These are discombobulating times. A deadly pandemic; the United States at sea, China belligerent and the EU at war with itself. British politics was in flux before the virus hit. Now it is vertiginous. The Tory party, long seen as the guardian of the status quo, has been forced to change tack as it deals with the fallout. Keir Starmer, recently elected as Labour leader, will play a vital role in this realignment – but not one we would once have envisaged.
Starmer’s election as Labour leader in the midst of coronavirus is a good thing. He is the anti-Corbyn for a Labour party looking for calm and stability after almost five turbulent years. He is the definition of the establishment technocrat in an age of populists. Wherever you stand, what is Starmer if not the anxious embrace of reassuring authority?
He is a man of the left. But his leftism is of a stripe that is careful, allied to institutions and possessed of a small ‘c’ conservativism. This must not be confused with sympathy for the right. Of that he has none. But given a choice between the new and unknown and the familiar and safe, he has always opted for the latter. First, he supported Labour stalwart Andy Burnham over the insurgent Corbyn in the 2015 Labour leadership election. Then, after Corbyn appointed him as a shadow Home Office minister, he quit in 2016 along with several other frontbenchers in protest at Corbyn’s leadership. Not only was he a Remainer, he was a People’s Voter. Indeed, it was likely his insistence as shadow Brexit Secretary that led Labour to adopt the second referendum as its key manifesto pledge. Britain now has someone at the forefront of public life who has, throughout his career, inclined toward caution and the status quo.
We need the revolutionary zeal of Johnson’s Tories combined with the caution of Starmer’s Labour
In normal times this is not always a good thing. These are not normal times. Because set against him are Boris Johnson and his consigliere Dominic Cummings, two men who lead an administration with revolutionary ambitions. Johnson thinks historically. It is not enough to be PM; he must be a historically remembered one. Before the pandemic hit, the Tories were preparing for a massive infrastructure building campaign, especially in the North. Like his idol Pericles, Boris wants to be a great builder and to reconfigure (at least to some degree) geographical power in the UK.
And then, of course, there is the virus. Each week, the government unveils unprecedented financial and political measures. What will happen to increased state powers after this ends? How are we going to pay for everything? The answer is simple, at least in one sense: not by doing things as we always have. Post-pandemic and post-Brexit, British politics is going to become more freewheeling.
That is not how Starmer does things. Many years ago, I embarked on an ill-advised and aborted career in law. When I see Starmer I see a cast of mind that I found common to many of the lawyers I met: a conservatism built in almost like a professional reflex. Simply put, for many lawyers, the moral and political question of what the law should be is irrelevant. That is beyond their professional expertise and, in most cases, concern. The law is what it is and that is the end of it.
This fits Starmer. Even now he favours the continued jurisdiction of the European courts and is comfortable seeing political power wielded away from politics by courts and judges. Naturally, he sided with the Supreme Court in its recent clash with the government. This is not to say he was wrong; just that it fits a pattern.
No. 10, meanwhile, has promised to set up a commission to re-evaluate the relationship between the government, parliament and the courts. They have also announced an examination of judicial review to prevent it being used to conduct politics by other means.
In short, the Tories will attack our norms. So in an age of reconstituting political identities, they are now the radicals and here is where the danger lies. Johnson and Cummings are both mavericks. Johnson especially lacks discipline. Cummings wants to shake everything up, from our universities to the civil service. He will make mistakes. And alongside unrelenting ambition, Johnson’s story is one of unrelenting blunders.
This is where Starmer the cautious technocrat can benefit Britain. As the government takes unprecedented measures in the pandemic, as it rebuilds after it, and as we finally Brexit, No. 10 will inevitably transgress boundaries. Starmer is the perfect candidate to police this. And it is in the national interest that he does so. We need the revolutionary zeal of Johnson’s Tories combined with the caution of Starmer’s Labour.
Both of Britain’s two major parties now occupy roles they would once have recoiled from – and it could not have come at a better time.
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