Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive. Sir Walter Scott coined that couplet, but some will consider it very appropriate for Sir Keir Starmer.
In opposition, he portrayed himself as the holier-than-thou scourge of Tory venality and avarice. How hollow that rings now.
The embattled Prime Minister faces serious questions over his voracious appetite for freebies from friends in high places and taxpayer-funded expenses.
Why, after it emerged he had recorded a hypocritical work-from-home message from Labour donor Lord Alli’s £18 million luxury penthouse during Covid, did he say his visit was a ‘one-off’? We know it wasn’t.
Why didn’t he declare this perk to the parliamentary authorities (he also failed to declare Lord Alli’s donation of clothes for Lady Starmer)? Was this a mere oversight – or an attempt to conceal the gift?
In opposition, Sir Keir Starmer portrayed himself as the holier-than-thou scourge of Tory venality and avarice. How hollow that rings now
Labour peer Lord Alli (pictured) paid for thousands of pounds of suits and spectacles for the Prime Minister among more than £500,000 in donations to Labour
And was it really necessary, when Director of Public Prosecutions, to rack up three times more in travel expenses than his successor? Despite his denunciations of others, he himself looks disreputable.
It is revealing that Sir Keir will not apologise or admit doing anything wrong. Everything, he says, was ‘within the rules’.
To him, everything is about procedure – the classic barrister’s mindset. But as PM, shouldn’t moral considerations come first?
Time for diplomacy
The human reaction to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah must be horror at the suffering of the innocent. Too many have been killed, injured or displaced.
Some instinctively condemn the Jewish state for unleashing its hugely sophisticated arsenal – even in the most targeted way – against the Lebanese-based terror group.
But what if Britain found itself in Israel’s position, under relentless – and unprovoked – bombardment from rockets fired by a militia committed to our annihilation?
Would it then seem so outrageous for our government to use every means to end the attacks on our towns and villages?
If diplomacy fails, the Middle East could tip into all-out war. Smoke is seen over the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Siddiqin yesterday
While the UN warns ‘hell is breaking loose’, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing for a possible ground invasion against Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy.
If diplomacy fails, the Middle East could tip into all-out war. Britain has now joined calls for a 21-day ceasefire to allow talks, plus a suspension of hostilities in Gaza.
It is vital that any truce is honoured by all sides – and not simply used by Hezbollah and Hamas to re-group and re-arm.
Cost of class war
As A former Bank of England employee, Rachel Reeves casts herself as the competent and experienced politician who can rebuild Britain’s finances.
But will the Chancellor learn the hard way the pitfalls of Labour’s populist tax plans?
Treasury officials fear a crackdown on non-doms could persuade the super-rich to flee the country with their fortunes. That would reduce, not increase, the tax take.
Meanwhile, so many private school children could be driven into state education because of the vindictive tax on fees that it would also cost the UK money.
And the Government’s plan for ever more punitive windfall taxes on oil and gas firms is forecast to decimate jobs and investment. Talk about economic illiteracy.
But as ever, the politics of envy blinds the Left to the potentially disastrous consequences of their actions.
Yes, Britain’s tax system needs urgent reform – but class-war policies that actually lose the Exchequer money help nobody.
