Keir Starmer must be licking his lips. His opposite number has been found guilty in the court of public opinion of thinking he’s above his own rules. In doing so he has shown a callous disregard for the suffering of millions during lockdown. The message is clear: we weren’t all in this together.
Boris Johnson is squirming under the weight of his own contradictions. He tried total denial – ‘there were no parties’. Then he shifted the blame onto officials – ‘I didn’t know there were parties [sorry Allegra]’. He then claimed these events weren’t parties – ‘what you’re looking at there is a classic work gathering’. And now, we have the best of the lot – ‘I thought the party was a work event’.
Johnson’s weasel apology only stoked the fire. Twitter is ablaze with calls for the PM to resign, as flash polls indicate this issue has real cut-through. Starmer’s own tweet calling for Johnson’s resignation has received over 100k likes.
Fire and fury is all well and good, but how does Starmer actually finish him off? After all, Johnson has shown his government can survive monumental moral failures:
Covid – 150,000 dead, the highest in Western Europe.
Cost of living crisis – passed onto those with least to give.
Corruption – take your pick… £4 million for a Lordship, £31bn for a Track and Trace that doesn’t work, a whole host of crony covid contracts and No. 10 decorations.
Like a bull, Johnson shrugged off these seemingly mortal blows. The question remains: how do you remove a leader whose moral authority has dissipated?
Basics first, one must clearly and powerfully articulate their failings. Starmer’s performance in PMQs yesterday was case in point. From the dispatch box, Starmer made clear that Johnson had broken the ministerial code, as well as the nation’s trust, and should therefore resign. Bada bing bada boom, no?
‘Sorry, was that not enough?’, Starmer might be asking this morning. ‘How is he still standing?’.
Starmer is learning that the final blow can prove elusive. He cannot allow this opportunity to go to waste. He must go two steps further.
Firstly, he must implicate Conservatives in his failings. Today, Starmer should table a vote of no confidence. He should declare that Johnson has failed to do the honourable thing and resign and must therefore be forced by Parliament. For Johnson to remain, Conservative MPs would have to vote FOR Johnson. That is, say all of this is ok. If they fail to defenestrate Johnson, his failings will be theirs. They will be eyeing their re-election prospects when they make that choice.
Secondly, Starmer must show passion. His performance at PMQs was a fantastic first step. Johnson’s apology wasn’t just baseless, it was “worthless” and “contemptuous of the British public”, showing him to be “a pathetic spectacle of a man that has run out of road”. Such emotion legitimises the hurt and anger understandably felt by the public and shows Starmer ‘gets it’.
This approach may not be Starmer’s professional instincts, but he must keep it up. People want a politician that fights because they want to believe they’re worth fighting for.
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter”.
Starmer could learn a thing or two from Hemmingway.
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