How has politics got to this state?

March 3, 2024

“Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two cheeks of the same backside and they both got well and truly spanked tonight here in Rochdale.” Not exactly diplomatic from George Galloway. But there’s a shortage of diplomacy in British politics right now.

The Prime Minister then made the bizarre decision to make a speech on Friday evening outside No 10. He described the decision of the Rochdale electorate as “beyond alarming.”

I find it beyond alarming that a Prime Minister censures the democratic choice of the people of Rochdale. Condemning the electorate is a serious anti-democratic development.

If you’ve lost the confidence of the electorate, Mr Sunak, that’s on you to fix. Don’t blame them.

Don’t blame them if they think you’re a hypocrite. You can’t condemn racist “poison” and refuse to call out Lee Anderson’s overt Islamophobia.

The speech made lots of vague allegations about violent extremists. Shadowy forces. There is too much racism, he said, but then said Britain doesn’t have a problem with racism. It read like the first draft of a speech that hadn’t been edited.

Lee Anderson was vice-chair of the Conservative Party. He said the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was under the “control” of “Islamists”. Conservative HQ sent out minister after minister to say Mr Anderson was “wrong” but when pressed, they all refused to say it was racist or Islamophobic.

I know Sadiq Khan well. I’ve worked with him for years. He’s a liberal, London human rights lawyer. He has campaigned for LGBTQ equality. He’s about as far away from wanting a theocracy as it’s possible to be.

Labour faced severe criticism for defending their Rochdale candidate for 48 hours after his anti-Israeli conspiracy theory comments surfaced. They dropped him, eventually, but the timing meant he was still on the ballot. The Green Party had already dropped their candidate for Islamophobic remarks implying all Palestinians had genocidal intent. In defence of the Greens, they did it quickly and without fuss, not holding on until media pressure forced their hand.

And if you think the North East is immune to the racist virus sweeping the country, think again.

Labour’s candidate for North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, has been challenged to apologise for a Tweet described as racist by The Traveller Movement, who represent Romani, Roma and Irish Travellers. This first came to light in July last year. There was no action for seven months. Last month, again, only after media pressure, the Labour Party issued a statement saying Ms McGuinness had apologised. But there is no record of any such apology. The Labour Party also declined to accept it was racist, mirroring the Conservative stance on Lee Anderson.

It’s escalating. Last week The Traveller Movement emailed all councillors in the North East confirming they had received no apology or engagement of any kind. Making an offensive statement is bad enough. Denying it is racist compounds the offense. And if it transpires that Ms MGuinness has made untrue comments about apologising, as is alleged, Labour may have to replace their Mayoral candidate, like in Rochdale. There have already been calls for her to resign.

How has politics got to this state? The Office for National Statistics report last week said only 12% of Britons trust political Parties. And that data was collected in September and October – before Labour’s £28 billion U-turn, some of it before the 7th October attacks and events in Gaza.

Where there is a vacuum, something will fill it.

Mr Sunak said in his Friday address, that “it is not where you were born that will determine your success but just your own hard work and endeavour.” What utter rubbish.

I’m a big believer in hard work. But to deny that inequality exists and affects life chances is a Flat Earth level of denial. How many of our Prime Ministers went to Eton?

Labour and the Conservatives both agree on keeping the 2-child benefit cap. A policy that keeps 45,000 kids in the North East in poverty. 1 in 8 children. Enough to fill the Stadium of Light.

Both Labour and Conservative want to lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses. Both are promising near-identical austerity.

No wonder people are turning to independents. The underreported story about Rochdale is that Independent David Tully, standing on a platform of localism, got more votes than Labour and Conservatives combined.

The job of politicians is to fix things. We need an honest appraisal of the state we’re in, and a plan to get out of it. I’ve got one for the North East – full employment, a Green New Deal, and a Total Transport Network.

So while I might disagree with many of Mr Galloway’s remarks, his “backside” comment encapsulates what most of Britain is thinking.