Kier Starmer is a man of few principles. He himself has confessed to tearing up his own pledges in order to make Labour electable. Is that because he believes that the Tories are truly harmful for Britain or is it more sinister, does he just want the seat of power for himself.

Starmer was elected on a left wing agenda, but as soon as he became Labour leader his slide to the right of politics began. He was quick to abandon polices such as scraping private schools charitable status, he back-peddled on his pledge to scrap tuition fees, he had promised economic justice by increasing taxes on the top five percent but decided that taxing the rich wasn’t in his best interest. In March last year, Labours shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves confirmed that the Labour pledge to nationalise public services would also be scrapped, with the exception of the railway. They also went back on their promise of freedom of movement between the UK and EU and most recently they ditched their flagship policy pledge to spend £28bn a year on green investment. When he was running for leadership in 2020 he tweeted his promise to “scrap the inhuman work capability assessments and private provision of disability assessments (e.g. Atos), scrap punitive sanctions, two-child limit and benefits cap”.  and yet in July 2023 he renegaded from this to, earning himself the nickname Sir Kids Starver.

Labour has disgraced itself domestically, allying themselves with the Conservatives on almost all their pledges. Starmer’s shuffle to the right has involved purging the party of its left wingers and any one critical of his policies. Most recently Kate Osamor was suspended from the Labour Party after tweeting:  “Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, the millions of other people murdered under Nazi persecution of other groups and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza.” Although she apologised, her suspension is in line with the current leaderships attempts to silence the more socialist elements of the current labour party. Others who have had the whip removed include: Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Andy McDonald. According to the Holocaust Memorial Day website: “Holocaust Memorial Day is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.” The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on Friday 26th of January accepted South Africa’s case against “israel” for the crime of genocide as being plausible. What that translates to is that it is a legitimate opinion to call “israel’s” current bombardment of Gaza a genocide, because the case was not dismissed. So in effect Kate Osamor has been suspended for adding Gaza to the list of countries that have suffered genocide, as deemed by the highest court on earth, as a potential genocide!

Kier Starmer, who ironically pledged to promote peace and human rights as one of his ten pledges, has been one of the biggest cheerleaders of the genocide against the Palestinians. Not only has Labour not provided any opposition to the Conservatives war mongering he has actively promoted the false sentiment pedalled by pro-colonialist, that “israel”, a settler colonial state, has a right to defend itself. The much invoked article 52 of the UN Charter states: “nothing in the charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations.” Whilst this is sited by Western nations as a defence, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has said “israel” cannot claim the right of ‘self-defence’ under international law because Gaza is a territory which it occupies. “Israel does not claim it has been threatened by another state. It has been threatened by an armed group within an occupied territory. It cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies, from a territory kept under belligerent occupation,” In fact, The United Nations General Assembly has expressly affirmed the right of Palestinians to resist Israeli military occupation. Palestinians have a recognized right under international law to resist Israeli occupation under Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions. This right is affirmed in the context of the right of self-determination of all peoples under foreign and colonial rule.

From the onset of this genocide, the Labour leader and many in his shadow cabinet have been supporting war crimes. When Kier was asked about the siege in Gaza, and the cutting off of power and water to a besieged population, he confirmed over and over, that he felt it was appropriate action even though this is a violation of the Geneva Convention, article 33. David Lammy, Emily Thornberry and Lisa Nandy also supported and reiterated their support for the genocide and the occupations war crimes. Starmer’s Labour party hasn’t pushed back on any of the initiatives the UK government has taken in their support of this genocide. Many of its cowardly MPs couldn’t even bring themselves to vote for a ceasefire. Lisa Nandy further embarrassed herself recently by supporting the Conservative governments suspension of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) funding. Again, this is tantamount to collective punishment on a population that is now almost certainly going to face famine.

Amongst the more problematic elements of Labour is its increasingly comfortable relationship with the lobby group Labour Friends of “israel”. It was set up in 1957, during a period where France, Britain and “israel” had invaded Egypt in order to gain control of the Sinai peninsula. Their main objective was to garner support for “israel” from the left in British politics. More recently they fund trips to “israel” for MPs in order to promote the settler colonial state. In the last decade the lobby group has funded over 60 trips to “israel” for Labour MPs and 13 out of 31 members of Labours shadow cabinet have accepted funding from pro-“israeli” lobby groups. These include Kier Starmer,  Angela Rayner, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting, Bridget Phillipson, Liz Kendall, and Steve Reed, all high profile members of the Shadow Cabinet. Some of the funding comes from people like Sir Trevor Chinn, a British multi-millionaire, who interestingly also funds the Conservative Friends of “israel” and has played a leading role in groups such as Britain “israel” Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish Leadership Council. This is a stark reminder for people who assume there is a difference between the Conservatives and Labour. The sad truth is that they are both funded through similar streams and they represent the interests of big business and those willing to pay for their opinions.

Kier Starmer has shown himself up on so may occasions. From claiming he’d never give an interview to The Sun newspaper during his election campaign, to writing for them some months later. He is a man of a hundred contradictions and one who seems to never be on the right side of anything. Not only is he momentously forgettable, he lacks charm and charisma. Whilst he was against the Iraq war in 2003, in 2023 he didn’t acknowledge the 20th anniversary of the illegal war, with commentators suggesting that this was due to his closer relationship with Tony Blair. Like his new bestie, Starmer has the blood of the 30,000 dead Palestinians on his hands (Conservative estimations put the number of Iraqi civilian deaths around 200,000). There is absolutely no valid reason for the British electorate to vote for Starmer or Labour. And its a misnomer to suggest that voting for Labour is a necessary evil keep the Conservatives out. The two party system has failed us as both parties have the same core values and principles and neither represents the socialist values Labour was founded on. The true power of the electorate lies in punishing MPs who don’t uphold their promises and pledges. Labour needs to know that we don’t support genocide and that all the above domestic policies that won Kier the leadership are still important to us, even though he has abandoned them.

This is the time for courage, to vote with your integrity and moral compass. If that means voting for an independent or just spoiling your ballot, than so be it. The two party system doesn’t represent the vast majority of people in this country and now is the perfect opportunity to fearlessly implement change. Its possible to deselect some of the war mongers above by supporting independent candidates. The more diverse voices we have representing us, the stronger our democracy will be.