Who would want to be Prime Minister, when even an innocent holiday can lead to a PR disaster? Keir Starmer had to cancel his summer holiday last year because he couldn’t be seen to be swanning off to the sun while towns in the Midlands and North were erupting into rioting. Surely, then, a few days in out-of-season Madeira in the dead period between Christmas and New Year would provide a well-earned rest?
It would be tempting to feel sorry for Starmer if he hadn’t taken every opportunity to make political capital out when his predecessors were accused of exceptionalism
Unfortunately not. Starmer is back in the headlines for turning up at a toboggan run and being ushered past a queue of holidaymakers who had been waiting for a reported three hours. While their teenage kids took the ride, Starmer was then driven down the hill to meet them at the end. According to observers, a crescendo of ‘boos’ went up, along with cries of “get to the back of the queue!”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman claimed that the decision to usher the PM past the queue was made by Madeira police. Starmer has previously deployed a similar security argument after accepting invitations to sit in corporate hospitality seats at Arsenal’s football stadium.
Personally, I think anyone who is prepared for wait for three hours to be conveyed in a whicker basket on greased runners on a 10 minute ride down a suburban road perhaps needs to broaden their imagination a little. Why not escape the tourist traps and have a walk in the island’s beautiful mountains for free? Moreover, if you really want to do the toboggan ride, there are ways for ordinary mortals to avoid the three-hour queue. Go online and you can book a four hour private tour of the island which includes a timed, ‘skip-the-line’ ticket for the toboggan run. The cost is £139 plus £30 for the ride itself, which seems a lot cheaper and less bother than having to build yourself a political career.
Nevertheless, one does wonder about Starmer’s political acumen. Surely he and his aides could have seen this coming? All it would have taken is a bit of choreography. His wife – whose face hardly anyone knows – could have taken their children to the top of the run, and then he could have met them at the bottom of the hill. No-one would have been any the wiser if his kids had skipped the queue. Other prime ministers seem to have had a little more skill in turning their holidays into PR triumphs rather than disasters. David Cameron and his wife managed to get themselves photographed sitting in the departure lounge at Luton airport waiting for an easyJet flight. I bet they didn’t slum it for the rest of their stay. Yet all that ended up getting into the papers was Dave and Sam behaving like millions of other Brits taking a foreign trip.
It would be tempting to feel sorry for Starmer if, that is, he hadn’t taken every opportunity to try to make political capital out when his predecessors were accused of exceptionalism. There was no hint of understanding on Starmer’s side of the House when Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were caught breaking lockdown rules when the prime minister was presented with a birthday cake in the cabinet room. Starmer, more than anyone, hammered home the message that the prime minister and his staff should obey lockdown rules to the last, petty detail; a prime minister must, he implied, be seen to behave like everyone else. The trouble is that once you have decided to hound your opponents like that, you can’t complain when you get held to the same standards.
I would never begrudge a Prime Minister a well-earned break, but Starmer has rather brought his embarrassment on himself. Once again, he has shown that he really isn’t very good at politics.
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