It may be winter but Sir Keir is already sporting flip flops. The Labour leader’s appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s show this morning was the best advert for voting Tory seen in recent months, with Starmer unable to give basic answers to simple questions. Having broken most of the ten pledges on which he was elected – and which are still listed on his website – he refused four times to say whether he still stands by his pledge to abolish tuition fees. ‘When I was running for leader I made pledges which reflected my values,’ he sighed ‘since then, we’re now three years on, a lot has changed’. By that logic, Starmer’s current policy platform, er, doesn’t actually reflect his values?
Such vacillation was on show again when Kuenssberg pressed Starmer on the tricky topic of trans rights. Sir Keir has appeared to hold a veritable smorgasbord of views on the issue in recent years. In 2020 he claimed that ‘the Labour party stands proudly with the trans community’; in 2021 that ‘we are committed to updating the GRA [Gender Recognition Act] to introduce self-declaration for trans people.’ In 2022 however, he said that women must not be dismissed as bigoted for concerns about the impact of self-identification politicians on female-only spaces and insisted on a parental veto for under-18s seeking gender reassignment services.
Such a stance is somewhat at odds though with his party’s position north of the border. Starmer said that he has ‘concerns’ about the gender reform recognition bill recently passed by the Scottish parliament – a bill which Scottish Labour, including leader Anas Sarwar, supported. The legislation will allow 16 and 17 year olds to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate but Starmer says he doesn’t back under-18s changing gender. He also did not rule out supporting Rishi Sunak’s government, should it invoke Section 35 of the Scotland Act to block the bill from getting royal assent. Asked if his Scottish comrades were wrong to support the bill, Starmer meekly replied:
Well that was a matter for Scottish Labour. I’m telling you what the position is in relation to the whole Labour Party.
Predictably, such comments have triggered a backlash in Scotland. The nationalists are gleeful, with much talk of Sarwar’s ‘branch office,’ while Scottish Labour are fuming at Starmer’s lack of support. LGBT+ Labour Scotland say they are ‘deeply disappointed’ by his comments, adding that it is ‘outrageous that the UK government would seek to shatter the devolution settlement… whatever you think of the Gender Reform Recognition, this attack on democracy should be opposed by Labour.’ At least one Labour MSP has already begun briefing the media, hinting at ‘significant consequences’ if Starmer backs Sunak in blocking the bill.
Talk about terf war eh?
Comments