It seems these days that the blessed Starmer can do no wrong. Cruising in the polls, fêted by his party, the Labour leader has become the toast of the media with election victory now seeming assured. But is Sir Keir all that he appears? The Labour leader opted to lead on the allegations against Gavin Williamson at PMQs yesterday, calling him a ‘sad middle manager’ and a ‘cartoon bully.’ It came hours after Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell told BBC Breakfast:
I think the issue here is how you deal with it as a leader. Whenever there’s even an allegation in the Labour party, that MP in question loses the Labour whip. Keir takes those issues incredibly seriously. He acts very, very quickly.
Losing the whip at the mere allegation of bullying? It’s a jolly good thing then that Jeremy Corbyn – who still remains a Labour member – decided not to put in a complaint of bullying against party golden boy Wes Streeting after he was overheard in parliament describing his onetime leader as ‘senile.’ Not a great look for the Shadow Health Secretary, eh?
Steerpike notes Sir Keir’s comments with interest and eagerly awaits the outcome of Labour’s long-running investigation into the claims against John Bercow. In March the former Speaker of the House of Commons was labelled a ‘serial bully’ by an independent inquiry, prompting multiple institutions to distance themselves. But Bercow only remains administratively suspended by the party until the outcome of its own probe, which has now lasted more than eight months.
So much for Labour acting ‘very, very quickly’ on allegations of bullying.
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