Why isn’t the Sun backing Starmer?

The Sun’s reporting on Sir Keir Starmer’s legal activities is strident and therefore curious. The paper reports, in thunderous terms, on a number of convicted murderers in Commonwealth countries whom Starmer saved from the noose. It notes that, as these cases took place abroad, the former barrister was not bound by the cab rank rule to take on any case for which he was competent and available, without reference to the client or crime. The implication is that Starmer was a do-good lefty lawyer so keen to keep sadistic killers from their appointment with the gallows that he flew all over to do so. 

The paper’s angle is all the more intriguing when you consider that the Sun opposes the return of capital punishment in the UK. So it can hardly be objecting to the Labour leader having fought the death penalty in court overseas. (Also, some of this work included arguing before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which is a British court.)