Keir Starmer another scandal?

Doodledog

ronib

Doodledog please confirm that you read RD’s resignation letter? Sleaze nepotism and so on. Pretty serious accusations which you have not covered.

I did read it, but I didn't cover it as have no idea who the people are who she is accusing of being beneficiaries of nepotism. Have you? Perhaps you could enlighten me?

I took it to mean she was alluding to Sue Grey and her son.

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RD’z resignation letter

I voted Labour, want a Labour government, but am not blind to Labour's faults.
I note not one single person has made any comment on Starmer launching his election campaign in Kent and not inviting the only elected Labour MP in the county. Could he have made it any clearer that RD was persona non grata as far as he was concerned? He did however, just a few weeks earlier, make a great show of being photographed welcoming Natalie Elphicke (MP for Dover) to the party after she defected from the Conservatives to cross the floor, even though it was known she would stand down at the next election. Of course at that time nobody knew just two weeks later Sunak would declare that intention.

On a point of accuracy, Starmer has not said no more acceptance of gifts, he was very careful to say no more clothes
I mistakenly thought that the criticism Starmer and colleagues had expressed for Conservative greedy freebies etc would mean that even if legal under the rules they would not be availing themselves of the same. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
I do think there is a concerted campaign to find or manufacture things to criticise Starmer for, but that shouldn't blind us to justified criticism.

Well yes of course she had people complaining about her views, that is why many of us supported her. She believes in single sex spaces, lots of people are opposed to that. So what, it doesnt make them right.

I just saw this in the Guardian when I was looking up something else:
Lord Alli, one of Labour’s biggest fundraisers, hosted a party for other donors in the Downing Street garden after the election, prompting accusations he had used government property for party political reasons.
Lord Alli no longer has a pass.

I am disappointed at Sir Keir's apparent lack of judgement as to how all of this might be perceived; I did expect better of him, frankly.

Agreed, Lizzie and Allira.

Oreo

I don’t know much about RD but all I will say is that MP’s don’t leave a political party easily and without a lot of thought.
Btw I don’t think Starmer has said he won’t accept any more gifts, wasn’t it just gifts of clothing and personal items that he won’t now accept after the outcry against it?

I agree that it looks like a difficult decision. As I say, I had a lot of admiration for RD, and can't see into her mind. It may have been the last straw, it may have been revenge, it may have been all sorts of things. I'm not making a case one way or the other - just saying that the timing seems vindictive.

Did KS specify clothing and personal items? I don't know, but whatever he does will be picked apart. Maybe he had to be specific as if he hadn't someone would be moaning that there are office biros he hasn't paid for. Things do seem to be reaching that level of pettiness.

There must be quite a few Labour MPs who don't like Starmer. She won't be the only one.

It's the same with most political parties.

RD will be no loss to the LP IMO.

She has never liked KS and doesn’t appear to like the current LP, so was disingenuous to stand as a Labour MP at the recent election.

She is not particularly popular in her constituency - a group of her constituents recently wrote an open letter complaining about some of her views. She has now severely let down her constituents … who voted for a Labour MP.

Bye bye Ms Duffield👋

I don’t know much about RD but all I will say is that MP’s don’t leave a political party easily and without a lot of thought.
Btw I don’t think Starmer has said he won’t accept any more gifts, wasn’t it just gifts of clothing and personal items that he won’t now accept after the outcry against it?

ronib

Doodledog please confirm that you read RD’s resignation letter? Sleaze nepotism and so on. Pretty serious accusations which you have not covered.

I did read it, but I didn't cover it as have no idea who the people are who she is accusing of being beneficiaries of nepotism. Have you? Perhaps you could enlighten me?

Doodledog please confirm that you read RD’s resignation letter? Sleaze nepotism and so on. Pretty serious accusations which you have not covered.

Listening to the potential Conservative Party leaders talk the only thing they can talk about is immigration. If they were still in power it would still be the only thing on their minds. Thank goodness we now have a government that is looking at the country as a whole and planning ahead. And have already started to do that. I have a friend who was an estate agent who talked about the terrible effect Truss’s policy had on people. Now retired, he was seriously ill recently and I do wonder if it was the stress of that time that made him ill as he is someone that keeps himself supremely fit.

Thank you Doodledog a very fair and balanced post

good post, doodledog - a thought on that is that amid all the criticisms,

those criticising policy never say, well, this is what I think we should do about it, and this is how it will be funded

I think there is only so long you can fight from within Doodledog, I am beginning to think that ignoring the things that cause you concern and 'fighting on might not be the way forward.

Scrapping tuition fees were in Corbyns's manifesto, (as were a whole raft of unrealistic proposals) but the L party made it clear in 2023 it would not be part of future policy.

Funding universities is just one of the difficulties ahead - schools, NHS, care, prisons, transport, climate change etc etc - its easy to pick on so many areas of society left in a ghastly situation and there are no quick fixes.

ronib

Doodledog The attacks on Liz Truss take some beating?
Why should MPs not call out in a parliamentary democracy? I think RD has made some very valid points in her resignation letter. KS has every opportunity to respond. So what is the next move?

I’ve given this a lot of thought. You’re right that Truss got a lot of stick, and I really do want to be fair in the way I feel about all of this.

The difference is that Truss crashed the economy and ruined many lives. Young families had to find huge amounts of extra money every month as a direct result of her incompetence, savings were affected for those who had them, and the impact of that is still affecting people. And to compound that she refused to accept responsibility - she still doesn’t. Yes, the ‘lettuce’ jokes must have been hard for her to take, but she didn’t do it with any sort of grace, and in the end her own party got rid of her.

Starmer hasn’t done anything remotely like that. He annoyed people by means-testing an allowance that was going to the rich as well as the poor. I think he handled it very badly, but the outcry seems to me disproportionate compared to when disability benefits were cut, child benefit means-tested and benefits to larger families frozen.

He has accepted donations in accordance with the rules. We know about them as they were declared- he didn’t hide them, and there has, as far as we know, been no cronyism.

Compared to the Covid contracts and corruption in the Tory government, again the outcry has been disproportionate. He has said that there will be no more acceptance of gifts, which is more than the last lot did - they were shameless, but it is Starmer (and his senior colleagues) who are being attacked. The attacks have been constant and have completely overshadowed the good things the LP has done already. The doctors and train drivers are back to work. There are now mandatory targets for house building. The Rwanda scheme has been cancelled, and a border security force introduced. Civil unrest was dealt with quickly and effectively. There is a commitment to tackling the state of prisons which has been ignored for years. There is a push for renewable energy and GB Energy has been formed to take responsibility for bringing energy back to UK control. There will be more opportunities for young people in Europe, and the government is looking at further ways to reduce the negative impacts of Brexit.

None of those things are talked about though. Instead there is thread after thread, headline after headline, tweet after tweet about a friend offering the use of a flat, or donations of spectacles. On and on and on. That, to me, is the difference.

What was Rosie Duffield to do? A loyal MO would see things in the round. She knows the system and has had to concede that she got donations herself. Of course she has a right to resign, but IMO she has let down the people who voted for her as a LP MP. She is used to fighting from within - and I admire her for her dedication to women’s rights - and IMO she should have continued to do so, or stood as an Independent in the first place. I am not convinced that the ‘revelations’ about donations (^which have not been fraudulent or corrupt^) are enough to push someone so used to fighting her cause to resign the whip.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Labour said they’d scrap tuition fees.
Instead they’re raising them to £10,500 a year.

What’s have you got this information from? As far as I know it’s not in the Labour Party manifesto. Reform is the only party that said they would scrap tuition fees, well they did in the ‘pledges to the people’ that they have now torn up. Please post a link if you know you are right because I am sick of misinformation being put out on a daily basis on social media and I thought Gransnet was better than that.

It wasn’t Labour that introduced the two child benefit cap and it isn’t their fault that the economy is in such a bad way that it can’t be reintroduced. Imo free breakfasts for primary school children will benefit poor families more as it totally targets the children themselves.

ronib

Anniebach RD does not mention being hounded or vilified by the LP in her resignation letter at all. RD is very clear in expressing her complete horror on sleaze and treatment of pensioners and families affected by the 2 children family benefit cap. I don’t think RD is wrong.

I agree with the pensioners, however, having worked within the welfare system in various role from 2009-2022, I’m afraid I feel both the benefit cap and two child limit cap is fair. I’d like to see housing though reassessed and Local Housing Allowances raised to more realistic levels.

Anyone within a household claiming DLA or PIP is automatically exempt from the benefit cap.

May I suggest you listen to her interview with Andrew Neil

Yes her letter is not about her treatment by the labour party she didnt mention it. Perhaps it's a case of hanging on and hanging on and finally there is a point where it's not sustainable anymore. I know exactly how she feels.

Anniebach RD does not mention being hounded or vilified by the LP in her resignation letter at all. RD is very clear in expressing her complete horror on sleaze and treatment of pensioners and families affected by the 2 children family benefit cap. I don’t think RD is wrong.

Anniebach yes my mistake. I had the idea that DA was independent having listened to her interviews recently.