THE BIG READ: Starmer is in huge trouble - the double standards of "Two-Tier Keir" are plain for all to see

This Prime Minister can’t prevent the division of British society on sectarian lines because he is at the heart of an establishment whose beliefs are causing it.

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

WHEN Keir Starmer gave a press conference last week in response to the riots that broke out after the Southport murders, he name-checked a couple of specific abominations.

“These people are showing our country exactly who they are,” he said. At the protest in London, he noted, there had been: “Flares thrown at the statue of Winston Churchill. A Nazi salute at the Cenotaph.”

Despite the possibility of such appalling acts having been committed by just a couple of people and of most of those gathered having merely wished to peacefully demonstrate their disgust about the murder of children, Starmer singled out this gathering as typifying a malignant Far Right tendency that had to be smashed by the authorities.

Clearly there was violence at the Westminster gathering. Newspapers reported that at least two police officers had been injured during the protest in Whitehall. Missiles were thrown at police lines. It was a bad scene.

Since then and especially over the weekend the level of violence has escalated horrifically and now a dangerous new element has been thrown into the mix – vigilante gangs of young Muslim men seeking to confront the protesters.

My own view is that anyone attending a protest that turns violent has a duty to peacefully leave the scene. Just congregating close to people behaving violently is not a passive act: it makes the job of the authorities seeking to contain that violence more difficult and dangerous.

So people who came along simply to chant their anger about the laxity of border controls, abuse of the asylum system or anything else and then stayed to witness a relatively small number of people engaging in violence while moving among them were not behaving responsibly.

Yet, as I noted on my Twitter/X feed straight after the Starmer statement last week: “Strong message from PM on stopping ‘Far Right’ violence post Southport. Nothing much seemed to be said about recent violence from other sources eg in Harehills, Manch Airport, Whitechapel. Govt would be wise to beware of a perception of a two-tier response emerging, incl among people who are in no sense ‘Far Right’.”

Since then this idea of “Two-tier Keir” has grown inexorably. A smarter prime minister, such as Tony Blair, would have sought to assure the public that legitimate concerns and sources of anger would be dealt with, while offering no quarter to law-breakers. That would have bound in the mainstream of the British public and drained latent sympathy for hotheads. Instead, Starmer left the impression that just to be profoundly angry about uncontrolled immigration, Islamic extremism, minorities refusing to integrate or even knife attacks on innocent youngsters constituted a Far Right mindset.

Now I don’t mind a bit of RoboCop messaging from the authorities, though I would have taken it more seriously from this PM had he not recently announced plans to step up the early release of criminals, including potentially violent ones, from prison.

Like many of you, I also note that when violent protestors and anti-police messaging comes from minority communities there seems to be a soothing element to the official response under this Government. For instance, after Harehills there was a meeting between Labour-run Leeds City Council and representatives of the Roma community which had been at the heart of the rioting. The council promised an urgent review into the child protection case that sparked the disturbances and issued the following emollient statement: “The Romanian and Roma community have played a fantastic role in the community and have contributed so much to the diversity and richness of Harehills.” Clearly then their violent actions were not deemed to have been “showing our country exactly who they are”, as Starmer said of the post-Southport rioters.

And after the Manchester Airport attack on police, the local Labour MP Paul Waugh met with the Muslim family involved which at the time was being presented as much more sinned against than sinning. “It is clear they are deeply traumatised by what happened…This is a hardworking Rochdale family, some of whose members are police officers themselves, and are therefore particularly shocked at what they have witnessed,” he said. Further CCTV footage which emerged soon after left those words ringing pretty hollow.

Yet the biggest double standard at work here is not from a Labour-run council or a new backbench MP, but from Starmer. Because evidence emerged over the weekend that is breath-taking in its exposure of hypocrisy on the part of the PM himself.