It can be said that Keir Starmer was as competent a head of the Crown Prosecution Service as the UK has had. However, in his transition to Prime Minister, his chromosomes remain the same. In his case, I am referring to the fact that he remains wired as a public prosecutor, not a Prime Minister. He lacks the political instinct and antennae of a Prime Minister, as evidenced by his handling of the winter fuel allowance, the two-child cap, and boxing himself in on income tax, national insurance, and VAT rises, yet slapped an increase on employers’ national insurance, which is counterintuitive to growing the economy.
His first job should have been to sack Rachel Reeves, who also has no political antennae; has she not read Hume or Smith, who refer to the” political economy”? I accept that he was left a “Shit Show” of an inheritance from the Tories, a £2.5 trillion national debt, average GDP growth per capita between 2010 and 2024 of a mere 0.9% per annum and public services in disarray. However, he went on to sell an electoral myth that growth was the magic pill for all the UK’s ills. The OECD forecasts that UK growth will be a miserable 1.0% in 2026. He refuses to speak clearly to the electorate and explain that growth is part of the mix that will deliver properly funded public services; the other part is a fairer tax system. This will include reforms to pensions, a trajectory towards equalising capital gains and income tax, and tweaks to VAT, for example, a higher rate on luxury goods such as cars exceeding £70,000. In addition, he could charge national insurance on landlords, which could generate around £ 5 billion of additional revenue to the Treasury. Tax is not a bad word, but it is key to the mix that ensures social cohesion. In addition, he refuses to consider bringing back the water industry into public ownership, which is supported by most of the electorate. He has announced investment “PLEDGES” of £150 billion in the UK from American firms, £90 billion of which will come from private equity firm Blackstone. Included in the £150 billion is £31 billion of investment in AI infrastructure from the Tremendous Four: Microsoft, Nvidia, Google and OpenAI. These pledges will create 8000 jobs at a staggering £19 million per job. The total market capitalisation of the Tremendous Four is £10 trillion, four times the UK’s GDP. The power these US companies will wield over our democracy is potentially frightening. The UK and Europe lag far behind America, as it does not have a single global player in the areas of AI, cloud computing, chip technology and manufacturing, quantum computing, and social media.” So, as a matter of urgency, Europe and the UK need to strengthen their bonds and invest in all these areas, including biotechnology, green energy, food security, and the manufacturing of military hardware. Gus O’Donnell and Jim O’Neil have warned that the lack of investment has produced “a vicious cycle of stagnation and decline” and have also said that growth and the private sector are not a panacea but will also require a step change in public sector investment. Just as a passing comment, Starmer’s tactical ass kissing in the form of the Downton Abbey Show will only enhance Trump’s opinion of himself and will do very little for Little Britain because, America First, really means America First.
His Foreign Secretary David Lammy entertained J D Vance (a vile human being by any measure), his fellow Christian brother and family friend, taking sycophancy to a new level. Lammy also said, in the face of all the evidence and comments by Omer Bartov, a Jewish American academic on Holocaust and Genocide Studies, that Israel is committing genocide, that he, the Foreign Secretary and his colleagues in the cabinet have concluded that Israeli actions in Gaza have not crossed the threshold to be described as genocide. He is clearly closer to Christian Zionism and a get-on-your-bike social conservative.
On the international front, Starmer has demonstrated a lack of humanity and leadership by reducing foreign aid to 0.3% of GDP. He hugs Zelensky, broadens the definition of terrorism, arrests hundreds of ordinary people for supporting Palestine Action and welcomes Israeli President Herzog, who denies that there is famine in Gaza. On the issue of Gaza, Browen Maddox did a much better job of holding Herzog to account than Starmer. He still refuses to call out what Israel is doing as genocide in case he offends Trump, his wife, or Labour Friends of Israel. This, even after B’Tselem, a Jewish human rights organisation, issued a report on Gaza called “Our Genocide. Starmer has no political ideology and is now looking to ape Farage to deal with both illegal and legal migration. However, he apologised after quoting Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech. His judgment is sadly flawed, from the acceptance of gifts, suits, and spectacles to the appointment of Peter Mandelson, whose trade negotiation skills could have been utilised more effectively than appointing him as the US Ambassador. He has a clique which includes Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, whose ambition is only topped by his political ineptitude and hatred of the left. By the way, I would sack him as well. Rather than listen to all MPs in his party, Starmer is trying to purge the party of those on the left, which will certainly lead to an election defeat in 2029. The current position of Labour amongst the voting public is down to Starmer’s inability to grasp the nature of politics. His job is not just to present but explain how he plans to deliver a vision of our collective future. A vision that is an honest one in the light of a rapidly changing world, which may also require hard choices to maintain social cohesion. In addition, try embracing “The Audacity of Hope”
Keir Starmer is leading the Labour Party to a certain election loss in 2029, as inevitable as the Tories and Reform doing an electoral pact just before the next election. Labour is 15 points behind Reform in the latest polls, and Keir Starmer’s personal poll ratings sit at -47%. The party has seen the launch of a new group called Mainstream, also backed by Andy Burnham, which is advocating for a course correction. This is consistent with a Survation poll, which suggests 64% of Labour members think that Labour is heading in the wrong direction. He won an election landslide on a very thin majority, a very thin manifesto and on the basis that he was not a Tory. Starmer does not need to look to Blair as a role model, but rather to Churchill and Attlee. In the wings is Andy Burnham, but be sure that Starmer and McSweeney will do anything to stop him from standing to replace the Prime Minister. Starmer is on probation until May 2026 to see if he can do the job; if I were a betting man, I would hardly give him an even chance.
My only advice to Andy Burnham and his left-leaning colleagues is not to push the soft, but rather the progressive and pragmatic. Breaking news: I see Starmer has ignored my advice and looks back to Blair for inspiration, taking another go at introducing a compulsory identity card. The only way forward for Labour is not to engage in a civil war, but to get rid of McSweeney and bring some of the Burnhams into the cabinet.
Suneil Sharma
29th September 2025
The Gob 
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