{"id":142463,"date":"2024-09-26T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T12:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/26\/starmer-freebies-row-is-not-about-corruption-its-about-class\/"},"modified":"2024-09-26T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T12:59:09","slug":"starmer-freebies-row-is-not-about-corruption-its-about-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/26\/starmer-freebies-row-is-not-about-corruption-its-about-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer freebies row is not about corruption – it’s about class"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Starmer<\/div>


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One moment at Labour conference stuck in my mind, and it wasn’t a big set piece address or a particularly hard-hitting interview.<\/p>\n

It was a fleeting, behind the scenes exchange with the prime minister’s spokespeople who were briefing the press after his speech<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Having just heard him, once again, talk about his humble beginnings, I asked them: “Does Keir Starmer<\/a><\/strong> still consider himself working class?”<\/p>\n

The pair looked at each other. One replied: “He’s from a working class background.”<\/p>\n

I tried again:”\u2026 and is he still working class?”<\/p>\n

The other spokesperson responded this time: “He represents working class people.”<\/p>\n

“And is he one of them?” I asked. To that, there was no answer and we moved on.<\/p>\n

Follow live politics updates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n

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\n 1:47<\/span>
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PM defends \u00a320k donation from Lord Alli<\/span>
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It seems trivial but, on reflection, it gets to the heart of why the story about donations and gifts<\/a><\/strong> resonates and won’t go away.<\/p>\n

It isn’t, as so many journalists are willing it to be, about corruption or cover-up.<\/p>\n

The prime minister’s biographer Tom Baldwin put this best when he said reading through the register of interests is hardly Watergate.<\/p>\n

Political opponents trying to seize the advantage say “it’s bad optics” and “it doesn’t pass the sniff test” – convenient Westminster phrases to mask the lack of any real substance.<\/p>\n

But what is significant in politics is the picture you paint of yourself and whether it matches up to who you really are – the authenticity test.<\/p>\n

During the election campaign, Sir Keir made a virtue of his ordinariness<\/a><\/strong> and this has continued into government.<\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


\n \"Sir
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\n 0:49<\/span>
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Starmer: ‘I was a toolmaker’s son’<\/span>
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He sold the public the dream of a prime minister, not from Eton and Oxbridge, but a pebble-dashed semi, the son of a toolmaker, who was one of them.<\/p>\n

In his conference speech he did it again, referencing “people of a completely ordinary working-class background like mine”.<\/p>\n

His deputy, Angela Rayner<\/a><\/strong>, did the same, describing being a single mum working nights as a home help, saying: “[It was] tough at times. I started on casual terms, and I wasn’t paid for travel. Insecurity at work is the daily reality for so many.”<\/p>\n

The fact that they now take a bit of free stuff is not the issue. As one (fellow northern, state school educated) colleague said to me: “There’s nothing more working class than liking freebies.”<\/p>\n

It’s that their struggle is now a distant memory, fodder for worthy anecdotes in conference speeches.<\/p>\n

But more than that, when you look at the detail, you see they are living a life of privilege – free clothes, free tickets, parties paid for, the use of million-pound properties whenever they need them.<\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


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\n 0:34<\/span>
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PM filmed message from Lord Alli’s penthouse<\/span>
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They may have started off trying to make ends meet, but now whatever they want is at their fingertips and they are making the most of it.<\/p>\n

Voters, promised one of their own in Number 10, see someone whose life could not be further from theirs and it’s jarring.<\/p>\n

Using your background as political currency doesn’t work anymore when you have so definitively left it behind.<\/p>\n

If even Sir Keir Starmer’s own team can see that, the public can too.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One moment at Labour conference stuck in my mind, and it wasn’t a big set piece address or a particularly hard-hitting interview. It was a fleeting, behind the scenes exchange with the prime minister’s spokespeople who were briefing the press after his speech. Having just heard him, once again, talk about his humble beginnings, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/09\/768x432\/skynews-keir-starmer-beth-rigby_6696629.jpg?20240925173917","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[10943,8574,62099,371,3960],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142465,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142463\/revisions\/142465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}