Pro-union Starmer won’t do nationalists any favours - Patrick Murphy

It is time to kick the Tories out. That’s the message from Sinn Féin and the SDLP for the forthcoming general election and a fine message it is too.

However, kicking out one party means kicking in another one. The point which nationalists here do not appear to have recognised is that the party which they want to kick in is just as conservative as the Tories - and much more unionist. All we are likely to get is a new prime minister in the same old political clothes.

You might reasonably suggest that any party with the morality of Genghis Khan or the politics of Donald Trump would represent improvement. However, that just means we are heading for a government which is not as bad as the Tories, but which is not necessarily any better.

So who is Keir Starmer, what are his policies and what exactly can we expect from a Labour government?

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Starmer is a political opportunist who was elected as Labour leader on a left-wing agenda, which he then abandoned. In our local political language, he would be regarded as a bit of a chancer (and we have enough experience of chancers here to know one when we see one).

Since his election as leader, he has abandoned most of what he said he stood for. In his long list of broken promises, I stopped counting when I reached 15.

The list of abandoned pledges include plans to: nationalise rail, mail, energy and water; abolish university fees; abolish a £1.7 billion tax break annually for private schools; stop oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea; abolish the House of Lords, abolish universal credit and abolish bankers’ bonuses.

Like Tony Blair, Starmer is a natural successor of Margaret Thatcher in what is called New Labour (which means conservative). He has praised Thatcher as a leader who effected “meaningful change”. (That’s one way of describing what she did.)

However, unlike Blair who claimed a neutral stance on Irish unity, Starmer is staunchly pro-union. He has ruled out a border poll if he becomes prime minister, saying, “It’s not even on the horizon.”

Starmer is a political opportunist who was elected as Labour leader on a left-wing agenda, which he then abandoned. In our local political language, he would be regarded as a bit of a chancer

And there is more good news for unionists. He had the Labour Conference singing “God Save the King” for the first time ever in 2022.

That’s the same king who is worth an estimated £1.8 billion, with 101 staff, whose duties include ironing his shoe laces and applying exactly one inch of toothpaste to his toothbrush.

Saving that lifestyle seems to be asking a lot from God. Since no divine intervention has been sought on behalf of Britain’s 14.4 million in poverty, we can only assume that Labour is willing to entrust their fate to the devil. (Although they will probably not mention that in their manifesto.)

To emphasise his conservatism, Starmer has the union flag printed on Labour Party membership cards and on their hand-held posters. All of which suggests that Labour is now somewhere to the right of the Orange Order.

Starmer’s cull of left-wing party members, includes expelling former leader Jeremy Corbyn (there is no room for socialists in the Labour Party) and the attempted removal of Diane Abbot. (Not much room for a black woman either.)

Interestingly, his move from claimed radical to converted conservative appears to have been influenced by time he spent here in the early 2000s, as human rights adviser to the policing board. (We can only wonder if he advised them not to put journalists under surveillance.)

His close links with Ireland are reflected in his choice of senior aides. His campaign director is Morgan McSweeney from Cork, whose cousin was a special adviser to Leo Varadkar. His chief of staff is Sue Gray, former pub landlady at Derrylecka Bridge near Newry and former head of Stormont’s finance department.

The SDLP claims a special relationship with Labour. However, Davy stockbrokers in London recently reassured its investor clients that, following an address by Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin is, “More New Labour than Corbyn Labour”.

Someone once said that elections are just the art of competitive storytelling. Starmer is a poor storyteller, but the performance of the Tories and Scottish nationalists, means that any story will be better than theirs.

So, whoever wins the British election, we will have little to celebrate. That’s because change is just different, but not necessarily better. It is something which our political parties have yet to point out. Of course, if they did, they would not be in power either.