The current Labour government, those ‘adults…back in the room,’ are now the UK’s unofficial Party of Sleaze. In the wake of lurid revelations about the Mandelson-Epstein love-in – not least that Mandy allegedly passed secret, prejudicial information to the late disgraced financier and may have been guilty of misconduct in office – Labour is under constant attack, even from within.
As the Prime Minister attempts to blame the security services for Mandelson’s appointment, it’s worth remembering the way he himself spoke about such matters
Dame Emily Thornberry mutters about ‘the weaknesses in our vetting process and in our due diligence process.’ Kemi Badenoch lambasts the PM for ‘his catastrophic judgement [which] has harmed the special relationship, endangered national security, and embarrassed our nation.’ Even Harriet Harman has criticised Starmer for looking ‘weak, naïve and vulnerable.’
As the Prime Minister attempts to blame the security services for Mandelson’s appointment, it’s worth remembering the way he himself spoke about such matters, before he got into power.
A typical homily from Starmer came after the initial findings of the Sue Gray report, in January 2022. The report, on parties at Number 10 under lockdown, mentioned a ‘serious failure to observe’ standards for government, and spoke of lapses ‘of leadership and judgement’ by then-PM Boris Johnson and others. As Boris, following his apology to the nation, stared ruefully down at his shoes, the Labour leader gave us a masterclass in purse-lipped, Pecksniffian dismay.
Having listed the manifold wrongdoings of the government, he launched into a diatribe against the PM himself. Johnson, Starmer said, was ‘unfit for office,’ and his ‘desperate denials’ had only made things worse. ‘Rather than come clean, every step of the way, he has insulted the public’s intelligence. Now he has finally fallen back on his usual excuse: it is everybody’s fault but his.’
The British public, sighed Starmer, were not ‘fools. They think that the Prime Minister should do the decent thing and resign. Of course, he will not, because he is a man without shame.’
Sir Keir’s face then took on a shining, superhuman look of rectitude. ‘To govern this country is an honour, not a birthright. It is an act of service to the British people…It requires honesty, integrity and moral authority.’
‘Whatever people’s politics, whatever party they vote for, honesty and decency matter. Our great democracy depends on them.’
On this occasion, you could just about argue Sir Keir was merely doing his job – albeit heavy-handedly – as Opposition Leader. But in the light of what’s come since (Lord Alli’s freebies, Rayner-gate, Siddiq-gate and now Mandelson’s public shaming) it was pharisaic, stomach-turning stuff.
Yet within a week, he was at it again. ‘I want to make a concrete commitment,’ he proclaimed in a speech to the Labour party, ‘about decency and standards in public life… Selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership… my solemn promise to you will always be to run a government that honours these principles… I will always fight to defend those essential British values of honesty, decency and integrity….’
Starmer gave a ‘vow’ (this too was ‘solemn’) that any government he led would ‘govern in the public interest. Where standards stand for something; where truth means something and where honesty is at the heart of everything it does.’
He hoped to ‘return here in a few years’ time…telling a different story. A story of rising trust, with a Labour government.’
All parties out of power, of course, must present themselves as preferable to the one actually in government, but seldom can a leader of the opposition have set himself up for so much future woe. As Andrew Rawnsley once wrote: ‘There is nothing more enjoyable to the crowd, and nothing more humiliating for the victim, than the preacher whose trousers are torn down.’
Nor was there a shortage of lessons from Labour’s past. Before being elected, Tony Blair had, week in, week out, attacked the crimes and misdemeanours of the Major government: ‘No more sleaze. No more cash for questions. No more lies…I say to the Tories: enough is enough! Be done, be gone!’
In office, New Labour was soon sunk in scandals of its own. The Bernie Ecclestone donation and Labour’s subsequent cave-in to tobacco-advertising at Formula One; Mandelson’s failure to declare a £373,000, interest-free loan from a man his office was, at the time, investigating; Robin Cook’s and John Prescott’s extra-marital affairs; the ‘Cash for Honours’ debacle which saw the PM, in his last few months in office, being interviewed by the police on three separate occasions.
In his biography, A Journey, Blair had this to say:
‘We made a very big mistake in allowing the impression to be gained that we were going to be better than the Tories; not just better at governing, but more moral, more upright…. The goals were easy but the long-term consequences were disastrous. What I failed to realise is that we would also have our skeletons rattling around the cupboard, and while they might be different, they would be just as repulsive.‘
It’s a quote which Starmer-in-opposition should surely have had mounted, framed, and hung above his desk at Labour HQ.
But with the recent news some Labour MPs are calling for him to go – with both Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner being urged to challenge for the leadership – it’s the PM’s own closing words on Johnson which may come back to haunt him. Members of the party opposite, he said four years ago, could ‘heap their reputation, the reputation of their party, and the reputation of this country on the bonfire that is the Prime Minister’s leadership, or they can spare the country a Prime Minister totally unworthy of their responsibilities… They know better than anyone how unsuitable he is for high office…Only they can end this farce. The eyes of the country are upon them. They will be judged by the decisions they take now..‘
Should Boris, in the coming days, look more chipper than usual, no one should be in the least surprised. Even in February, revenge is a dish best served cold.
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