Another op-Ed in The Guardian by Aditya Chakrabortty says Starmer is ‘playing into the hands of Farage.’ He lists five statements and asks which of them came from Nigel. They are:
- Rishi Sunak was “the most liberal prime minister we’ve ever had on immigration”.
- Mass immigration “happened by design, not accident”.
- British government is “broken”.
- The UK is a “one-nation experiment in open borders”.
- The British state is wallowing in “the tepid bath of managed decline”.
In fact, reading on we learn that none of them were uttered by the nicotine-stained man-frog. They were all the work of the PM himself. Does that shock you?
Perhaps it should because as Chakrabortty points out, Farage and Starmer are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum, yet Starmer is parroting the sort of stuff we expect from the hard-right anti-immigrant politicians that make up Reform UK and the outer fringes of the Tory party.
And as I posted the other day, by sticking to the previous government’s red lines on Brexit (which were themselves originally dreamt up to avoid the Tories losing more ground to UKIP) Starmer and Labour are reinforcing Farage’s main message.
I cannot recall any previous political leader adopting the increasingly unpopular policy of their unloved predecessors. Where is the kudos for doing it? It is akin to Tony Blair resurrecting the poll tax in 1997 and is absolutely baffling to me. By maintaining there is no case for ever rejoining the EU or the single market, Starmer is conferring legitimacy on Reform UK, a party representing everything Labour is opposed to and one that is likely to have a profound impact on the next general election.
And let's face it, Reform is no ordinary party. It is a political vehicle for Farage, as the GOP is for Trump in the USA. Without Farage, they would be nothing, a monster-raving loony party for the 21st century that would garner a few votes from the terminally ill-informed at each election.
The talk of Farage being funded to the tune of $100 million by Elon Musk, the world's richest megalomaniac, can only make matters much worse. They would be better funded than any other party in the UK, with an avowedly right-wing nationalist agenda and the firepower to make it appealing to the masses. Even without Musk's support, Reform UK are running Labour and the Tories very close in the polls. There is no guarantee that Labour's huge majority will save them at the next election.
What is Labour's response? It is to "resist demands to rush through measures to block Elon Musk from handing millions to Nigel Farage, amid a growing clamour for an overhaul of Britain’s political donation laws."
It looks like dangerous complacency to me. Musk has been interfering in German politics, tweeting that the AFD (Alternative for Deutschland) is the only party that "can save Germany." The AFD are essentially Neo-Nazis pursuing Hitler's dream of ridding Germany of foreigners. Musk is a dangerous man.
Starmer needs to inject some real urgency and purpose into his Brexit 'reset' and begin to make the argument for rejoining the EU at a future date. I don't mean by announcing a referendum next year, but by dismantling the case for Brexit. As a lawyer, he ought to recognise how easy that would be.
I am no lawyer, but I used to be a salesman of packaging systems. Occasionally, you would come across projects you knew you shouldn’t lose. Because of things the client wanted or needed, the job clearly had your company’s name stamped on it. It was a real pleasure to write the cover letter to the quotation and technical description because you had so much to say and you knew it would all resonate with the user. Things just fell into place.
If I had to prepare a speech for Starmer on reversing Brexit in the long term, it would be among the easiest work I had ever done. There is the matter of easing trade, slashing the paperwork rendering British businesses uncompetitive in Europe. Those companies continuing to sell into the EU are less efficient and therefore less profitable and as a result, are contributing less tax, so you have to pay more.
British industry is pressing for closer ties and to replicate EU rules. The trade deals negotiated outside the EU amount to mere chicken feed compared to what we're losing in the huge market on our doorstep.
Immigration that Brexit was supposed to control is now three or four times what it was when we were an EU member state. The world is a more dangerous place than it was eight years ago and we have lost influence in Europe which affects our own security.
The intractable problems in Northern Ireland and Gibraltar would be resolved at a stroke.
Above all, a majority voters are now in favour of freedom of movement and people want a clear sense of direction from Labour. They have moved on but Starmer hasn't. He should do, and quickly.
