David Lammy finally gets one thing right – and humiliates Keir Starmer | Personal Finance | Finance
This is a man who can’t even book a taxi without it turning into an international incident. A former foreign minister whose undiplomatic response to a faulty cash machine was to curse the “fucking French”. As justice minister, he presides over our disastrous prison system, where prisoners come and go as they please, and has been called a “coward” by his own ministers.
Calamity Lammy commits career suicide every time she appears in public. Last week he walked into Parliament without a poppy in his hand and then lectured us on the importance of Remembrance Sunday. On top of all this, he hid his shame by taking a poppy from a real veteran. He also presided over what have been called the worst PMQs in living memory, raining abuse across the room, arms waving, fingers jabbing.
But even a stuck clock is right twice a day, and Mr Calamity has shocked Westminster by saying something that is actually true.
And in doing so, he caused further humiliation to his boss, Keir Starmer.
This is risky, considering the Prime Minister is the only person in the country who thinks Lammy deserves to keep his job.
Lammy privately warned Starmer to rein in his endless foreign trips. He said that the Prime Minister’s constant flying abroad distracted him from the crises in the country.
Starmer ignored it. He had his fortieth foreign celebration since entering Downing Street last week and flew to Brazil for the COP30 summit.
He has logged more air miles than any Prime Minister this century and has been labeled the ‘Never Here Keir’. Incredibly, it is expected to fly another half-dozen times before Christmas.
Starmer is flying high as Britain descends into chaos. Anything to avoid the voters or their own rebellious backbenchers.
Lammy was right to call him out. But only half true. Starmer did such a poor job while in the UK that he might as well stay abroad permanently. Voters may choose this. Labor would certainly do that.
Even when in the country, Starmer keeps his distance. Lawmakers rarely see him. He looks directly at the lesser souls in his own back row. This leaves him short of friends when things go wrong, as they have so many times.
The Prime Minister will not last long. Local elections next May could sink Labor with a blow. But this will not be the last humiliation.
A reasonable observer would assume that Lammy’s career would end with Starmer’s.
But given Labour’s dire state today, MPs and activists may well convince themselves that Lammy should be Britain’s next Prime Minister. And this humiliates each of us.
