?
No. Rather than admit any personal responsibility, Starmer essentially tried to say it was the fault of the general public for not realising that he had to make ‘tough decisions.’ The closest he came was to say of the public that, ‘They’re frustrated and I get that.’ Note that he didn’t mention that they were frustrated with a very specific person. This was just a spontaneous, random outburst of frustration, as if the entire nation had all managed to mislay their keys at exactly the same moment. Repentance came there none. Sir Keir was adamant that ‘tough days like this strengthen my resolve.’
‘I’m not just going to walk away,’ the Prime Minister said. No, it looks like he’s going to be dragged into a vortex of indignity by his party and his own arrogance! Plus ça change, plus la meme chose, as they say in Tory Party HQ.
He later on repeated the claim to Beth Rigby: ‘I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos,’ the PM spluttered at Rigby. ‘No; I’m going to continue to do so from behind my desk in No. 10,’ he might have continued.
The Labour councillors – or more likely ex-councillors – rewarded Starmer with some weak clapping, like depressed sea lions. The one silver lining on this grey day for them may well be that when Sir Keir promises he isn’t going to do something you can be pretty certain that within a few days he will do exactly what he has promised not to do. If things get even worse over the next 48 hours – in Wales and Scotland especially – we may yet hear the clip clop of trotters out of the back door of Downing Street.
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