Labour’s political opponents are un-British, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said as he made a final Hail Mary speech to save his job on Monday, while attempting to use boogeyman scare tactics over the so-called “far-right” to justify his continued presence in Number 10.
The answer to the country rejecting his Labour party at the ballot box with its worst election results in a century is simply to be more Labour than ever, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said at yet another ‘reset’ speech on Monday morning. Even as coup plotters break into the open to challenge his position, Starmer said clinging on to power rather than accepting his time is up is his “responsibility” while criticising people who notice the problems the country has, vowing to crack down on the right wing, and vowing to nationalise the steel industry.
Speaking to an audience of political activists and journalists, much of Starmer’s speech was dedicated to identifying ideological enemies. He said, “We are not just facing dangerous times, but dangerous opponents. Very dangerous opponents,” and specifically named Nigel Farage, whom he called a “grifter” and “chancer”. The Reform UK leader — who absolutely dominated last week’s elections should be resisted because he wouldn’t be able to provide the “progressive leadership” that Starmer claimed “these times demand”.
Dismissing the now-dominant political force in the country as fundamentally un-British, Starmer criticised those who point “at Britain’s problems”, saying they blame “other people in this country. And I don’t think that’s British”, a clear reference to an apparently emerging policy consensus on ending open borders and engaging in deportations.
Turning to his favourite political punching bag, Starmer dragged up the spectre of the supposed “far-right”, referencing this week’s scheduled ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in London organised by anti-grooming gang activist Tommy Robinson. In an apparent re-run of his strategy following the mass stabbing at a children’s ‘Taylor Swift’ dance party in Southport nearly two years ago by a second-generation Rwandan teen, Starmer attempted to cast himself as a forceful hand, protecting the nation from the real threat facing the nation: those objecting to the horrors of migration-related violence.
The embattled PM even boasted of having banned anti-mass migration activists from attending the march, which he claimed was “designed to confront and intimidate this diverse city.”
Despite the longstanding rift between Farage and Robinson, Reform UK politician, Professor Matt Goodwin, remarked: “Keir Starmer and Labour MPs applauding a crackdown on conservative activists protesting mass immigration while having allowed Islamists and antisemites to march through our capital city for years, and stream into Britain illegally, is just completely absurd.”
In all, following his electoral drubbing last week and even as his own party colleagues begin the process to remove him, Starmer insisted that what the British people truly need at this time is more of him, and more of the Labour Party, insisting: “Only Labour values and Labour policies can ensure our country not only weathers these storms, but emerges stronger and fairer”.
In addition to ginning up fear of the far right, Starmer’s one Hail Mary pass, incredibly, was to announce the nationalisation of what remains of British Steel. He said: “Legislation will be brought forward this week to give the government powers — subject to that public interest test — to take full national ownership of British Steel. Public ownership in the public interest”. So, even while proclaiming that the government’s way forward was not to ape Reform and fight on its own territory, Starmer announced just one new policy, one that Reform had first announced over a year ago.
The government already financially supports the China-owned Scunthorpe steel plant — Britain’s last –, but until now its considerable losses have been subsidised while it has been seeking a new private-sector buyer. Placing the plant under special measures last year was seen as essential because, unlike most industries, blast furnaces can’t be economically restarted once they cease to function.
Meanwhile, Starmer’s enemies in his own party continue their moves against him. Shortly after his speech ended, would-be leadership contender Angela Rayner got up to speak at a Trade Union event, where she declared “it’s clear that what we’re doing isn’t working, and it needs to change”, The Guardian notes, and stated Labour’s voters had abandoned it because the party had failed to do anything for them. Dozens of Labour Parliamentarians have now called for Starmer to step down.
This bleeding continued following the speech on Monday, indicating that it failed to rally the backbenches to his banner. Among those to join the chorus calling for his resignation following the speech were MP Chris Curtis, the head of the influential 100-member Labour Growth Group in the House of Commons.