Another nugget from Tom Baldwin’s interview with Starmer is raising eyebrows at the highest levels in Labour today. Starmer essentially blames the despicable arson attacks on his properties for the comms crisis that followed his ‘island of strangers’ immigration speech…
The piece relates:
“…emphasising he is not using the firebomb attack as an excuse and doesn’t blame his advisers or anyone else except himself for these mistakes, Starmer says he should have read through the speech properly and “held it up to the light a bit more”.
Starmer draws a parallel between the timing of the attacks and the meltdown that followed his speech. If a state had any connection to those attacks, Starmer’s admission here would be seen as a big win by hostile actors, by his own admission he took his eye off the ball…
Three men have so far been charged with those attacks and will face trial in April of next year. All three have indicated they deny the charges. No details are known as to the motive and no relevant details have been released by the authorities. Starmer’s interview includes multiple admissions that he is finding his role difficult and pressured. Is Keir Starmer ok?
Once again Starmer has pinched from Jenrick for policy. Not the first time…
Downing Street has now briefed that they will now suspend visas for countries that don’t co-operate on deportations. Not a new idea…
Co-conspirators may remember that Robert Jenrick proposed this policy along with the suspension of foreign aid last year. Catching up…
It comes after Downing Street pinched his proposals to cut foreign aid to fund defence increases and to sack Amanda Pritchard for presiding over falling productivity. Got to get the ideas from somewhere….
Last summer internal Labour sources said Jenrick’s analysis “could be most problematic for Labour.” Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…
Keir Starmer is Albania today to unveil the expansion of the so-called Joint Migration Task Force in his latest attempt to show he’s cracking down on illegal migration and the small boats crisis. Guido has already flagged the Cabinet’s long-standing opposition to migration controls. Home Office ministers are no exception:
In 2021, Angela Eagle, Diana Johnson, security minister Dan Jarvis, and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips all voted against life sentences for people smuggling gangs – as part of Labour’s opposition to the Tories’ Nationality and Borders Act. Home Office civil servants, meanwhile, have long resisted serious migration controls. Back in 2022 they used an officially organised online consultation to discuss how to block the Tories’ Rwanda scheme, even comparing themselves to Nazis “only obeying orders”, and later threatened to strike if made to implement what they called the ‘unlawful’ policy. ‘Smashing the gangs’ may prove tricky with this lot in charge…
Labour backlash over Starmer’s ‘islands of strangers’ comment yesterday is showing no sign of abating. Now Labour’s Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan has come out against Starmer. When asked if she agreed with the PM’s comments, Morgan said on First Minister’s Questions:
“I will not be drawn into a debate where people are using divisive language when it comes to immigration.”
Morgan joins the growing list of Labour politicians coming out against Starmer:
Downing Street says Starmer has “changed his mind” on immigration since 2020, and doubled down on the ‘island of strangers’ line, while a YouGov poll shows that 53% of Brits agree with Starmer’s sentiment compared to 27% who disagree. Yet another issue Starmer faces anger from within his party over…
The reactions are coming in – Emily Maitlis and fellow News Agents presenter Jon Sopel have been discussing Starmer’s migration speech. They’re coming to terms with it in their own way…
Maitlis was aghast at Starmer’s use of Brexity language and said she would be “terrified” by the changes:
“I think you can go in and talk about control and contribution i.e ‘we need to have these controls and we need to recognise the contribution’ – He has opted certainly in this speech just to talk about control and the language of taking back control… If I had elderly parents that were going into a care home right now I’d be absolutely terrified, I would be absolutely terrified because what you’re doing is you’re turning off the tap of people who are qualified.”
Sopel weighed in with his own contribution: “The question of the lab and the experiment as if as if – it sounds like Frankenstein’s monster doesn’t it?” Cheers for that….
Maitlis finally found her line: “Maybe you have to ask yourself if you had to have a hardline immigration system from any party would it be the party that traditionally veers towards compassion but is hardening up or the party like Reform that traditionally veers towards a lack of compassion and probably incompetence when they actually get into power?” At least it’s Labour, thank God…
This month Maitlis declared Runcorn a victory for Labour. The zingers keep coming…
“No, I think we’re a country where everybody, I think, wants to see a strong country where we train people in the UK, but also to see net migration comes down, I think that makes sense.”
Badenoch said at her speech on Monday morning: “We are absolutely ready to fight a general election. We saw the results in Aberdeen South: 50% of the vote. Because we can unite the country… It’s about uniting the country, for God’s sake, behind a centre-right agenda.”