Starmer, just quit this business with Abbott while you’re (barely) ahead!

by Martin Odoni

What exactly is Keir Starmer doing? He tried to bar Diane Abbott from being an Election candidate for the Labour Party last week in a display of cynically-timed spite. And then over the weekend he started showering her with praise, before, allegedly, trying to bribe her into getting out of the way with an offer of a seat in the House of Lords.

If I were Abbott, I would accept and then vote against every Bill Starmer tries to push through Parliament.

The Labour Party have denied that such an offer has been made, and pointed to the fact that an ‘independent’ committee decides who receives peerages and other honours. As if that has ever stopped Prime Ministers from giving gongs to whoever they want.

Abbott herself has made clear that she has received no such offer, and that is just as well for Starmer, as his behaviour otherwise looks even more insidious and cynical.

Gaslighting. And Abbott knows it; she has accused Starmer of being a liar for saying it, and we know he is.

The flattery after all would diametrically contradict the offer. Starmer would only assume Abbott is susceptible to bribes if he had a low regard for her integrity. That is contempt, not respect.

Bribe or no bribe, does Starmer not realise this is making him look even worse? By showering compliments on someone he has just tried to eliminate from front-line politics, he has enhanced the impression of being a spiteful and needlessly cruel bully, attacking good, solid party members and colleagues that he ‘respects.’ We were already wondering late last week what sort of way he would treat the people of this country if he had the powers of a Prime Minister on his side. That he tries to convince us that he has ‘respect’ for one of the people he tried to offload now has us terrified, because it suggests he would cheerfully harm absolutely anyone he has no particular regard for one way or the other, if he felt so inclined.

Starmer is, with every step, making himself look like Charles I forcing his way into the House Of Commons in 1642; not a powerful, charismatic leader, but a blundering despot.

After eight years of Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak buffoonery, have we not already had enough of fifth-rate Prime Ministers like that?

Starmer has a massive lead in the polls, but he’s putting himself into a position where he is going to need it.

The Labour Civil War is over. Why is Starmer so desperate to keep fighting it?