
Letter: Prime Minister has misled voters since his election
All politicians stretch the truth, but few do it with the frequency and shamelessness of Keir Starmer.
He came to power promising 'honesty and integrity', a pledge that may turn out to be his most misleading of all.
From the moment he ran for Labour leader, Starmer misled the public.
He pledged to uphold Jeremy Corbyn's policies, abolishing tuition fees, lifting the two-child benefit cap, and nationalising key services.
All were swiftly abandoned once he secured the leadership. It seems this has worked for him, so he's made it a habit.
During the election campaign, Starmer gave the impression that Winter Fuel Payments and a cap on social care costs would be safe.
Both have now been dropped.
He said taxes wouldn't rise for working people, yet his Budget hits them through higher prices and lower wages, thanks to a £25 billion national insurance hike.
He promised swift compensation for 1950s-born Waspi women. That too has vanished.
Farmers were told they'd get certainty, instead, they've been hit with new inheritance taxes. Even his touted EU deal lacks detail, with vague claims and no transparency about what the UK is giving up, including 12 more years of access to British fishing waters.
As the Institute for Fiscal Studies noted, the £22 billion black hole in Labour's Budget 'was obvious to anyone who dared to look.' But Starmer and his Chancellor pretended not to see it.
Voters aren't fooled. When leaders routinely tell us things we know aren't true, and do so with utter confidence, it's not just dishonest, it's corrosive.
Britain deserves better than this calculated deceit.
Roman Jones

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Leader Live
33 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Harris says ‘world on brink of extraordinary destabilisation'
It comes as the EU Foreign Affairs Council has called an emergency meeting to discuss a reaction to the 'escalating and extremely dangerous' situation between Israel and Iran. Simon Harris, who is also Ireland's foreign affairs minister, said the EU will have to discuss working together to evacuate its citizens from the region. His remarks came before he was due to attend the virtual foreign affairs council meeting on Tuesday. He said: 'I think a big focus of that meeting is going to be on working together in the European Union to evacuate European citizens if and when it becomes possible or safe to do so. 'We have a very small number of citizens in Iran. Most of them are long-term residents of Iran. 'We have a larger – but still relatively small number – in Israel at the moment.' Mr Harris added: 'Obviously, the airspace is closed, and moving across land borders is potentially treacherous, and I think it will be really important, as we have done at an EU level before, that we work together to see if and when it may be safe to make an intervention for any citizen seeking to leave, and how we can collaborate at a European level.' Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Mr Harris said it was 'almost impossible to overstate the serious level of danger here'. He added: 'To say the world is on the brink of an extraordinarily destabilising situation in the region would be absolutely a statement of fact, if not an understatement.' Mr Harris, who is also Ireland's foreign affairs minister, said Irish diplomats have been 'working intensively' in Tel Aviv and Tehran, as well as engaging with European counterparts. Mr Harris said Ireland and Europe will continue to call for de-escalation. He said Iran had 'consistently been a source of danger in the world', adding that the state should not be able to develop nuclear weapons.


New Statesman
41 minutes ago
- New Statesman
Labour is heading for war over welfare cuts
Photo by Jordan Pettitt - WPA Pool / Getty Images After the celebration, the hangover. Rachel Reeves' £300bn Spending Review gave Labour MPs plenty to cheer but reality soon intruded. GDP was revealed to have shrunk by 0.3 per cent in April (as Donald Trump's tariffs and higher taxes depressed growth). Israel and Iran's escalating conflict has only further darkened the global outlook. How, in this climate, will Reeves' largesse be paid for? Higher taxes are one answer (the Treasury is already compiling potential revenue raisers ahead of this autumn's Budget); the other is more cuts. When Keir Starmer last month U-turned on winter fuel payments and indicated his intent to abolish the two-child benefit limit, some inside Labour questioned whether the government's welfare bill would ever emerge. But the answer will become clear this week with legislation due to be published on Wednesday ahead of a vote next month. No 10 maintains that there is not just a fiscal case but a moral case for the bill. 'Winter fuel was a policy that was forced on us in a difficult situation at the start,' an aide told me. 'Welfare reform is an argument that we want to make about how to protect the most vulnerable and how to help people into work.' Starmer himself is moved to passion on this question, telling the cabinet earlier this year that there is 'nothing progressive' about a system in which one in eight young people are not in employment, education or training, and one in ten working-age people are claiming at least one type of health or disability benefit (with spending projected to rise from £48.5bn in 2023-24 to £75.7bn in 2029-30). But he faces the biggest revolt of his premiership to date. Forty-two Labour MPs have signed a public letter describing the £5bn cuts – which would see 370,000 current Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants and 430,000 future ones lose an average of £4,500 – as 'impossible to support'. More than 100 have signed a private letter to the Chief Whip ('none of us are consistent rebels,' they emphasise), warning that they too are unable to endorse the proposals. Here is why a government with a Commons majority of 165 seats has been forced to contemplate the possibility of defeat (with Downing Street also primed for ministerial resignations). The Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall – who faces the defining test of her political career – has sought to contain the rebellion by offering an 'olive branch' to critics. Those who no longer qualify for PIP would continue to receive payments for 13 weeks (rather than the standard four) and those with lifelong conditions or fewer than 12 months to live would automatically receive a higher rate of Universal Credit and be exempt from reassessments. By the end of the parliament, No 10 points out, there will still be an extra 750,000 people receiving PIP. Yet most MPs remain unmoved. 'The hang-tough position dressed up as concessions won't wash,' one soft-left figure told me. 'MPs know how this stuff works and can't be fobbed off.' Many privately warn that only a change in the assessment criteria would persuade them to support the bill. At present individuals who need help dressing, washing and feeding themselves would no longer receive PIP. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe What lies ahead is nothing less than a battle over Labour's founding purpose. For some – as cabinet ministers often like to put it, 'the clue is in the name' – this is the party of work, not welfare. Others riposte that Labour's duty is precisely to support those unable to support themselves. Kendall's task is to convince rebels that her bill does. This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here [See also: Impunity is fuelling Israel's spiralling aggression] Related


BreakingNews.ie
44 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Tánaiste says ‘world on brink of extraordinary destabilisation'
The world is 'on the brink' of extraordinary destabilisation in the Middle East, the Tánaiste has said. It comes as the EU Foreign Affairs Council has called an emergency meeting to discuss a reaction to the 'escalating and extremely dangerous' situation between Israel and Iran. Advertisement Simon Harris, who is also foreign affairs minister, said the EU will have to discuss working together to evacuate its citizens from the region. His remarks came before he was due to attend the virtual foreign affairs council meeting on Tuesday. He said: 'I think a big focus of that meeting is going to be on working together in the European Union to evacuate European citizens if and when it becomes possible or safe to do so. 'We have a very small number of citizens in Iran. Most of them are long-term residents of Iran. Advertisement 'We have a larger – but still relatively small number – in Israel at the moment.' Mr Harris added: 'Obviously, the airspace is closed, and moving across land borders is potentially treacherous, and I think it will be really important, as we have done at an EU level before, that we work together to see if and when it may be safe to make an intervention for any citizen seeking to leave, and how we can collaborate at a European level.' Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Mr Harris said it was 'almost impossible to overstate the serious level of danger here'. He added: 'To say the world is on the brink of an extraordinarily destabilising situation in the region would be absolutely a statement of fact, if not an understatement.' Advertisement Mr Harris added that Irish diplomats have been 'working intensively' in Tel Aviv and Tehran, as well as engaging with European counterparts. Mr Harris said Ireland and Europe will continue to call for de-escalation. He said Iran had 'consistently been a source of danger in the world', adding that the state should not be able to develop nuclear weapons.