Even with large sections of his Labour Party in open revolt over his disgraceful positions on the ongoing Israeli slaughter in Gaza and despite his open and flagrant abandonment of almost all the positions he took to lie his way to the leadership, craven ruling class tool Keir Starmer still felt it was simply not enough.
He apparently had not yet made it as clear as he needed to just how entirely and utterly he is a fawning apparatchik of the British ruling class and a stalwart supporter of the vicious and cruel ideology of extreme austerity backed by British capital and its bought and paid for media handmaidens. Austerity so cruel and vicious that a UNICEF report released on December 6 shows that the number of children living in poverty in the UK has increased by an appalling 20% since 2014.
Now Starmer has not only praised Margaret Thatcher but has come out and explicitly stated that a Labour government would continue with Tory austerity policies that have gutted British public services and created widespread misery.
On Sunday, December 3, Starmer, among other nausea inducing rubbish, wrote in the establishment rag Sunday Telegraph that: “Every moment of meaningful change in modern British politics begins with the realisation that politics must act in service of the British people, rather than dictating to them. Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism.”
Even some of his own MPs were not having it with lan Byrne of Liverpool West Derby noting on X that "Inequality, hunger, destitution & misery. That’s the real legacy left by Thatcher."
And despite Starmer no doubt seeing his move as an electorally clever one, Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Humza Yousaf quickly tweeted: “Starmer praising Thatcher is an insult to those communities in Scotland, and across the UK, who still bear the scars of her disastrous policies,” in response. The SNP is a key competitor of Labour for Scotland's abundance of left-wing voters.
The day after praising Thatcher -- wasting no time seizing the austerity initiative -- Starmer told the Resolution Foundation's conference that "anyone expecting a Labour government "to quickly turn on the spending taps" would be disappointed." He then went on to say years of Conservative rule would "will constrain what a future Labour government can do "and that a Starmer government would be "ruthless when it comes to spending every pound wisely".
In other words, when it comes to economic policy Labour will represent continuity and not a break from the Conservative playbook of despair and immiseration. As UK paper Morning Star noted, speaking to the same conference, Conservative Chancellor Jeremy Hunt went on to say basically the same things as Starmer.
Morning Star also reported that:
Labour tax expert Richard Murphy attacked “the crass stupidity that is Labour’s fiscal rule — that will guarantee austerity and failing public services in the UK — is on display here.
“Starmer clearly thinks that the illusionary goal of balancing the budget is more important than the provision of public services.
“A Labour government led by Keir Starmer will be a disaster for this country.”
The Scottish National Party accused Sir Keir of promoting a “Thatcherite future” based on austerity.
And Lydia Prieg, of the New Economics Foundation, said: “Starmer is kidding himself if he believes he can maintain current living standards, let alone improve them, without more government spending and investment.”
In his utterly amoral and debased campaign to become the next Tony Blair, Starmer is showing there are simply no right wing, neo-Thatcherite depths to which he will not stoop.