Starmer is the Government’s cheerleader, not its opposition

Starmer has elected to be the Government’s cheerleader, dancing to the tune of ever more debilitating Coronavirus restrictions.

There has never been a better time in recent history for the Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition to be thankful that they are not serving as Prime Minister.

There have been plenty of national crises in living memory through which this position’s respective occupants have stood at the side-lines, excluded from the reigns of power. Margaret Thatcher watched as union strikes led the country into the ‘Winter of Discontent’ of 1978-79, as the Labour Government appeared to lose all control. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn observed the unfolding (and seemingly never-ending) Brexit saga until he resigned after a humiliating defeat in the 2019 General Election. Thatcher capitalised on the chaos to seize power in 1979 and, although Corbyn failed to follow in her footsteps forty years later, both nevertheless possessed a golden opportunity to simply stand across from the Prime Minister at the Dispatch Box and to point out the countless faults and short-comings of the ruling administration.

When uncertainty grips the nation, with millions of voters fearing disruption to their daily lives, the opposition can swoop in like vultures to tear the government apart – in a civil manner, of course. Sir Keir Starmer has perhaps the greatest chance to rally the opposition towards a feeding frenzy by alerting the nation to the countless policies cooked up in an atmosphere of hysteria, recklessly deployed by the Conservative government since March.

With unnecessarily severe Covid restrictions imprisoning the economy within a strait jacket, the government has single-handily plunged the economy into a recession which will likely prove to be more damaging than the financial crisis which began in 2008.

Leading the party that claims to represent the working class, Starmer should already have jotted down that around five million people could lose their jobs – and recessions hurt those already on low incomes the most. An estimated twenty-five million GP appointments have been cancelled already as many won’t see a doctor for fear of catching Covid, a disease that is potentially much less severe than the aliment they may already have. (It has been reported that nearly one million women have missed breast cancer screenings.)

Delays in the diagnoses and treatment of cancers (a number extending into the thousands according to the charity Cancer Research) will unfortunately lead to many cases becoming inoperable. There is a strong chance that this will kill more than the virus, a flu-like illness with a ninety-nine per cent survival rate.

The policy of Starmer’s Labour party should be to relax lockdown restrictions, giving the economy the room it needs to breathe, whilst revitalising the health sector, and allowing patients to be admitted.

Sensible measures to protect the vulnerable must be taken, but a reversal of the draconian measures crippling our civil liberties must be a key priority. This would make Starmer’s party literally ‘the opposition’, as the Government is still panicking, imposing more reckless and unnecessary restrictions on our daily lives, not less.

But Starmer has not done this. Instead, he has demanded that a two-to-three week ‘circuit-breaker’ (newspeak for ‘another lockdown’) must be introduced to stem a rise in Covid deaths.

The Prime Minister has lost control of the virus – the fabled second wave is here – you must lock yourself away once more, says Starmer. The Government’s recently established ‘tier-system’ has placed many Northern areas in ‘tier-2’ which has gifted the Labour Party an invaluable opportunity to win back their recently lost heartlands. Instead, rather than standing strong as the opposition, Starmer has elected to be the Government’s cheerleader, dancing to the tune of ever more debilitating Coronavirus restrictions.