The appearance on our television screens of one Hamish Falconer, the newly-elected Labour MP for Lincoln, tells us much more about Keir Starmer’s government than meets the eye.
Falconer is not exactly a household name, but has already been elevated to the role of junior minister in the Foreign Office. He is an ex-pupil of Westminster School and was elected to parliament at his first attempt in July. Just a fortnight or so later, Falconer – who spent his pre-MP career working at the Foreign Office – was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Few voters outside of Lincoln will have heard of him, but plenty in the Labour party will know his name all too well: he is the son of former Labour Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer. This qualifies him to be described as one of Labour’s ‘Red Princes’, and destined for great things.
‘The British public are extremely interested in what’s going on behind closed door!’@IsabelWebster_ challenges Hamish Falconer MP on his assertion that people aren’t interested in Starmer’s apparent ousting of Sue Gray and cabinet matters.
— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 7, 2024
📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604 pic.twitter.com/ctfsQqv9IT
A cynic might suggest that this is simply because of who his daddy once was (a chum and former flatmate of Tony Blair, who gave him a peerage and appointed him Lord Chancellor). It is a somewhat curious state of affairs for a government and a party that prides itself on ending all forms of hereditary privilege (watch out peers of the realm) and is stridently against old boys’ networks, which is apparently one of the reasons behind the targeting of private schools. Such privileges are to be abhorred and opposed, except when it comes to the doings of the Labour party itself.
Dig a little deeper and these little connections are everywhere
Viewers of GB News were treated yesterday to an interview with Hamish Falconer, on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October attack on Israel. It was inevitable, however, that he would be quizzed over Sue Gray’s departure from No. 10 and her replacement by Morgan McSweeney as chief of staff. After all, it was headline news everywhere. Falconer dismissed the story, claiming there was no public interest in such matters and went on to insist that Labour’s first 100 days in office had been a complete ‘success’. I would venture that no one, not even his ultimate boss Keir Starmer, really thinks that.
Isabel Webster ended the interview by saying: ‘I would suggest that one of the first jobs that Morgan McSweeney does is choose a better candidate for the morning round because that was excruciating and I’ve interviewed a lot of politicians.’
She has a point. Falconer came across as wooden and uncertain, lacking both in gravitas and experience. What Falconer junior’s apparently irresistible rise highlights is how small the world of our new rulers actually is.
Everyone in Labour knows everybody else, they may be related through family, or maybe they are married or about to marry. Such interrelated networks and the conflicts of interest they potentially give rise to are deemed a problem in life everywhere else, but not, it seems, in the Labour party. It is almost as if Labour members are, by definition, above any and all reproach.
Dig a little deeper and these little connections are everywhere. Morgan McSweeney, the new Downing Street chief of staff, is married to Imogen Walker, the newly-elected Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley. Liam Conlon, who won the Beckenham and Penge seat for Labour in the election, is the son of Sue Gray. Richard Burgon is the nephew of Colin Burgon, a Labour MP from 1997-2010. Markus Campbell-Savours MP is the son of former Labour MP Dale Campbell-Savours. Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker and a former Labour MP, is the son of former Labour MP, Douglas Hoyle. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is the sister of Lewisham West MP, Ellie Reeves. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is married to Ed Balls, the former MP and minister. Then there’s Hilary Benn (son of Tony) and Stephen Kinnock (son of Neil). There’s Valerie Vaz, who is the sister of former MP, Keith. It is all part of being in the ever-expanding Labour family.
To be fair, this kind of thing is not confined to Labour. Plenty of Tories have relatives as former MPs, such as Bernard Jenkin (son of Patrick, who served as a minister under Margaret Thatcher) and Tom Tugendhat (whose uncle Christopher was an MP during the 1970s) – it is just that there are infinitely more on the Labour side of the house.
Who else but Labour people in the know, related to the movers and shakers, has a chance of getting on to the prized candidate short lists for the safest seats? Labour could teach Hollywood stars and celebrities a thing or two when it comes to ensuring that nepo babies do well in life. No one expects any better from the world of showbiz, but Labour? The party of equality and fairness is supposed to be better, no?
Hamish Falconer, privately educated, scion of a Labour peer, on the fast track to high office, reveals much about the new government which is against private schools, against privilege and on the side of ‘working people’. It is failing the smell test. The stench of entitlement is everywhere in the air.
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