There is a small section of the Labour party which I greatly admire – those on the party’s right, often from working-class backgrounds, who unrelentingly fight the party’s left without being crypto-Tories. They are more effective than the Conservative right, being more disciplined and less voluble. For decades, they have taken on the Bennite/Corbynite/Islamist/woke tendency and its paler offshoots, such as Ed Miliband. They want genuine economic and social gains for working people rather than ‘saving the planet’ or ‘decolonising’. One such is Pat McFadden, now billed as the third most powerful person in the new government. The fact that he is its main spokesman on the Today programme is evidence that Sir Keir Starmer recognises there is more to life than the view from the sash window of a human rights chambers near Gray’s Inn.
Have you noticed how our new Prime Minister likes to congratulate ethnic-minority political leaders when they fail? Rishi Sunak had worked frightfully hard, Starmer said, and we should recognise the ‘extra effort’ he had to make as our first Asian PM. Now he tells Vaughan Gething that he ‘should take enormous pride’ in being the first black first minister in Europe. His tone reminded me of a pre-war book I enjoyed as a boy called The Wonder Book of Daring Deeds. It praised the Gurkhas as ‘active little fellows’. When Starmer lauds David Lammy for his ‘enormous dedication’ as the first black Labour holder of a great office of state, we’ll know the poor chap is on the skids.
I first reported problems at the London Library in April.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in