DAN MACKAY: Hypocrisy of Labour PM as British politics implodes
The Real Mackay by Dan Mackay
The Labour government’s honeymoon is well and truly over! In fact, the wheels on the bus were a bit shooglie from the get go.
They’d found an undeclared funding black hole of £22 billion left by the outgoing “nasty party”. Tough decisions would have to be made, we were told.
They would not lie to the British people, we were assured. There would be no false promises. It was now time for a period of public service. Little did we realise that their definition of service meant self-service!
Looking back over the last 90 days or so, we realise theirs was a loveless landslide victory and more a rejection of Tory sleaze, division and failure to deliver.
Sir Keir Starmer had seemed a man of truth, integrity and determination.
So, gosh, just 90 days later we see another side! They soon found their kahoonas did Labour and almost immediately announced a withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance. This was an outright attack on the country’s pensioners, many already struggling with their heating bills and inflation-driven cost-of-living price hikes.
Not for Labour any plans to increase taxation on the super-rich, nor plans to deal with the tax benefits associated with non-doms; where now the talk of mansion or inheritance taxes?
No, the new Labour government picked those with the least income, the most needy and the most vulnerable. Hardly the ones with the broadest shoulders…
And then to cap it all we learn, almost daily, of the latest hypocrisies when we discover the PM accepted £30,000 of funding to pay for his suits, £400 for spectacles, money to pay for his wife’s dresses and so it went on. Other cabinet ministers accepted Labour donor’s largesse too. Holidays in overseas apartments…what else will we discover?
Oh, but it was all declared (eventually), we are told. Missing the point entirely. And not a hint of remorse that wealthy politicians – the PM is a millionaire several times over – somehow feel entitled that someone else should pay for their clothing.
Mr Starmer, I think you are a pious, patronising prig! You wouldn’t even wait to hear the Labour conference reject your planned cuts to the winter fuel allowance. Albeit, sadly, a non-binding vote.
And now Rosie Duffield, one of a new generation of Labour MPs, has quit over party “sleaze, nepotism and greed”. Yes, Sir Keir has since agreed to pay back some of those freebies but the party stumbles on.
What has gone wrong with British politics? It all seems to be imploding.
Who will grieve if the Conservative Party is condemned to exile? Some supporters believe their next Tory PM is still at school!
The SNP at Holyrood look like mince. Its not just the wheels that came off their bus, but the driver, engine transmission and most of the passengers too!
We have Nigel Farage’s Reform party on the rise with the populist finger-pointing right-wing politics of blame in the ascendancy.
The Lib Dems did very well under Sir Ed Davey but what do they stand for and what difference will they make?
And now Anas Sarwar, Labour’s Scottish leader, is concerned that the tawdry Westminster revelations will spoil his chances of victory in the May 2026 Holyrood elections.
A loveless landslide, a horrible honeymoon, a potential depressing divorce north and south of the border… is Labour leading the country to the brink of doom and gloom?
