“It’s All About Labour Party Politics” | Keir Starmer Recognises Palestine State

This government didn't see fit to have this conversation in Parliament. They didn't see fit to have this conversation in the public space. I don't even remember seeing anybody going on TV to make the case as to why we need to recognise Palestine. It's a pretty desperate move, isn't it, by Starmer? It certainly is very desperate, and it's all about Labour Party politics, of course. It's all about shoring up his left. He knows that he deceived, this is Starmer, he deceived the Labour left into giving him the leadership. Four years ago, he said, I'm going to be continuity Corbyn, you can trust me. I'm just going to be like Jeremy Corbyn, only a better politician. And it was all, I'm afraid, deceiving. And now, with the left going against him and talking about a leadership challenge, he's doing something which will, he hopes, give him a bit more time with his own party. It's all about Labour politics and nothing about the international situation. No, exactly right. Because, again, you know, well, let me play you this clip from David Lammy attempting to explain why this actually happened. And I think this tells you all you need to know about the logic behind the decision. You want to recognise an independent state, but you're telling that independent state who its leaders should be. I think we used to call that a colony. No. One, let us not confuse the Palestinian people with Hamas. The question is, who's in government? Are you saying that you will not recognise the Palestinian state if Hamas is part of government? Or are you saying it doesn't matter who's in government? You will recognise them come what may? Trevor, your viewers know that we are some significant distance from two states. Yes, and he doesn't seem to know why asking for a two-state solution is something that nobody's actually asking for in the Middle East. Well, this is it. I mean, the way I look at it, Mike, is this going to bring peace any closer? Is this going to help the situation in Gaza? It isn't. It's just fostering by the Labour Party. And most importantly, is this going to embolden Hamas? I think it will. They're already declaring victory. They're already saying, look what Kia Starmer's done. Look what the British Prime Minister has done. It's a victory for us. Is that going to free up hostages? It's going to do the opposite. It's going to embolden Hamas. I actually think this is a fairly disgraceful decision by... I agree with you. No, I think it's absolutely shocking. And judging by the reaction from my audience this morning, they're equally disgusted by what's been going on and how this has come about. Because as I say, there's been no conversation in Parliament. There's been no debate. There's been no kind of, you know, attempt to try and explain why this has been done. And nobody believes a word of this idea that it brings them closer to a peaceful solution. We're now moving further away from one of our closest allies in the world, in Israel, which has all sorts of security implications, I think. Yeah, and there's a quote coming out from Hamas yesterday. This is the fruits of October the 7th. In other words, this is the reward we are getting from Britain and Canada and Australia for what we did on October the 7th. In other words, they're going to be emboldened. They're going to say, the more we play hardball here, the more we'll get recognition from weak Prime Ministers like Keir Starmer. Yeah, it is absolutely shocking. One thing we can look forward to coming up shortly this weekend, I suppose, is the Lib Dem conference, which is going on. Ed Davey appeared on Sky News answering some quickfire questions. Check this out. Sarah Davey, quickfire round here. Coffee or tea? Tea in the mornings, coffee in the afternoons. Dogs or cats? Cats and dogs. I love them both. Fish and chips or pizza? Fish and chips. Jet skiing or hobby horse jumping? Jet skis. What do you usually grab for lunch? Normally it's a bit of soup and maybe a salami. Favourite novel? I've just read There Are Rivers In The Sky, which is fantastic. Favourite song? Of course, it's Sweet Caroline. Trump or Musk? Neither. Any phobias? Don't like Donald Trump, don't like Elon Musk. I see. Well, that doesn't make me... It doesn't get my vote, I'm afraid. No, I mean, it's a pretty tricky situation to be in with those quickfire questions. You suddenly think you're going to say something stupid, something's going to come back naughty. Well, he always says something stupid. That's the great thing about Ed Davey. It reminds me a bit of Gordon Brown having to check with his advisors what he should say if he was asked what his favourite biscuit was, in case he's pretending silly. But yeah, it's not great for the Lib Dem leader, that little quickfire round, is it? No, it really isn't. And I suppose the story that will be of most interest, certainly to the people listening and watching this show, is Nigel Farage on the front page of The Telegraph saying that he's going to kick out hundreds of thousands of people, the Boris wave, 3.8 million people who came here in the wake of us leaving Brexit. They moved to the UK under more relaxed rules, thanks to Boris Johnson, and they're all still here. Yeah, they are. And this just shows that Farage has absolutely hit a nerve with everything he's saying about both legal and illegal immigration. And it's the former, it's the legal immigration that, of course, is actually by far the bigger issue. 750,000 people coming in here every year legally, and he's saying we've got to get on top of this. The illegal migration across the Channel, of course, gets the headlines, but it's the illegal migration, people coming here with visas, students then getting a visa to stay on in the UK, that is actually the far bigger issue. And I think Farage is right to tackle this. He's just got to be careful he doesn't throw out the baby with the bathwater and penalise a lot of people who have made a contribution to this country, who've been here for years and decades, having the right to remain. Those people are here for good reason. They've contributed to the UK. We mustn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. No, I think that's fine. But I think hopefully whatever new sort of criteria that he would bring in would weed out those people because, you know, he wants people, we want people who are going to be making enough money to contribute to the tax system in the country. What we don't need are more people who are going to be a drain on the tax system. And I think that's his point, isn't it? Because the problem is an awful lot of people have come and they may well be contributing, but they may have also brought a load of other people with them who aren't. Yeah, that's absolutely true. So you've just got to get the definition of this right. I mean, if he can save 230 billion, it does seem to be a fairly big number that, and a number that I struggle to believe, 230 billion. It's easy to say when you're in opposition, more difficult to actually do when you're in government. Let's see what Farage comes up with after 2029. Yeah, well, I don't think he's going to have to wait that long, to be honest, Robert. I don't think this, you know, the doings of this government over the weekend have not in any way diminished what was going on before this weekend and before the Donald Trump visit. I think a lot of people got a bit distracted during Donald Trump's time here last week because they forgot that the Labour government was running this country literally into the ground. And then we see them come back with this Palestinian decision at the weekend. So now today, we can start again to look at exactly what they're actually doing with our money, what they're doing with the economy, what they're doing with the numbers of people who are unemployed, because it looks as though now I think unemployment is going to hit a five-year high, according to a piece in The Telegraph. Unemployment on course to hit a five-year here. Struggling businesses bracing for the chance to launch yet another tax rate. Joblinson's rate is expected to hit 4.9% in the next year. Yeah, I mean, there is no doubt in my mind that Labour has crashed the economy. This is a phrase that they fondly use about Liz Truss. Well, to me, they've done exactly the same. I think the budget coming up is going to be an absolute disaster. One way or another, what Rachel Reeves is going to do is put up taxes because she doesn't have the stomach for cutting spending and her own side won't allow her to do that. So it's going to be another tax-raising budget. It's going to be another economy-destroying budget. And if Starmer is to survive till 2029, or if Labour is to survive to 2029, then something's going to have to change very rapidly in No. 11 Downing Street, starting with the upcoming budget. Yeah, exactly right. I'm not sure they've got anywhere to go. Meanwhile, another interesting story from the weekend. I don't know if you've seen this one. A call for a police probe into a claim that Prime Minister's top aide, Morgan McSweeney, hid £700,000 worth of donations to boost Keir Starmer's political career. Now, this goes back a few years, but it's basically, it could be, anyway, a breach of electoral law. Interesting, because it then ropes in various people who are now supposed to be in charge of electoral law. Yeah. Now, this one, to me, is far more serious than Mandelson. It's far more serious than the Paul Ovenden, the adviser who was sacked last week for various nasty WhatsApp jokes. It's even more serious than Rayner, because this is, Well, the accusation is that Labour together, this campaign movement that tried to get Starmer into Downing Street, try and win the Labour leadership from Jeremy Corbyn, deliberately hid donations from the Electoral Commission for political gain. They didn't want to show the wider Labour Party how many donations they were getting for Keir Starmer, where those donations were coming from, so they deliberately, the accusation is that they deliberately said, This is human error. That's why we failed to declare these donations. If that is proved accurate, this could be very serious for Morgan McSweeney and the knock-on effect, of course, for Keir Starmer. Yeah, because it sort of is stretching credulity slightly, isn't it, by saying that, you know, up until this particular date, we were managing to register all the donations we were receiving, but then, when suddenly loads of money started coming in, we weren't able to register it because we made a mistake. And you kind of go, really? You know, and as they say in Scotland, do you think my head zips up the back?