Labour politicians aren’t just bad, they aren’t just unpopular – they’re dangerous

The Prime Minister and his cabinet pose a Keir and present danger to Britain

Daily Telegraph 

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Labour this week hit its highest disapproval rating since taking the keys to Downing Street. According to the latest YouGov data, 64 per cent of British adults now disapprove of the Government – the highest figure since last July’s general election, against just 16 per cent who approve – the lowest figure to date.

Granted, these aren’t the worst figures of all time. The previous Sunak administration plumbed the disapproval depths of 73 per cent following last summer’s D-Day debacle but Nigel Farage’s description of Sir Keir Starmer as “Blair without the flair” is fast appearing far too flattering. At this point in his premiership, Blair was still walking on water after his popularity rating reached 93 per cent in the wake of Princess Diana’s death, when The Independent breathlessly dubbed him: “The most popular democratic politician in history”. It took six years and the invasion of Iraq for him to go from hero to zero. Starmer appears to have achieved this feat in little over six months – albeit from a lower starting point. But it isn’t just down to his comparative lack of charisma. 

Thanks to Labour’s toxic mix of ideologically driven ineptitude, Starmer has gone from being viewed as decent but dull to appearing downright dangerous. Take the Southport riots, when the prime minister appeared unconcerned about prejudicing the trials of those involved in the “far-Right” unrest – in order not to prejudice the trial of a maniac who murdered three young girls in the most horrific way imaginable. Dangerous might seem a strong word – but let’s put it a different way: has he been a “safe” pair of hands since taking office? Hell no. We may as well stick a hazard sign across the black door of No 10. 

For Labour’s actions are causing real and serious harm to our economy and businesses, our intentional standing, and ultimately, our children’s futures.

The word “vindictive” is now being regularly used by the public in response to policies like stripping pensioners of their winter fuel allowance and slapping VAT on private school fees. (We now read the inheritance tax seven-year rule is “under threat” from Labour in yet another example of the Government’s animus towards anyone who has had the temerity to build up a nest egg.) That’s not responsible, careful or considered government. And nor is the oxymoronic nature of many of its ministers’ increasingly ill-judged pronouncements. The cabinet is a bag of contradictions. One moment Rachel Reeves is doom-mongering with unsubstantiated claims of a £22 billion black hole in the nation’s finances; the next she’s telling the UK “to learn from Trump’s boosterism”.

Seemingly oblivious to her own Eeyore-ish approach at the Treasury, she declared at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “Yes, I think we do need more positivity. I’ve challenged businesses as well and said no one else is going to speak up for Britain apart from us. It hasn’t been a very British thing to say.” Eh? This, from the woman who has just crippled British businesses with National Insurance hikes and cuts to business rates relief. Her colleague Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, is similarly inconsistent in claiming to care about social mobility and equal opportunities while driving down educational standards and proposing to stop disadvantaged pupils from learning subjects like Latin. Meanwhile, we’ve got Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner at sixes and sevens over house building, in one breath saying “we’re not getting the housing we need,” but in another, declaring “there’s plenty of housing in the UK” for migrants.

Speaking on the steps of Downing Street, Starmer pledged to be a “government of service” which put country before party. Yet we’ve already witnessed Labour concede British territory in the Chagos Islands and seek closer alignment with the EU – an utterly harebrained idea given Eurozone economies are faring worse than our own. “Never Here” Keir’s next foreign jaunt? To Brussels, natch. He’s been to Germany three times already since becoming Prime Minister and yet will host Olaf Scholz at Chequers tomorrow – despite him being almost as much of a busted euroflush as French president Emmanuel Macron. 

Instead of cosying back up to Brussels, we ought to be positioning ourselves more strategically given the new US administration – but instead we’ve got the likes of Sir Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, greeting Trump’s re-election with hysterical warnings about the resurgence of fascism. Does anyone really regard the Foreign Office as being secure under the leadership of David Lammy, a man who described the US president as a “neo-Nazi sociopath”? Was Lord Mandelson, who has had to apologise for calling Trump a “danger to the world” in 2019, a prudent pick for UK ambassador to the US? No, both hires compromise Britain diplomatically on the world’s stage – but Starmer appointed them anyway. So much for “country before party”. Similarly, was it really in the nation’s best interests to give Lord Hermer the post of Attorney General when he has previously represented Gerry Adams, the former leader of Sinn Fein, of all people? Or on reflection, was it actually an unnecessarily risky thing to do, not least now Lord Hermer has become embroiled in a number of conflict of interest rows? 

But in no area does the Government pose a greater threat than net zero. In the past week, unelected judges have blocked a major oil and gas project at Rosebank – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – despite it being given the governmental green light in 2023. The warning signs are everywhere you look. Norway’s government has just collapsed after the eurosceptic Centre party left the ruling two-party coalition in a row over adopting EU green energy laws. Norway is not a member of the European Union but is part of the European Economic Area, which grants access to the EU’s single market but requires the country to follow most EU directives. Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the finance minister and Centre party leader, said he could not accept three EU directives on increasing renewable energy sources and efficiency.

The furore has laid bare how dangerously exposed we are to energy imports – and exacerbates the urgent need for Britain to become energy self-sufficient – not least when our gas and electricity prices are among the highest in the world. Yet despite fracking leading to an energy (and economic) boom in the US, the energy firm Cuadrilla has announced it will soon start work on plugging the UK’s only two shale gas wells in Blackpool. And on Friday, we learned that more than 10 per cent of farmland in England is set to be diverted towards helping to achieve net zero and protecting wildlife by 2050. The decarbonisation project – which will see swathes of the countryside switched to solar farms – will inevitably put food security and our already fragile farming industry at risk but still the Miliband-led madness continues.

We’ve long feared net zero was a Trojan Horse for the destruction of our capitalist economy. In Labour’s hands, it’s well under way. And should we even get started on immigration? The latest projection from the Office for National Statistics suggests our population will grow to 72.5 million by 2032 – putting yet more strain on our creaking infrastructure. Yet have we heard anything substantive from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper about this? No. 

Make no mistake, the Prime Minister and his cabinet pose a Keir and present danger to Britain.