Last night in the House of Commons, MPs voted to give the government six more months of emergency powers by a tally of 484 to 76. Simple maths will tell you that the Tories could not have achieved this on their own; Starmer whipped the parliamentary Labour party to vote the measure through. It makes one wonder why — or even if — we have an official opposition at all any longer.
The only party that voted as a bloc against the extension of emergency powers was the Liberal Democrats. This followed up on some fiery performances by Ed Davey in the media in the build-up to the vote, asking in stark terms why a government that has laid out a timetable to end all coronavirus restrictions in less than three months needs a whole further half a year of emergency powers to see us safely through to the end of this crisis.
It may have been a case of far too little, far too late, but I have to credit the Lib Dems for being the only party to actually stick up for our civil liberties here. It’s not often — in fact, almost never — that I get to say something nice about the Liberal Democrats, so I’m glad to take the opportunity to do so here. But they really should have come to the fore on the curtailment of our freedoms a lot sooner, particularly seeing as how they are the only supposed liberal party in the country. Instead, they followed Starmer like a sycophantic little brother — at least until last night.
Could this vote be the start of something big for the Lib Dems?
Could this vote be the start of something big for the Lib Dems? Having cheered for them for over a decade at one point, let me strike a note of cynicism here — not bloody likely. They are probably going to resume the Keir Starmer tribute act starting on Monday. But at least for one week, they not only did the right thing but were almost alone in doing so.
To be fair here, other MPs voted against extending the Coronavirus Act for another six months. For instance, a lot of the Corbyn gang, including dear Jeremy himself, voted against the government. I wouldn’t take this as some sudden conversion to liberalism here, however — I think if the Tories proposed nationalising all industry, this bunch would concoct some ridiculous reason to oppose it. Thirty-five Conservative MPs also voted against the government on this one, most of them from the Eurosceptic wing of the party. Corbyn and the Brexiteers, walking through the lobby side by side again — must have seemed like old times.
Caroline Lucas voted against the government as well and, judging by what she’s said about it all, her opposition did seem heartfelt. There has been a groundswell of reaction against this extension of emergency powers — with the notable exception of within the walls of the office of the leader of the official opposition, of course.
Why did Starmer choose to whip his MPs to support the extension of these powers? I get that he has not wanted to seem like he was standing in the way of a government trying its best to combat this pandemic. Since the crisis began, he has wanted to seem like he wasn’t just opposing for the sake of it, nor has he wanted to appear like he was fighting against a prime minister simply trying to get through a national crisis.
In some ways beyond all those points, Starmer has wanted to move the party on from the Corbyn era. I get all of that, I really do. But there comes a time when you have to click back into being the official opposition again and start, you know, opposing things the government does. A great time to kick this off would have been after Boris Johnson said all coronavirus restrictions will be lifted on 21 June but wanted to have emergency powers for three further months after that date anyhow.
Why didn’t Starmer do this instead — tell Boris he would support a three-month extension to the Coronavirus Act to the end of June, but that if the government wanted six, they would have to justify it in real terms. Had it been clear Labour was going to vote en masse against this extension, you can bet there would have been even more Tory rebels — and as such, the government may well have been defeated. Starmer could have inflicted a real blow on his foes and chose not to for reasons that do not seem entirely obvious.
So, well done, Ed Davey. Last night, you earned the title of official leader of the opposition, if only temporarily. I wouldn’t celebrate much if I were the Lib Dem leader, however. The position of leader of the opposition has become so devalued these days, it isn’t worth very much.
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