4 hours Ago By Esther McVey
Jet-setting Keir Starmer, freshly back from Cop 29 in Azerbaijan and committing the UK to ruinous Net Zero targets, will be off again next week to another international summit, this time the G20 in Brazil. Without even a hint of irony, he flies around the world in corporate jets wearing designer suits and flashy specs, (at the expense of others), while committing us to carbon cutting measures that will impoverish everyone in the country, who are told to travel less, eat less meat, and – to meet this absurd target – see electricity usage rationed. So irrelevant is Cop in 2024 and so ludicrous its ever tighter targets that other world leaders swerved it.
President Biden wasn’t there, China’s Xi Jingping didn’t go, nor did India’s Prime Minister Modi, not even Germany’s Olaf Scholz or France’s Macron. Only summit hopper Starmer was there signing away our national interest, when we’re in fact responsible for less than 1 per cent of global emissions and have led the world in cutting carbon since 1990. The big carbon culprits – China, responsible for 30 per cent of global emissions and with no intention of hitting any carbon cutting targets –India and the US combined around 20 per cent, also have no interest in reducing their emissions and make no secret of it.
They’re laughing their socks off at Starmer who pointlessly signed us up to an 81 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2035? Does any -one else think that a strange number? Why not 80 per cent or 82 per cent? Despite being new to the job, a pattern is already emerging from Starmer as PM. He clearly prefers parading around on the world stage, feeling important, to doing the more difficult task of running the country. No doubt he gets an easier ride from world leaders than he does from voters at home after his serial manifesto betrayals of pensioners, university students, workers and farmers.
He is understandably keen on staying out of their way. Take next week when farmers across the country will be travelling to Westminster to lobby MPs and protest against Labour’s family farm tax – a new inheritance tax that will destroy many family farms and some -thing Labour promised not to do before the election. Starmer will be in Rio de Janeiro.
He’ll have been out of the country for one in every four days since September, and yet had the brass neck to make fun of Nigel Farage for the time he’s spent in the US since the general election. Starmer may enjoy his jaunts abroad, but it will not go down well with the voters. Has the PM learnt nothing from the election of Trump? Voters want a leader who will solve the many issues at home and focus on improving their living standards.
Starmer and his government continue to go from bad to worse and are sowing the seeds for their defeat at the next election. ■ Why on earth are police officers investigating non-crime hate incidents such as tweets? The clue’s in the name, “non-crime”. Police should be there to investigate crimes not meddle with PC non-crimes.
Last year only 5.7 per cent of crime offences resulted in a charge or summons in England and Wales, so surely Chief Constables and Police & Crime Commissioners need to focus on that rather than knocking on the door of award-winning journalist Allison Pearson on Remembrance Sunday to announce they were investigating her for a tweet that they wouldn’t even disclose! This brings the police into disrepute, and undermines confidence. Can officers investigate crimes please – surely not too much to ask.
■ Businesses feel stitched up by Labour’s budget. Despite pre-election promises of a new look party from the days when Corbyn was leader, they’ve been landed with a £25bn tax bill they can’t afford, along with extra regulations and far higher costs for employing people. And it’s not just businesses feeling let down – speak to pretty much anyone from pensioners to family farmers and they’ll all say the same thing; they feel betrayed.
Being screwed over was pretty evident to businesses from day one. Delegates at the Labour Party conference were charged £3k to be left in a corridor, and Starmer’s pledge he would chair five “mission delivery boards” including one on growth still haven’t happened. Instead Tesco are facing an annual £250 million bill rise for employers’ NI contributions, Sainsbury’s £140m, and Morrisons £75m.
Starmer rarely leaves his prints anywhere, so you can bet many ministers will carry the can for such unpopular policies; don’t be surprised if Rachel Reeves is one. Being the first female Chancellor won’t quite cut it if it means saving Starmer’s skin. Twitter @esthermcvey1 – Instagram @esthermcvey.
