With the Labour freebies scandal Starmer has wasted his opportunity to restore faith in politics

I’m not a fan of Keir Starmer, so you’ll forgive me for a little bit of schadenfreude at the scandal that he has found himself in. I’m mainly feeling smug because this is one blow to the Labour Party that cannot be blamed on the left. It happened because Starmer likes free gifts - who doesn’t? – but, apparently, he didn’t anticipate that voters would object to this.

Most people’s jobs come with travel paid for to attend meetings or a free lunch at Christmas - although lots of people earning less than MPs don’t even get these freebies - but Arsenal, Coldplay and Taylor Swift tickets are not the perks of a normal job. They also show that Starmer has terrible taste.

Wasting a once in a generation chance

The sad problem with all of this is it just further alienates voters. We’ve had years of Tory incompetence and corruption, and Starmer promised a fresh start. He had a once in a generation chance to wipe away people’s cynicism about politics by working hard to improve people’s lives. Y’know, the thing he said he would do.

Instead, he’s burned all his goodwill for free football tickets and clothes for his wife. This will make it so much easier for whichever right-wing nutter the Tories choose as their leader to convince voters that all politicians are the same, so they might as well vote for the corrupt toff who will shoot boats of migrants crossing the channel as that will at least make Cynical Chris from Nuneaton feel tough while he’s been ripped off.

Playing politics on easy mode

It’s often said that the Tories play politics on easy mode. That a right-leaning press and the general small C conservative sympathies of swing voters across the country mean that they can fuck up or announce ridiculous things without the same level of scrutiny that ruins the careers of even moderate Labour politicians.

Starmer has been playing politics on easy mode since Boris Johnson detonated his own premiership and everyone decided that they had had enough of the buffoons in blue. Playing on easy mode is what has allowed him to go back on every commitment he made to become Labour leader and face no consequences. This appears to have led to complacency about how all these freebies will be received by Daily Mail readers in Workington, i.e. the people whose opinions matter.

What did these gifts buy?

Starmer has received £107,145 worth of gifts, benefits, and hospitality since the 2019 general election. It’s worth pointing out that Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn received very little, so this isn’t something that every leader of the Labour Party indulges in.

Look at that figure for a second. That is a staggering amount of money. It’s nearly three times what I get paid in a year for my very regular boring office job. It’s certainly way out of the reach of most people, so I can see why everyone is very angry.

Obviously, gifts of this size don’t come without strings attached or at least an audience with the giver. People are right to want to know what form of access or influence these gifts bought. Especially for a new government that has been less than clear about the difficult decisions it will have to make.

The shortest-lived huge majority in history

Starmer can’t keep being complacent and acting as if he’s playing politics on easy mode. The Tories will soon have a new leader, willing to take the fight to the incumbents who aren’t solving all the problems without the need for any sacrifices from anyone. At that point things will get much tougher for Starmer.

If Starmer wants to hang on to his massive majority, then he needs to start acting like everything he does will be used against him. Or else this will be the shortest-lived huge majority in history.