Labour’s dark secret is safe with Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer knows. He’s not saying anything, not letting one word of criticism of the Corbyn regime escape his lips, but he knows better than the journalists who cover politics, better than you, me or anyone who hasn’t lived in Labour for the past five years, the depth of the disgrace of the British left.

Starmer knows because he was in the meetings that excused Putin and failed to tackle anti-Semitism. He knows because he saw Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Seumas Milne and Andrew Murray close up. And I for one would love to hear his insider account of life with the cranky tankies. More to the point, Starmer knows because he lived through the wars on the left in his own constituency.

The media profiles do not pay enough attention to the factional struggles that surrounded him. Starmer may have served Corbyn, when his more principled colleagues refused to compromise. He may be a man of the left, as a history of offering legal advice, usually free of charge, to every radical cause from the mid-1980s on shows.