New Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer

• BUSINESS circles they love to say there are no such things as problems, only opportunities, and new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been presented with two enormous opportunities that nobody could have anticipated back in December when his leadership campaign began.

Nobody would envy Sir Keir his task, but if he takes them he has opportunities to show important, real leadership regarding coronavirus, and also to cement his authority in the Labour Party, and show that he is serious about abolishing factionalism and establishing unity across the party.

The scandal of continued government failures and broken promises regarding personal protective equipment PPE and testing, questions about care homes, and the growing numbers of deaths of NHS and front-line workers, with bus drivers heavily affected, is a cause of growing concern, and growing anger.

The consensus now is that delays in February and March have compounded the situation we’re in, and the public feeling is that further unnecessary delay will cause more unnecessary deaths, so time really is of the essence.

This is the time for Sir Keir to speak up and for our NHS and front-line workers and care staff.

Without underestimating the important work his team have done behind the scenes in shaping government responses and policy, the government are still lagging behind public opinion, and Sir Keir can make an important contribution to the debate and public opinion by speaking out.

This has the potential to save additional lives, and he owes it to the country to do this.

Sir Keir’s other opportunity is dealing with the implications and fall-out from the leaked internal Labour Party report.

He must ensure that the party sticks to its stated policy of protecting whistle-blowers, that the investigation which is to be announced this week is given the powers it needs at all levels, and that steps are taken to give members confidence that this can’t happen again.

Sir Keir is lucky in a way that this happened before he became leader; he can show leadership here by not letting this be hindered by bureaucratic inertia, and ensuring the investigation is not hindered by any of the people or cliques mentioned in the report.

Members are worried that it isn’t being treated as it would in any other organisation of this size, and that standard measures such as suspending people with such serious allegations placed against them have not been put into place.

Sir Keir was a human rights barrister, so what would he expect to happen if he was representing one of the victims of the alleged behaviours?

People are also surprised at lack of coverage of the leaked report in the national press, given how much coverage internal Labour Party matters have had since 2015; so it was pleasing to see a snippet in last week’s John Gulliver in the CNJ, and his endorsement of Moshe Machover.

GARETH MURPHY
Bellina Mews, NW5