Triangulating on Channel Crossings
From the moment he entered the leader's office Starmer has always been more comfortable making process as opposed to political criticisms. This is why he stuffed up Labour's response to the Coronavirus crisis right royally. But venturing into an area of traditional Tory strength - asylum seekers, immigration, and the barely concealed racist dog whistles these entail - to peddle more of the same was an opportunity too good to miss. And one that might, in the circumstances, play well. With the numbers of people crossing the Channel at around three times the level versus the same period last year, Starmer chose the Today programme to set out his stall.
Characteristically, his critique of Priti Patel was of the "get a grip" sort. As the Tory party's poster girl for spiteful authoritarianism, attacking her as being "too liberal" was an obvious non-starter. Likewise, a principled critique of the whole framing of the issue, as per promise number six of his leadership contest pledges, was off the agenda. We can't well have a Labour Party defending the wretched of the earth, after all. He said the deal the UK struck with France to stop Channel crossings was not good enough, contrasting Patel's performative toughness with the growing figures. He also attacked the Home Secretary following her remarks in the wake of the Liverpool suicide bombing in which she said the asylum rules were clearly not working. Starmer observed that as the Tories had been in power for 11 years, if the regs are "bust" then it's obvious whose fault it is.
And then the switcheroo. Avoiding a bidding war about turning dinghies back or finding cruel and unusual punishments for human traffickers, he said "You have got to do the work upstream otherwise you will never solve this problem." In normal speak, this is Starmer linking record crossings to Tory cuts in the foreign aid budget, monies that might be used to deal with some of the difficulties pushing migrants away from their homes. And just in case anyone missed the point, the "upstream problem" was mentioned twice more. Et voila, triangulation in action. Reproaching the Tories for not living up to their over-the-top rhetoric, but offering a fluffy and apparently non-racist solution that would sit easily with curious centre right voters and who Starmer imagines is Labour's bedrock support. And, more importantly, the columnists and hacks who market themselves as representative of these layers.
Having got wide coverage across broadcast news sites with feeble rebuttals from the Tories, Starmer will be satisfied with an intervention well done. It has also prompted more tough promises from Patel and Johnson giving responsibility to tackling migrant crossings to Stephen Barclay. In other words, an approach which means the status quo and more easy targets for Starmer in the future.
This is a reminder that anyone hoping for a left turn are going to be waiting a long time. Having determined that alienating the core support from the Corbyn years is something the party can still do and win (spoiler, it can't), what happened in Germany and the tentative turns toward Labour in the polls is the Starmerist road map to Number 10. Portray one as a competent administrator who, despite his party, leans right on "culture" and public spending, and the Tory voters will surely come. And those who are discontented? Former Labour supporters playing footsie with the Greens or new left parties will drift back to keep the Tories out. And while all this is going on, people are suffering and dying as they try to reach these shores: tens of thousands of tragedies that don't merit an acknowledgement as all these clever-clever games are played out.
Image Credit