You reap what you sow, Sir Keir

The public response to Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers accepting gifts from Labour donors and others has been what you might expect: rhymes with ‘snouts in the trough’. However, popular indignation is not universal and there is a cohort who are outraged by the outrage. They believe the real villainy lies not with ministers taking gifts or the system that permits it but with the news media for reporting on these matters. That this elite backlash is concentrated among a commentariat that wrung every last drop of scandal out of the Tories’ last few years in office only makes it more delicious. Governments must be held to account. No, not that one!

One prominent commentator decries a ‘made-up Starmer scandal’ that is ‘even more preposterous than those which came before it’. He refers to the news that Sir Keir’s family decamped to an apartment owned by Labour donor Lord Alli during the general election, a gift worth more than £20,000.