Starmer's gesture politics on Palestine and why a vote for Corbyn's new party will put Nigel Farage in Downing Street
Keir Starmer is terrified Jeremy and his band of pro-Gaza MPs will hoover up the Muslim vote and cost Labour the next election.
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So in a jaw-dropping speech on Tuesday, he announced the UK will recognise an independent state of Palestine unless Israel signs up to a ceasefire and long-term peace process.
It was an astonishing change in position from Keir, who just days earlier dismissed the stance as gesture politics.
So what changed?
The grim facts on the ground in the Middle East remained the same.
Hamas is still refusing to release the Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 and held in cold, dank tunnels buried deep underneath Gaza.
They have been there for more than 660 days.
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu still shows no signs of being willing to accept a two-state solution.
And innocent civilians in Gaza are paying the price for Hamas' reign of terror.
Appalling images of starving children desperately queuing for food have haunted our TV screens and newspaper pages.
The only thing that has changed is the news Corbyn is launching a new party to challenge Labour.
No10 denies Keir is tearing up 75 years of foreign policy because he is running scared of Jezza.
Moved by appalling images of emaciated children, he is launching a last-ditch bid to get Netanyahu to re-engage with the peace process, they say.
But recognising the state of Palestine will not put food into the belly of a single hungry child in Gaza.
It will not release a single hostage snatched by Hamas as they slept in their beds or danced at a music festival.
And it will not bring the Middle East a single step closer to peace.
It is the very essence of gesture politics Keir Starmer claims to despise.
Biggest danger
There is no doubt the new Corbyn party poses a massive challenge for Keir.
They plan to target seats with big Muslim populations.
There are fears inside Labour that 'London could fall'.
Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner are being targeted.
Zarah Sultana — a former Labour MP who has switched to Corbyn's party — will run against Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood in Birmingham Ladywood.
The loss of all three of these Cabinet big beasts would be a catastrophe for Labour.
Sources close to Jeremy say the party could win around ten seats at the next election.
Others reckon the number could be higher — more like 20.
But the biggest danger to Labour is not the number of seats the party takes, but the number of votes.
Pollsters More In Common say the new party could get ten per cent of the vote, mainly from current Labour and Green supporters.
By nibbling at Labour's vote, Corbyn and his crew could hand Nigel Farage's Reform Party a seven-point lead — and a majority in Parliament.
So vote Jeremy, get Nigel Farage in No10.
Labour Party chiefs are expected to hammer this attack line on a Corbyn-led party.
Keir Starmer was also under huge pressure from his own party and base to recognise Palestine.
Over 100 Labour MPs had signed a letter demanding he do it.
A large chunk of the Cabinet had urged him to do the same.
But Keir has spent years painting himself as morally upright and principled standing loftily above the self-interest that motivates others.
Now the Prime Minister looks like he is recognising Palestine to save his own political skin.
As one party insider put it: 'Keir used to say country first, party second. Where does this decision leave that?'
How Ozzy helped Jacob to rock up on reality TV
AT first glance Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ozzy Osbourne do not have much in common.
One is a pinstripe-suit-wearing former Tory MP best known for his love of Brexit and devout Catholicism.
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The other was a heavy metal wildman famous for biting the head off a bat on stage and being so desperate for drugs he once snorted a line of ants off the roadside.
So it was a bit surprising to see the Moggster dedicate a whole section of his GB News show to tributes to the late, great Prince of Darkness.
But Jacob actually owes much of his success to Ozzy.
The Osbournes was the original family reality TV show – featuring Ozzy, wife Sharon and children Kelly and Jack.
Their lives were slightly bonkers, very loving – and made for intoxicating viewing.
Twenty years later, Jacob followed in Ozzy's footsteps with Meet The Rees-Moggs, a reality TV show about his equally eccentric and loving family.
Paying tribute to the Brummie rocker on telly, Mogg hailed him as 'a charismatic figure who had great charm and was at the top of his field'.
He added: 'We will pray for his soul.'
Judging by the rocker's hell-raising antics, I reckon that will take quite a few Hail Marys, Jacob.
CUT OFF PHONE THEFTS
STRICTLY dancer Michelle Tsiakkas has become the latest victim of mobile phone thieves to go public.
The ballroom dancer was walking through London's Covent Garden in June when a thug on an e-bike snatched her phone.
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When will this criminal scourge end?
As a Londoner, I'm appalled to see how muggers are terrorising the capital on their green e-bikes.
A phone is stolen in London every six minutes. That is a shameful statistic.
When victims call the police they are just fobbed off and told officers are too busy to investigate – even when the phone has a tracker on it.
Within days these mobiles are sold on by criminal gangs and end up around the world in places like China.
Enough is enough. Police must take a zero-tolerance approach to these phone snatchers.
I don't mind the rental e-bikes which have popped up all over the capital.
But they are too easy for thugs to fiddle so they can ride them without paying – and to carry out their muggings.
These businesses must step up and improve security.
And if London Mayor Sadiq Khan wants a legacy he should hurry up and clean up the streets of our capital.
Or his time in City Hall will go down in history as one of failure.
MENUS JABBED
HESTON BLUMENTHAL has revealed he is on the fat jab, and he's not the only one.
The celebrity chef says so many Brits are on Ozempic and Wegovy it risks wrecking the restaurant trade.
The days of charging diners through the nose for giant tasting menus might be over, he warns.
It costs £395 per person to tuck into the 11-course tasting menu at Blumenthal's own restaurant, The Fat Duck.
Looks like the fat jab will shrink Heston's bank balance as well as his waistline.
POPE'S BLACK MAGIC
Pope Leo XIV is said to have toasted St Patrick's Day this year with a pint of the black stuff.
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Perhaps the pontiff's love of Irish stout should come as no surprise.
He is a Yank after all – and they are known to be huge fans of the Irish tipple.
We were always big fans of Guinness in my family.
My grandad, Jim O'Sullivan (no awards for guessing where he came from), swore by the medicinal qualities of a pint of Guinness.
Whenever me or my brother were feeling sick when we were kids he would suggest taking a long glug of Guinness.
It is packed full of iron and would get our strength up, he said in his thick Cork accent.
It sounds like The Pope agrees.
Drinking Guinness is God for you!
The mega-rich Brits are said to be part of a consortium trying to take over the controversial porn site.
The property tycoons are considering pumping hundreds of millions of pounds in the project.
Well, no one ever became poor overestimating our interest in sex.
CHEAP AS LIPS
CLOBBERED by the cost-of-living crisis, us girls are turning to small treats like lipstick to give ourselves a little lift.
Britain's 'prestige lip market' has grown by 16 per cent in the past six months, according to the market research company Circana.
I never leave my flat without a full face of make-up.
But last time I bought a lippy it set me back £30, which isn't exactly cheap as chips.
Although I guess it's cheaper than a week in Marbella.
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