Starmer the Tory

I'm constantly amused by comments on Facebook maintaining that Keir Starmer is a Tory. These comments come from Corbyn supporters on the left of the Labour Party - those who are predominantly of the Momentum persuasion, fanatical Corbynists and who cannot accept that Jeremy is anything less than a Messiah having the only chance of producing a Labour government. They sound like Trump supporters who can't accept that their Dear Leader has lost.

I keep asking these commentators which Labour policy they have a problem with and have yet to receive a response. This is where the accusations fail, as Starmer doesn't have his own policies and can only work within the framework of party policy, which is democratically agreed at Conference while he is leader of the opposition. Only if in power as PM can a Labour leader assert some influence on party policy.

I believe the accusations against Starmer emanate from those who simply can't accept that someone can come from a working class background, rise through their own efforts to the middle class and still believe in social justice. They forget that Marx was solidly middle class, Lenin's father rose from a serf background to become a very minor aristocrat (in number, Russian aristocrats are like fleas on a dog), Trotsky was from wealthy farming stock and Engels' family were rich mill owners. What united all these characters was that they were intellectuals and not simply agitators. Intellectuals are key in any successful, popular, revolutionary movement.

Momentum adherents have forgotten the legacy of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency in the 70s and 80s, which was decades of unelectability. While Britain has dabbled with fascism in the past, anything that smacks of Marxism is anathema to a British electorate fed on a diet of Cold War spy novels and James Bond films. This is the reason Clause IV (the common ownership of the means of production...) was dramatically changed under Tony Blair - the old Clause IV was pure communism and not for nothing was it known as 'the longest suicide note in history'.

So, when Momentum members accuse Starmer of being a Tory, what they actually mean is that he's to the right of Leon Trotsky, not that he's anywhere near the end of the political spectrum that contains a certain straw-haired buffoon and the cast of the Keystone Cops. 

As an aside, you rarely hear mention of the Tory, backbench, 1922 Committee without the words 'the influential' tacked on the front. I always refer to it now as 'The Influential 1922 Committee'.