I am starting to think that Keir Starmer might have been in it for himself. In saying that, I am not trying to echo that laziest of all critiques of politicians that ‘they’re only in it for the money’. Good luck to anyone trying to make money from politics in Britain these days. Rather, I mean that the former prime minister’s decision to leave the House of Commons and trigger a by-election is not the behaviour of a patriot.
There were many people in the legal world who were nervous when the former director of public prosecutions decided to put his name forward as a Labour candidate for parliament. DPPs are meant to be politically impartial, like BBC presenters. But the fact that a DPP might turn out to be a Labour supporter was about as surprising as ‘impartial’ BBC journalists leaving the BBC and then starting very left-wing and lazy podcasts. In both cases the transition does not surprise the public but it does sow even greater suspicion of the supposed political neutrality of our institutions.
Being a representative of the people in parliament ought to be regarded as a high honour
Like so many others, Starmer was clearly after the top job or nothing. Despite the usual pabulum, it never seemed likely that he would want simply to serve his constituents and make useful interventions on legal subjects. For some reason, like so many other men of little talent, he imagined he was ‘the man’. Though who or what persuaded him of that, only Starmer, God and perhaps Mrs Starmer can know.
