“Small-Minded” “A Liar” “Spiteful” “Who?” - Starmer’s Constituents Have Their Say…

“Labour’s leader thinks he can get away with supporting genocide in Gaza. Time to teach him a lesson in his own backyard. His politics are mendacious, unprincipled and in the interests of billionaire donors rather than the constituents he was elected to serve”

Those are the words of just one constituent, Andrew Feinstein, who has come to despise Keir Starmer to the extent that, after a long period of thought and local persuasion, he agreed to stand against him.

But it seems the Dear Leader – variously dubbed Keir Jong Un or Keith Stalin by many – is less than popular among his own constituents. Constituents who live next door to the seat of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

While Corbyn was and is hugely popular with locals, who have chosen him as their MP for over 40 years, Starmer, despite the massive PR campaign desperately trying to portray him as ‘a normal guy’, is…well…the kindest thing the majority have to say is they don’t actually hate him. Well, some of them…

The quotes in the headline aren’t mine – they come from people in Starmer’s constituency, who saw him shoehorned in as their MP after Frank Dobson stepped down in 2015.

Let’s not forget, apart from his being dropped into a safe seat in 2015, this will be the first General Election Starmer has faced where he, rather than Corbyn’s Labour, will be voted on. Will ‘he’s not Sunak’ be enough – especially in his own constituency?

(The same, incidentally, applies to Wes Streeting…)

YouGov was only able to find 1 person in 100 who said they planned to vote for Starmer’s ‘Labour’ because of ‘Keir Starmer’s leadership’ - only 5 in 100 even said it was because they ‘liked the policies’.

The same 1 in 100 said they were voting ‘for economic stability’, despite Starmer and Reeves’ banging on for ages about being ‘fiscally responsible’. The 1% figure also applied to ‘they care about ordinary people’, ‘they will tackle the cost of living crisis’ and ‘better funding for public services’.

And ‘I don’t trust Rishi Sunak’.

The voting public simply doesn’t believe a word Starmer says – that 1 person in 100 must have been centrist millionaire ‘Sir’ Tony Robinson, who’s delighted he might pay less tax under his ‘Labour’ chums. Liked him better as Baldrick, to be honest…

But 48%, almost half, said they planned to vote simply ‘to get rid of the Tories’. They’re voting against the Sunak shower – not for Starmer’s ‘Labour’ or anything he stands for.

Assuming there is anything Starmer stands for, apart from genocide, flags, and of course mega-donors who 'absolutely don’t want anything in return for lavishing him with freebies and oodles of cash'...

Starmer could become the most disliked party leader ever to win a general election, entering Number Ten to the echoing collective ‘meh’ of almost universal indifference.

But will Starmer even retain his own seat? In an ideal world, of course, Andrew Feinstein would win a landslide victory in Holborn and St Pancras – but it’s a big ask.

It wasn’t by chance that Starmer was shepherded into a safe seat, and a large number of voters simply put their X against ‘Labour’ without any thought.

Locally, the ‘ordinary bloke’ is pretty comprehensively disliked, when residents even get chance to see their elected representative, that is.

“My experience is that he’s pretty inaccessible” said Diane, a constituent,

“He was approached in a pub in Kentish Town – he didn’t engage and was escorted out of the pub by his wife and Special Branch”

(What normal person takes Special Branch when they go to the pub?)

Joe Glackin, founder of Streets Kitchen, a grassroots organisation which helps the homeless, organised a meeting last year after Camden Council evicted at least a dozen homeless people and took away their tents – including harsh questions for Georgia Gould; then leader of the council - now the NEC-imposed ‘Labour’ candidate for Queens Park & Maida Vale.

Mr Glackin said that in the 10 years Streets Kitchen had been operating in Camden, they have never heard from or been visited by the local MP, Keir Starmer – who seemingly has ‘more important’ things to focus on than desperate people sleeping rough a few streets away from his home…

Apropos of course of nothing whatsoever, here’s a photo of Jeremy Corbyn celebrating Xmas Day last year as a Streets Kitchen volunteer, and of him with Mr Glackin (right) at the opening of SK’s Solidarity hub in February 2022.

Gaza has loomed large in the minds of millions since Israel began its attack on October 7th, and Starmer’s apparent refusal to condemn or even criticise the ongoing slaughter has turned many constituents against him:

“Sir Keir remains a Friend of Israel” said a former Chair of Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party, “At what point do you tell your friend that their behaviour is unacceptable? What kind of friend are you, if you say nothing?”

The written approach fared no better:

“I haven’t received one response from him – I even sent a question to his LBC show and again got no reply” said John McGrath,

“Frank Dobson, even when he was a Cabinet Minister, found the time to reply and help his constituents”

“With Sir Keir, you’re lucky if you get a response at all, and if you do it’s never a personal one or crafted towards your correspondence with him; 99.9% of the time it comes from one of his staff”

Constituents don’t care for Starmer’s policies, either – such as they are.

“Sir Keir’s agenda is not only timid but deeply conservative” said one, “He’s happy to rig shortlists, impose candidates, suspend and expel socialists; but he’s never going to defend a policy that offends the lobby attached to Rupert Murdoch, the Daily Mail, Express or Telegraph”

“To say he’s a toxic disappointment is an understatement of ironic proportions – even those of us who expected nothing from Sir Keir have been sold short”

Suffice it to say that come tomorrow, if Starmer keeps his seat and Labour wins the election, there will be little or no ‘honeymoon period’. The public doesn’t like him, they just hate him a bit less than Sunak.

The ‘Labour’ government that Starmer has been increasingly calling ‘his’ over the last year will actually have to deliver on its manifesto promises.

Those of us who have been members of the Labour Party during his staged, scripted and co-ordinated rise have already had the unpleasant experience of watching him renege on each and every promise he has made to get where he wanted.

The people of the UK have it to come.

The excellent Not The Andrew Marr Show puts it very succinctly, with the help of a vox pop - 'Do You Trust Starmer To Govern For The Next Five Years?'. Turns out we don't...