DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Is Labour's moderate mask starting to slip?

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Is Labour’s moderate mask starting to slip? Rumblings of discontent are growing

The crew are not yet in open mutiny, but the rumblings of discontent are growing.

Captain Starmer is trying desperately to tack to the Right but most of his tars want him to chart a more Leftward course.

The question is, can he keep them in line between now and the general election, or will they take him captive and commandeer the ship?

Life has been easy for the Labour leader so far. All he has had to do is castigate the Tory Government and pretend he offers a sensible alternative.

With an election looming next year, however, he must now nail at least some of his colours to the mast. The trouble is many in his party don’t like them.

Captain Starmer is trying desperately to tack to the Right but most of his tars want him to chart a more Leftward course

Sir Keir’s decision not to immediately remove the two-child benefit cap if Labour comes to power has caused simmering resentment.

He wants to be seen as the heir to Blair, a centrist social democrat who won’t come into Downing Street and break the bank with a splurge of reckless spending.

The problem is most Labour MPs and most of the party’s client groups don’t care about fiscal responsibility – they just want to raid the public purse.

More money for benefit payments, green causes, foreign aid and, of course, to fund big pay rises for public sector workers.

If taxes and borrowing have to go up, so what? It’s not their money.

So much for his party rediscovering Blairism. Behind Sir Keir, the Corbynite Left is very much alive – and spoiling for a fight.

The wrong pulpit

A useful barometer of whether an idea is wise or foolish is to see where the Archbishop of Canterbury stands on it.

Experience of recent years has shown that if our primate supports a policy, it’s usually misguided.

The current archbishop, Justin Welby, has made an art form of being on the wrong side of almost every political argument from migration, through post-colonial reparations to welfare dependency.

Now one of his equally woolly predecessors, Rowan Williams, has re-emerged from well-earned obscurity to give us the benefit of his priestly views on another contentious public issue.

Sadiq Khan’s Ultra Low Emission Zone is one of the most ill-judged and unpopular schemes to be thrust upon long-suffering drivers in London and surrounding counties.

The Labour Mayor’s plan to extend it to the outer limits of the capital is more about milking motorists than cleansing the air. The poor, unable to pay the charge or afford a compliant car, will suffer most.

Sadiq Khan’s Ultra Low Emission Zone is one of the most ill-judged and unpopular schemes to be thrust upon long-suffering drivers in London

So why, then, is Lord Williams throwing his weight behind it? Is it green virtue-signalling or does he simply not understand the hardship and inconvenience this will cause?

Our out-of-touch archbishops should stick to preaching about the scriptures and leave others to sermonise about politics.

Now stop the boats

The Lords have finally seen sense and dropped their opposition to the Illegal Migration Bill. The Rwanda scheme is due to go to the Supreme Court and has a strong chance of success. The barge to accommodate asylum seekers is ready and waiting on the Dorset coast.

So the physical and legislative structures are almost in place to begin the process of trying to stop the flood of small boats crossing the Channel. It’s now up to Rishi Sunak to use these measures to break the people traffickers’ business model.

But events yesterday didn’t inspire much confidence. Two cruise ships chartered to house 2,000 illegal arrivals were refused berths in Liverpool and Edinburgh.

If it is to fulfil the pledge to end the crossings, the Government must stop making so many elementary blunders.

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