Starmer: the most conservative Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell

Labour commentators hope Starmer is a closet leftist, the Tories agree. They're both wrong

Gaitskell fights, fights and fight again.

The Labour-supporting commentariat have been desperate to detect something left wing about Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. Oh it’s much more left than Tony Blair, says the New Statesman’s Rafael Behr optimistically. “Believe” said the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, who will no doubt be the first to attack the next Labour government for failing to tax the rich. She has insisted that there’s a raft of left wing policies lurking in the leader’s address which only the chosen elect can actually see, as through a glass darkly.

Well, they are wrong. There is no occult subtext to Keir Starmer: what you see is what you get. He is the most conservative Labour leader since James Callaghan and has remade Labour in the image of Hugh Gaitskell, who moved the party firmly into the pro-business “consensus” with the Tories in the 1950s. You’ll hear precious little talk of socialism from Keir Starmer who delivered a pitch perfect Conservative speech to the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Let me explain.