‘L
abour and the Tories: two cheeks of the same backside.” That’s how SNP activists used to portray the Labour Party, aka the red Tories, back in the days of New Labour and Better Together.
It sounded faintly ridiculous during the era of Tory austerity, and then Brexit, when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader. But suddenly the idea that Starmer is a closet Conservative is not looking quite so daft any more as the Labour leader promises to stick to Tory tax and public spending policies and tells us he “hates tree-huggers”.
For the avoidance of doubt, continuing with Rishi Sunak’s fiscal discipline means no significant increase in cash for the NHS — the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, won’t even talk about it —
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