MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Starmer is not accountable for his personal celebration

When the Labour Party first entered government, just over a century ago, it had brakes. 

It had a substantial number of heavyweight figures who understood the need for basic economic and political responsibility. Its leaders were men of hard experience and knowledge who could be real premiers. 

Now those brakes have failed, and the quality of the leadership has sunk tragically. As The Mail on Sunday discloses today, Sir Keir Starmer is Leader in Name Only. And his party, which pushes him around, is unfit to govern. 

For fear of new Leftist rebellions, the Treasury, with the wounded Rachel Reeves at its helm, has overridden Sir Keir’s justified concerns about an oppressive and damaging new housing tax on middle-class achievers.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is also in trouble. She seeks to follow Denmark’s schemes to restrict mass immigration. But noisy backbenchers are attacking her plans before Ms Mahmood has properly drawn them up.

The culprit in both cases is Labour’s dogmatic, intolerant Left wing. 

Sir Keir Starmer is Leader in Name Only. And his party, which pushes him around, is unfit to govern

Labour at Westminster and in the country is now largely a party of post-1968 university radicals, a good deal closer in thinking to Jeremy Corbyn than it likes to admit.

A proper, tough-minded leadership might just control such MPs. But Sir Keir cannot. 

He became leader because he was credible as a possible prime minister, a successful professional with a record of serious work as Director of Public Prosecutions. He seemed to have exorcised the ghost of Mr Corbyn.

But after a year in government, his party has thrown off its election disguise of moderation. It has reverted to its basic instincts. And he cannot control it.