'Starmer should be wary of a final fall - Labour needs to get its act together'
Sir Keir Starmer might want to acquaint himself with Devon Loch.
Forty yards from the finish of the 1956 Grand National, the Queen Mother’s racehorse looked nailed on to win. But then he slipped. He couldn’t recover. ESB, the horse behind, swooped past to clinch one of the most incredible wins in sporting history.
Devon Loch comes to mind with Labour’s lead over the Conservatives falling 7% to its lowest point since June 2023, according to a poll by market researchers Savanta last week. It still has Labour on 41% with the Tories on 29. But for some time this column has warned of a Labour complacency around Black, Asian and Muslim voters that has chipped away at Starmer’s hopes of replacing PM Rishi Sunak.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking to the media while visiting Harlow Police Station in Essex on Friday (PA)It isn’t just that excruciating LBC interview on October 11 to blame. Remember it? Starmer, a human rights lawyer, made clear in answers to specific questions that Israel had the right to withhold power and water from the Palestinian civilians – a contravention of Article 33 of the Geneva convention.
It stood at odds with his subsequent claim that: “Obviously, everything should be done within international law”. It isn’t even the fact that Starmer – having felt the backlash of principled councillors, MPs and social media users, called for a ceasefire in a speech this week – when he hadn’t voted for one.
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It is the fact that, on top of it all – and his words to the contrary – Labour’s MPs appear convinced they need only to turn up to win the general election – because they are not the Tories. It will never not be the case that there is widespread revulsion over the October 7 attacks or that the Israeli hostages held by Hamas must be released. But 29,000 Palestinians are now dead, 11,500 of them children. The outcry has been persistent while Starmer squirms on the fence.
Injured Palestinians are brought to Kuwait Hospital for treatment following Israeli attacks on Rafah City (Anadolu via Getty Images)It could yet come back to haunt him, not least at a Commons vote tomorrow on an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. At time of writing, Labour has yet to say if it will back the motion. It is a year since this column raised the lack of any new, younger Black male MPs to fight for Labour at the ballot box.
London Labour councillor Maurice McLeod was blocked from standing as MP in Camberwell and Peckham in 2022, a seat with a large Black population. Who speaks for the Black contingent of Gen A and future generations if Starmer gets in? And why should voters put him there if they are not part of his fight? Where are concrete details for his new “Race Equality Act”, first announced in 2020? And why has Labour still not yet completed all of the recommendations from Martin Forde KC’s 2022 report into racism in the party?
The party told Sky News last month it was “fully committed to tackling racist and discriminatory attitudes wherever they arise…” yada, yada, yada. Trouble is, Labour could find itself slipping up as it hits the home straight yet again.
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