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“As the Starmer project repelled paying members and alienated minority communities, the flipside was Labour's renewed openness to lobbyists and big business. After all, someone has to pay the bills. From 2022, onward, lobbying firms assiduously hired party insiders with the aim of influencing Labour policy - and with the hope that doors would open once a Labour Government was elected. This was accompanied by an influx of monetary donations as well as gifts from the super-rich donor class and other private interests. Starmer personally accepted tens of thousands of pounds in luxury holidays, clothing, and other freebies in the years following the Covid pandemic. All of this raised serious questions about how, and for whose benefit, Labour policy is now made.”

Big BusinessPublic PolicyLobbyistsLabour Party UkFreebiesSir Keir StarmerCorporate CaptureLuxury HolidaysPublic Policy DevelopmentPublic Policy Formulation
Book:The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy
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“Admittedly navigating the tough terrain of a lopsided Tory majority, Covid lockdowns, and a vaccine rollout that massively boosted support for the Tories, Starmer nevertheless cut a tetchy and shallow figure. His lauded 'forensic' approach to the parliamentary jousting of Prime Minister's Questions never materialised; instead and in spite of the government's mishandling of the pandemic that led Britain to the highest death toll in Europe, Starmer frequently found himself congratulating Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party on their leadership. His erratic complaints and oppositional stances were inconsistent and largely seen as opportunistic.; he was quickly slapped with the nickname, 'Captain Hindsight'.”

Covid 19House Of CommonsPandemic QuotesLockdown QuotesSir Keir Starmer
Book:The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy
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“When McSweeney presented Starmer with his slides describing the composition of the party, he identified 5 percent of the membership as unreconstructed Blairites: the types to defend the Iraq War and the legacy of Blairite neoliberalism. This was, most likely, the same rough 4.5 percent who had voted for arch-Blairite Liz Kendall in the 2015 leadership campaign that McSweeney had directed. What many failed to realise at the time was that the Labour Together Project, and the Starmer Project that would succeeed it, reprented just this marginal 5 percent of the party. If the Labour Together Project operated in secret and crafted a misleading leadership pitch that was unceremoniously dumped upon victory, this modus operandi arguably reflected a clear-eyed understanding that this faction's beliefs, ideologies and political language were deepy unpopular with the Labour members it needed to win over. Implementing this deceptive strategy required a candidate like Starmer; a man who felt no compunction about posturing as a radical during the campaign and then dropping the act once in power.”

Iraq WarNeoliberalismTony BlairLabour Party UkSir Keir StarmerLiz KendallMorgan Mcsweeney
Book:The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy
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