Keir Starmer: the global right’s new menace

Fox News, right-wing influencers, vice presidents JD Vance and Elon Musk, and others have all decided that Keir Starmer’s government is the bogeyman they need and want – and parts of the UK media are happy to join in, too. The recent zenith of such articles comes from The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole, and his piece “Americans kept asking me ‘What the hell is going on in Britain?’ – we need to be very worried by the answer”. 

Cole’s piece described a recent US trip, when American after American asked him what was happening in the UK with apparent crackdowns on freedom, spiralling crime, riots, and more. Other US media commentators have suggested there is an ongoing Islamic takeover under way in Britain, involving no-go areas, a radical left coup by Keir Starmer, or any number of dangers. 

The “Britain has fallen” narrative has definitely taken hold, and become a favourite of the transatlantic right-wing alliance. There is just one problem: as Theresa May might have put it, (almost) nothing has changed in Britain since the Tories were in charge last year.

Crime rates are, so far, on the same trend they were at the end of the previous government. The UK’s economic growth is in line with most of Europe’s. Evidence from tax receipts suggest that the supposed “brain drain” of high-skilled workers is no more of a problem now than in the aftermath of Brexit.

Despite the relentless headlines suggesting that the former human rights lawyer Keir Starmer is personally leading a crusade against right-wing free speech, he hasn’t passed any new laws in that direction. Conservative newspapers might have failed to notice that the previous administration passed some extremely dubious laws on free speech and protest (other papers did not), but they have certainly noticed now that Labour is in charge.

But Starmer is hardly trying to provoke the Tories’ illiberal instincts on that front. He has even suggested that he might be willing to water down some provisions of the Online Safety Act – or at least, he has not ruled out that possibility – if it helps secure a US trade deal and to avoid the worst impacts of tariffs.

The reality is that Britain, at the moment, doesn’t really stand out in any notable way on the world stage. It is no longer the outcast in Europe, partly because the most immediate irritation of the Brexit process has passed, partly because everyone wants deeper security agreements, but partly because everyone has bigger fish to fry. 

But Starmer is barely deviating from the Tory policy of sticking with Brexit, but “making it work”, whatever that means. On economic policy, Starmer and Rachel Reeves seem determined to stick to the Treasury plans of Rishi Sunak’s government. They plan to introduce spending cuts across many government departments, and reject calling it “austerity”, even though that’s what it is. Starmer might have cancelled the Rwanda plan, but he is trying to increase both the number and speed of deportations. Right-wingers are having to work extremely hard to find any hints of a radical left-wing agenda here.

Starmer is even sticking to the Tory playbook when it comes to his team’s more personal failings. His biggest personal “scandal” to date was over accepting free clothes from a donor, and tickets and freebies to events – with several Cabinet ministers doing the same. This was certainly aggravating to voters, but nothing like the scandals of the Johnson era. 

On appointments, Keir Starmer was surely both idiotic and hubristic to appoint his friend Tulip Siddiq to an anti-corruption role when she and her family were under investigation in Bangladesh (she denies all wrongdoing). But then, badly thought-through appointments of the PM’s mates are hardly anything new either.

Everyone needs a good target, and US right-wing media in particular needs anything to talk about except Trump. As a result, they’re trying to shape Keir Starmer into the kind of hate figure they need – but in reality, he’s a poor fit for the role. 

If Starmer has any honest claim to political accomplishment so far, it’s that he’s Making Britain Boring Again. It’s not what his supporters want, and likely would not be nearly enough to secure his re-election. It’s certainly not what his detractors want us to picture, either. But so far, that’s the prime minister we’ve got.