QUENTIN LETTS: Pop! Mount Kemi blew her top like Etna ... vulcanologists in Geneva may have picked up a blip on their seismographs
Who could blame her? Sir Keir Starmer has become idly, sarcastically evasive. On his weekly trip to the Commons – how little this tiresome place merits a statesman of his hair-gelled importance – he has swapped tight dialectic for ironic vituperation.
Who does he think he is? A sketch writer?
Mrs Badenoch had opened with short questions about the winter fuel allowance and the two-child benefit cap. The latter could be fruitful territory for Conservatives now that Nigel Farage has switched to supporting high benefits. Sir Keir, in response to Mrs Badenoch, puckered his superior lips. He said she was struggling to 'catch up' with political events.
He leaned an elbow on the despatch box and twisted his neck, throwing his witticism towards his backbenchers so that they can savour its cleverness. He then resumed his seat with a satisfied moue and examined his notes for the next precooked slander.
Smoke started to seep from Mt Kemi's vents and fumaroles. Vulcanologists in Geneva may have picked up a blip on their seismographs. Warning rumbles rent the early-summer afternoon. Mind you, they may have come from Pamela Nash (Lab, Motherwell). 'Wee' Pammy, gaunt behind the PM, was looking peckish.
Sir Keir absorbed the usual bellows of support from his backbenches. He luxuriated in his pomp. Never, in all those years of grey opposition, did he imagine how dang sexy all this power would make him feel. The liberation of having to tell the truth! Now prime minister, he can tell as many fibs as he wishes, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop him.
He claimed that the economy was doing splendidly under Labour. Ha! He insisted he was much gripped by child poverty. As for the two-child benefit cap, well, the Conservatives were pro-Russia.
That last one was a bit of a leap. Mrs Badenoch looked perplexed. Tories said 'eh?' Hansard twitched. Speaker Hoyle, who had a rugby league magazine beside him on his chair, wondered if he had just drifted off for a minute and missed a few connecting sentences.
Sir Keir was referring to some allegedly dreadful remark Mrs Badenoch made about Ukraine. It did not seem particularly dreadful to much of the House when Sir Keir elaborated on it at greater length. Yet Sir Keir's acolytes reacted to this unsensational remark with theatrical astonishment. David Lammy might just have been mooned by Priti Patel. Lucy Powell, dimwit Leader of the Commons, sucked her lower deck of teeth.
This was when Mt Kemi blew. She sauntered back to the despatch box and exploded at Sir Keir's pettiness. Magma and ash flew everywhere as she denounced the 'chaos, chaos, chaos' of the Starmer government. A press-gallery colleague afterwards felt Mrs Badenoch made herself look silly. But I rather liked it. Her anger was extempore, eloquent and it showed us some character under her usual self-control. It won a moo of approval from the Tory benches, depleted as they are these days.
Sir Keir was equally half-hearted and derisive – anything to change the subject and jeer – in his answers to the SNP's Brendan O'Hara, who asked about Gaza. Reform's Sara Pochin asked if, like some countries, we should ban the burqa. Sir Keir answered that with a jocular insult about Liz Truss.
The other event of the day was a speech by Rachel Reeves at a bus factory in Rochdale, Lancs. Workers stood behind her as political stage-dressing but this backfired worse than an old charabanc. The workers found Ms Reeves unscintillating. A chap in a blue sweatshirt struggled to keep his eyes open. Another, grey-topped, rubbed his stubble, sighed, eased his neck, scratched his head, flared his nostrils, did a tunnel stare, ground his jaw, and laughed at a mate. Ms Reeves, for her part, spoke of her 'friscal famework'.
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The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
Starmer must take a strong line with Trump to relieve the suffering in Gaza
The phrase 'walking a diplomatic tightrope' is overused by the media, but it is an accurate description of Sir Keir Starmer's task when he meets Donald Trump on Monday for talks at the US president's Turnberry golf course in Scotland. According to Downing Street sources, the prime minister will discuss what more can be done to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, to 'bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza', and to hasten the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. Sir Keir is under growing pressure from Labour backbenchers, and several members of his cabinet, to go further by joining France's Emmanuel Macron in formally recognising Palestinian statehood. But if the prime minister did so, it would weaken his hand with Mr Trump, the only foreign leader with meaningful influence over Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. So Gaza poses a big test for Sir Keir's quietly effective strategy of not challenging or criticising the US president in public. We have to take it on trust that he will argue strongly behind closed doors for the US to restart the peace talks it led in Qatar before it pulled out, blaming Hamas for the lack of progress. Indeed, President Trump should revive plans for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages, and – crucially – an increase in aid supplies, which are desperately needed to prevent more deaths from starvation. Such an approach by Sir Keir will not be enough for the 221 MPs, including a third of Labour backbenchers, who have signed a letter calling for the immediate recognition of Palestine. Or, indeed, for much of the British public. It is not surprising, given the harrowing pictures of emaciated children in TV news bulletins, that opinion in the UK is turning against Israel, which rightly enjoyed the goodwill of many after the horrific 7 October attacks. According to More in Common, 29 per cent of people now sympathise more with the Palestinians – up by 11 percentage points since November 2023 – while 27 per cent sympathise with neither side, 16 per cent with both sides equally, and 15 per cent with Israel. Some 48 per cent believe Israel's response to the conflict has been disproportionate, and only 28 per cent think it proportionate. Amid mounting outrage, Israel has announced a limited 'tactical pause' in its military operation in three areas of Gaza to allow in more humanitarian relief. The easing of restrictions is welcome, if long overdue, but it must be more than a cynical temporary move. It is no substitute for a ceasefire leading to negotiations on a long-term peace settlement. Nor will the airdrops planned by the UK and Jordan be more than a sticking plaster; they are ineffective compared with relief delivered by lorries, and sometimes even dangerous. Sir Keir's reluctance to recognise Palestine may prove to have been a holding line. If countries such as Germany, Canada and Australia change their minds and back France, he may shift. The SNP plans to force a vote on the issue when the Commons returns from its summer recess in September, which would expose Labour divisions. That month, the Labour conference will be problematic for its leader if he doesn't change tack, while the UN general assembly will discuss France's move. Yet for now, The Independent believes the prime minister is right to maximise his influence with President Trump, and to keep the recognition of Palestine as a card to play in talks on a permanent peace that must include a two-state solution to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Recognising Palestine now would not in itself change the terrible conditions on the ground in Gaza, as Bob Geldof, the Live Aid organiser, told Sky News on Sunday. He said it should have been done 'ages ago', but that the demands of Labour MPs amount to a distraction that 'is not going to make any material difference'. Sir Keir's quiet diplomacy is a better response to the crisis in Gaza than the tone-deafness of Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader. Interviewed on Sky, she backed calls for a ceasefire but said: 'What I see when I see Israel is a country that's trying to defend itself.' She declared that the pictures of starving children had not affected her support for Israel, insisting that it is allowing in relief supplies – a view that is hotly disputed by the United Nations and aid agencies. So far, Sir Keir has confounded critics who warned that he would not be able to have it both ways and maintain good relations with the US and the EU. He has secured trade deals with both. The emergency in Gaza now poses a big test for the prime minister's strong record on foreign affairs in the past year, which regrettably has not been matched on the domestic front. Sir Keir's understandable desire to hug Mr Trump close should not lead him to pull his punches over the gruesome tragedy unfolding in Gaza.
The Guardian
12 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Starmer faces task of persuading Trump to take different path on Gaza crisis
Moments after Air Force One touched down at Prestwick on Friday, for a trip in which politics will take as big a billing as golf, Donald Trump was asked about his relationship with Keir Starmer. 'I like your prime minister. He's slightly more liberal than I am, as you've probably heard. But he's a good man,' the US president told reporters. At a time when the UK wants Trump's ear on numerous weighty issues, his response to questions about the 'special relationship' will have given Downing Street some reassurance. But it has been hard won. Starmer has been clear since before Trump's re-election that he would work with him if it was in Britain's national interest. There have been uncomfortable moments, but so far his decision to align himself with the US president has broadly paid off. Most notable was the economic deal agreed by the two leaders which slashes some of Trump's tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, and which – even though it is not yet fully implemented – the UK government hopes will be a first step towards a closer trading relationship. Starmer, along with other western allies, has also helped encourage Trump to shift his position on Ukraine. After initially siding with Vladimir Putin and appearing to blame Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the invasion, the US president now declares himself 'very unhappy' with his Russian counterpart. The prime minister now faces his toughest diplomatic task of all: trying to persuade Trump to take a different path on the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. Even getting the issue on the agenda will not have been straightforward, with the White House not regarding Gaza as a priority. Trump is the only international leader whom the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, listens to – and even then, not all of the time – so getting the US president's ear at this precise moment is an opportunity not to be squandered. With international fury over the situation on the ground in Gaza growing, Starmer has also been under pressure domestically – from his cabinet, Labour MPs and increasingly the public – to take further action against Israel. Government advisers are defensive – citing what the UK has already done to hold Israel to account since Labour came to power – and promising further action will follow, even if it is not clear what that might constitute. They point to the UK restoring funding to the UN agency Unrwa, sanctioning far-right Israeli ministers and those who committed settler violence, breaking off trade negotiations with Israel, backing the legitimacy of the international criminal court and restricting arms licences to Israel (though not preventing them entirely). Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The initial urgency is around humanitarian aid, with mass starvation spreading across Gaza, and Starmer will be hoping to persuade Trump that the situation on the ground will only worsen unless the Israelis fully lift their blockade of almost all aid into the territory. The longer-term prize, however, would be a ceasefire. Starmer will press Trump to revive ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiation teams from Qatar last week. Getting them back round the table to agree a 60-day break from fighting is a prerequisite to a more permanent cessation of violence. The window of opportunity is narrow: the Israeli parliament is not sitting until October, which gives Netanyahu the cover he would need to agree a deal. But Starmer knows Trump is the only international figure who can put pressure on him to do so. Only at that point does Starmer feel the UK could follow France and formally recognise a Palestine state. No 10 insiders insist it is a 'matter of when, not if' and David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will be at a UN conference this week to establish a pathway to formal recognition. To the deep frustration of many in his party, the prime minister last week rejected a call to follow France in recognising Palestine amid concerns the move would be largely symbolic without a ceasefire in place, and that issue could overshadow the talks with Trump. But that means that even more rides on Monday's meeting with the US president. It will be a test of whether the energy put into maintaining a good relationship with Trump has been worth it. And it will also show how far Starmer really is prepared to push to help bring an end to the catastrophe in Gaza.
The Sun
12 minutes ago
- The Sun
Huge blaze breaks out at factory with 100 firefighters raced to scene & thick plumes of smoke billowing through sky
OVER 100 firefighters are tackling a massive blaze that has engulfed a factory in Birmingham. Witnesses reported spotting huge plumes of smoke billowing from the four factory units on Great Bridge Street in Great Bridge at around 10.40am today. West Midlands Fire Service sent 15 crews to the scene and members of the public have been told to avoid the area. There have been no reported casualties but 'several' homes were evacuated. A West Midlands Fire Service spokesperson said: "We have 15 crews in attendance at Great Bridge Street, Great Bridge, where they have responded to a Factory Fire. "Please avoid the area, where possible."
