The first twelve months of our glorious leader’s new Labour government can only be described as a car crash. Elected on July 4th 2025, with a majority of 174 seats, the Labour victory was supposed to herald a fresh start after 14 years of Conservative rule. According to Starmer, the adults were back in the room.
His new Chancellor Rachel Reeves stressed in interview after interview that there would not be any tax rises for ‘working people’. She presented her first budget in October 2024, where she introduced the largest tax rises at a budget since March 1993. Following on from this came the shameful withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment from pensioners and the introduction of inheritance tax on family farms.
In a 2021 interview with Stylist magazine, Reeves said she had spent a decade working as an economist at the Bank of England. The Times reported her actual role was “running a customer relations department dealing with complaints and mortgage retention”. This led to her being nicknamed “Rachel from accounts”.
Embarrassingly for Starmer, he has managed to acquire not one but three nicknames up to press: Free Gear Keir (after reportedly receiving £50k in shirts, suits and designer glasses from his gay ‘friend’ Lord Ali, Two-tier Keir (after the disparity in sentences given to White protesters after the Southport murders and everyone else), and now Mr Flip-flop after his third U-turn on policy this month.
The first flip was when he restored the Winter Fuel payment to pensioners from next winter; his second was on a full enquiry into the Pakistani rape gangs, and his latest U-turn was to drop the changes to PIP (Personal Independence Payments) for existing claimants set out in the government’s flagship welfare bill.
His desperation to halt the haemorrhaging of working-class votes to Farage’s Reform UK led Captain Calamity (sorry, another nickname!) to give a widely publicised speech in which he appeared to suggest he understood and empathised with voters fears over being swamped by mass immigration.
His “island of strangers” phrase drew immediate criticism from the left in his own party and for its similarity to parts of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood* speech, which was made on 20 April 1968. And now we have Starmer backtracking on the wording in his speech. In an interview with his biographer, Tom Baldwin, Starmer said, “I wouldn’t have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be, interpreted as an echo of Powell.
“I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn’t know either. But that particular phrase – no – it wasn’t right. I’ll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it.” Starmer was also quoted as saying he should have read through the speech properly and “held it up to the light a bit more”.
So the international human rights lawyer and former head of the Crown Prosecution Service admitted that the speech was written for him, that he was just reading from a script, and that he wasn’t aware that it mirrored something that was famously (or infamously, if you’re on the left) said by a controversial politician sixty years ago.
Having watched the video of his ‘Island of Strangers’ speech, one that he now informs us he deeply regrets, it is clear that Sir Keir is an actor. He reads the pre-prepared script as though he passionately believes in every word. He stares into the camera; he raises his voice at dramatic moments and pauses at others to emphasise that he shares your concerns. He spoke with confidence, authority and clarity. A leader galvanising and unifying a nation. No doubt his public speaking coach was pleased. Give him a pat on the back. The money was well spent.
For me, it felt lacklustre. His voice was monotone and unconvincing. He came across as a leader desperately trying to appear as something he is not. In his heart of hearts he must have known that he didn’t believe in what he was saying. After all, he had spent the last 11 months attacking anyone and anything ‘far-right’. Yet here he was parroting the concerns of those very same people he hates.
Responding to the interview, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the PM’s admission of regret at using the phrase was “absolute proof that Keir Starmer has no beliefs, no principles and just reads from a script”. Just like all of our current crop of politicians, he is willing to say anything to cling onto power.
*In that speech, Powell described a future in which Britons “found themselves made strangers in their own country”. It is widely known as the Rivers of Blood speech because of Powell’s reference to “the River Tiber foaming with much blood” when setting out his fears about immigration.
Credits:
Main Image: Stock image.
Video: YouTube.
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