Kier's for tiers

​Over sixty Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) have now expressed in one form or another their discontent with dear leader Sir Keir Starmer—mainly because of his authoritarian stance on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report on anti-Semitism in the party and the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn. But the discontent is spreading to other issues, not without justification. Yesterday’s vote in the Commons on the Tories’ latest anti-Covid measures (the new ‘tier’ system) saw Labour MPs sitting on their hands again, whipped to abstain. This left Tory rebels leading the opposition debate, but unable to defeat the government. If Labour had been so concerned about the government’s legislation, why didn’t they strike a deal with the Tory rebels and find a way of satisfying both side’s critiques? Labour might have won some concessions. No, following Starmer’s new line in ‘opposition’ (abstain, abstain, abstain) we were left with nothing to show for it—except another Johnson victory. Perhaps the question could be asked of Starmer ‘what did you do in the war, daddy?’ Somebody needs to tell him that being leader of the opposition doesn’t just mean fighting members of the Labour Party.