By Ruth Dudley Edwards
The big anniversary of his appointment will be this Saturday, and if he has any sense he鈥檒l be kicking a football somewhere private with his mates. Reports suggests doing this is his only escape from the cares of office. I鈥檝e looked at or listened to innumerable appraisals in newspapers and on the radio, and from the far left to the far right, no one had anything positive to say about his performance. Even those who used to defend what he did abroad are drowned out by the evidence of his uselessness as a negotiator on such issues as the future of the Chagos islands, co-operation with France over the small boats and the ceding of fishing rights to the European Union. All seemed to involve caving in. The judgement I found most memorable came from the Daily Telegraph鈥檚 Annabel Denham, who described what she called an 鈥渆xcruciating scene鈥 less than a month after Starmer became prime minister. Standing at a police cordon in Southport, where three children had been murdered and six others and two adults badly injured in a mass stabbing at a yoga and dance workshop, with wild rumours circulating, he placed his floral tribute among the hundreds already there and had nothing to say when he was heckled from the crowd with 鈥淗ow many more children?鈥 This, said Denham, 鈥渃rystallised in many minds the sense that Starmer was the wrong leader at the wrong time鈥. Unlike the surefooted Tony Blair whose response in PR terms was faultless after the death of Princess Diana, 鈥淪tarmer would not 鈥 could not 鈥 rise to the occasion. Try as he might, the words wouldn鈥檛 come鈥. Denham ran through so many other such crises: 鈥淒onorgate, Rosie Duffield, the riots and Lucy Connolly, Sue Gray, the Budget, Louise Haigh, Tulip Siddiq, Israel, the Winter Fuel Allowance U-turn, the trans women U-turn, the 鈥榠sland of strangers鈥 U-turn, the assisted dying absence鈥 somehow the words never flow. Ill at ease, repetitious, robotic 鈥 and increasingly tetchy.鈥 And now after the benefits debacle, he faces a party that unites only in their contempt for him. The contrast I most remember is with Margaret Thatcher emerging from the wreckage of the Grand Hotel after the IRA Brighton bomb to announce that the Conservative party conference would proceed as planned. She delivered a fluent speech of absolute defiance of terrorism. Like them or loathe them, both Thatcher and Blair were leaders. They understood their job involved being on top of a range of briefs and responding flexibly to the unexpected. Starmer just can’t multi-task. He is a lawyer in every atom of his being. He responds to every crisis by looking for rules and precedents to guide him. And he is incapable of forming any kind of relationship with the rank and file of his party. Apart from the useless idiot Lord Stermer KC, his Attorney General, who is equally hopeless in politics, his closest colleagues despair at his apparent lack of an inner core of belief in anything except international law. Labour is useless at getting rid of leaders, but Angela Rayner, his deputy, is licking her lips.鈥 鈥 鈥 Ruth Dudley Edwards is the author of 鈥楾he Faithful Tribe: an intimate portrait of the loyal institutions鈥 and ‘Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing and the Families鈥 Pursuit of Justice.鈥欌 Ruth鈥檚 website is www.ruthdudleyedwards.com, Twitter is @RuthDE, Facebook is Ruth Dudley Edwards