Keir Starmer is a lawyer not a leader, a career bureaucrat who is much happier reading briefing documents than he is making decisions.
We see it all the time. For instance, at PMQs this week I repeatedly challenged the PM on the government’s crazy decision not to drill our own oil and gas in the North Sea.
I’m not alone in calling for this. The trade unions, Tony Blair, even RenewableUK have said Britain needs to start exploiting our own natural resources.
We are importing almost half of all the oil and gas we use from Norway, who are getting that oil and gas out of the very same North Sea that Labour refuse to drill in!
The pipelines are built, the companies are ready to go. The Conservatives believe we should be creating thousands of new jobs, bringing in vital tax revenues and strengthening our energy security.
Instead, the government have said no new drilling licences and are planning to use the taxes they take from working people to fund an energy bailout for Benefits Street.
Yet when I told Keir Starmer this was insanity, our Prime Minister hid behind Ed Miliband.
Every time I demanded he approve the licences, Starmer responded by telling me he couldn’t do anything and it was a decision for the Energy Secretary.
There are many things I didn’t expect when I became Leader of the Opposition, but having to remind the Prime Minister that he’s the one in charge would be somewhere near the top!
Starmer can’t lead, because he doesn’t know what he thinks.
Advisers and civil servants who serve alongside Starmer in 10 Downing Street have said the same.
One reportedly described the PM as “oddly passive.”
Another said he’s “the least intellectually curious person I have ever met… he has no fixed views on anything.”
At a time when the country needs leadership, we have a vacuum. This is why the government keeps making so many terrible mistakes.
When Starmer was presented with a plan to snatch away the winter fuel allowance from some of Britain’s most needy pensioners, our passive PM waved it through.
That winter, millions of OAPs had to choose between heating and eating… until the pressure from Conservatives built and the PM belatedly u-turned.
And it keeps happening – an inquiry into grooming gangs, the Family Farm Tax, VAT on pubs. U-turn after u-turn, because the man in No10 doesn’t know what he wants.
This pattern of behaviour is doing even more damage on the global stage.
This week, the United Nations held a vote on Britain paying trillions in reparations to Africa for the historic crime of slavery.
Britain led the world in the fight to abolish slavery. We fought to end this foul trade.
Yet, when Russia, China and Iran led countries in the UN to put British taxpayers on the hook for historic compensation, Keir Starmer’s government abstained!
Our Prime Minister just doesn’t love our country like I, and I know Sun readers, do.
We’re proud of our nation and we want to see it succeed. It’s not the same with Starmer, he hides behind international law and weakens Britain in the process.
That’s why this Labour government is currently in the process of handing over British sovereign territory in the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and paying £35 billion for the privilege.
The Chagos Islands are home to 10,000 Chagossians, most of whom want to remain under the protection of Britain, and the critical Diego Garcia UK-US military base, which has been used in the Iran conflict.
Starmer could stop this stupidity, but like always, he’s not getting involved. Instead, he’s left it up to the Attorney General Richard Hermer, who cares more about international law than national security, so the UK is now paying to surrender territory we already own.
If there’s one thing we know this Prime Minister does like, it’s not getting his hands dirty.
When presented with clear, unambiguous evidence that Peter Mandelson had continued his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Starmer handed the decision on appointing him as ambassador to his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney.
It seems Starmer didn’t even call Mandelson before giving him the job!
It’s a pattern of behaviour. A Prime Minister who hides away when the going gets tough. Who dithers when a decision needs to be made.
His first response to being put under pressure is “ask someone else” – Miliband, Hermer, McSweeney.
Of course, after events of the last week have shown – the PM can’t call McSweeney.
Britain needs strong leadership backed by clear plans and firm principles.
That is what I am offering under a Conservative government. A stronger economy and a stronger country.
