Gilded Dishonour

Ben Wildsmith

Keir Starmer’s resignation from the House of Commons on Tuesday was reported as a surprise. Much about it, however, is emblematic of the concerns that characterised his brief and eventful political career.

By resigning on the day Andy Burnham was to address Parliament as Prime Minister for the first time, Starmer betrayed the brittle petulance that pokes through his public persona when the pressure comes on.

Sold to us as a steady, concerned professional, the former PM was given to abrupt U-turns, peevish relations with colleagues, and vindictive actions towards adversaries.

This is the man, remember, who wasted £2.4 million of Labour Party funds pursuing failed claims against whistleblowers. The decision to rain on Burnham’s parade, then, is in character.

If Starmer’s managerial style eventually alienated nearly all within the Labour Party, it was only part of what turned the public against him.

The political basis of his premiership rested on the assumption that Labour needed to win back voters who had migrated to Reform UK. His initiatives in this endeavour betrayed him as a man without an authentic identity.

We had the ‘working-class’ millionaire lawyer and Knight of the Realm, the ‘patriotic’ defender of sovereignty who had pinned up Union flags where his EU ensigns used to be, the North London liberal who began channelling Enoch Powell on an ‘island of strangers’, the human rights champion who criminalised dissent and whose instincts led him mistakenly, we’re told, to endorse Israel cutting off power and water for Gaza. He was everything and nothing.

On the left, we are keen to ascribe blame for the rise of the populist right. Tech companies and Russia are the usual candidates, and there is much to support that.

If Trump, Farage, Meloni, Le Pen and the rest are the ugly flowers grown by Putin, Musk, and Thiel, however, the soil from which they sprang was prepared by a generation of politicians that seem to operate beyond the reach of accountability.

The first decade of this century saw millions killed as a result of the Iraq War, the rise of Isis, the end of meaningful manufacturing industries across much of the west, and a criminal financial crisis that permanently devalued our economies.

Subsequent austerity ensured that the cost of all that is borne by ordinary people. Still, though, we observe Tony Blair, for instance, gliding through the highest echelons of diplomacy – still relevant, further enriched, and beyond reproach.

So, the widespread assumption that Keir Starmer is readying himself for a significant international job is as predictable as it is depressing.

Would it surprise you at all if a man best bracketed with failures like Ramsay MacDonald and Liz Truss were to become the Secretary General of NATO? Of course it wouldn’t.

He may have lost the British public but in the stratosphere where such positions are distributed, he did a bang-up job of defanging the Labour Party and maintaining the status quo for those who benefit from it.

We have seen, this week, what awaits Andy Burnham if he attempts a change of course. The suggestion of boycotting businesses in the occupied West Bank has been met with a fury in Israel that reveals much about its relationship with the UK. Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, posted a series of tweets concerning the Falkland Islands.

בריטניה מעולם לא השתמשה, ומעולם לא תשתמש בווטו שלה במועצת הביטחון למען ישראל. בריטניה כוח שוקע , מוצפת במהגרים מוסלמים, ועל סף מלחמת אזרחים. היא לא מדינה חשובה מאז סיום מלחמת העולם השנייה. בריטניה כרגע מדינה עוינת וארגנטינה מדינה אוהדת. אם בעתיד זה ישתנה ברור גם שעמדתי תשנה. לא…

— Yair Netanyahu🇮🇱 (@YairNetanyahu) August 30, 2026

In doing so, he’s managed to enrage a section of the British right that has previously been unquestioningly supportive of Israel, unaware, as most are, of that nation’s role in arming Argentina during the 1982 war.

Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, subsequently warned of unspecified ‘tools’ that Israel will use against the UK should measures against illegal settlements go ahead.

Refreshing

Domestically, Burnham’s parliamentary address was refreshing in its recognition of neoliberalism as the root cause of our ills.

Characterising the theft of common resources like water as a function of efficiency has been the principal task of Prime Ministers from Margaret Thatcher onwards, so to hear one call it out was an event in itself. What happened next, however, signalled what awaits anyone who tries to do something about it.

Bond dealers immediately started dumping UK stock, causing yields to rise above the level of that resulting from Liz Truss’s notorious mini budget in 2023. By Wednesday, Burnham was obliged to restate his commitment to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules, effectively precluding any fundamental change in economic policy until after an election.

The public turned against Keir Starmer because they recognised an empty suit. Abroad he seemed to be acting for interests that didn’t align with our values, whilst at home he was content to preside over an economic system that has hollowed out our communities beyond the point where people feel any ownership over the shells that are left.

Contradictory platitudes

It is the same across Europe and, increasingly, the USA. If Andy Burnham cannot find a way to confront international capital and demand that British people be afforded lifestyles commensurate with their nation’s collective wealth, he will be left mouthing the same contradictory platitudes that the electorate recognised so easily on Starmer’s lips.

If he cannot articulate the need to suffer temporary turmoil in pursuit of long-term stability and self-determination, you can be sure that false, dishonest solutions offered by Farage and whoever succeeds him will continue to poison our politics into a toxic stalemate.

Taking on vested interests comes great personal cost. There are rarely prestigious international positions as a reward, far more frequently accolades for it come posthumously.

Burnham’s fine intentions on Israel and privatisation will lead him, eventually, to a definitive choice. Keir Starmer’s likely ascent to gilded dishonour is one path, the other would be much harder.

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