Steerpike Steerpike

Brown burns Starmer

Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

Outriders are all the rage these days in British politics. Liz Truss has Kwasi Kwarteng and Lord Frost: Rishi Sunak has Dominic Raab and Mark Harper. They act to deliver the messages their candidate can’t, launching attacks, fighting fires and speaking home truths. So it’s no surprise then that Gordon Brown, the Giffnock grouch, is now unofficially performing that role for Sir Keir Starmer, his beleaguered successor as Labour leader.

Brown is close to team Starmer, and performs the role that John Major did for David Cameron in the coalition years, acting as a trial balloon to test how ideas will land. The cost-of-living crisis has been a tricky challenge for Labour: their supporters demand more action but Rachel Reeves and the self-proclaimed ‘sensibles’ preach prudence. So it’s been left to Brown to act as tight-rope artist, floating a package of affordable measures to see how they land in the media.

Unfortunately, his latest effort in today’s Guardian backfired on Starmer somewhat. Brown’s piece begins ‘Time and tide wait for no one. Neither do crises. They don’t take holiday and don’t politely hang fire.’ Yet Sir Keir is, er, in fact currently on holiday – as is half of his party. Given that Labour have repeatedly accused Boris Johnson and Nadhim Zahawi of being ‘missing in action’, will Keir be cutting short his holiday to set out his own measures?

Don’t count on it: Starmer’s big belated speech won’t take place before Monday, at the earliest. How many more ‘rare’ interventions can we expect by Brown before then? And what does it say about his successor that the former PM is now being dubbed the ‘real’ Leader of the Opposition instead?

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