Labour is entering its ‘Zanu-PF' era
The former homelessness minister is an absolute standard-issue Starmerite apparatchik. PPE at Oxford, followed by a stint as a Parliamentary researcher, then a fruitful career milking the 'human rights' cow for all it was worth. She'd already quietly resigned from her building safety brief when it turned out she had been in receipt of sponsored trips courtesy of Saint-Gobain, one of the firms implicated in the catastrophe at the Grenfell Tower. Once again, Sir Keir's nose for moral probity in his appointees has come up trumps.
Now it appears that Ms Ali evicted a bunch of her tenants, whacked up the rent to the tune of an extra 700 quid, then readvertised the property. It's exactly the sort of swizzle which Labour would have us believe only wicked conservatives are capable of doing. Don't you just love the smell of integrity in the morning?
Ali's resignation is the latest in a striking tendency amongst Labour ministers for doing the very thing they are supposed to be tackling. The anti-corruption minister has already been booted out over an anti-corruption investigation, now the homelessness minister has been sacked for making people homeless. And, like everything this government does, it's all so terribly petty. The resignation is just the latest sign that Labour, corrupt, incompetent and increasingly despised, is entering its 'Zanu-PF' era.
Ali's resignation letter is further evidence of this. This was a letter from the late Kim Woodburn school of graciousness. 'I want to make clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements. I believe I took my duties and responsibilities seriously, and the facts will demonstrate this.' In short, 'I don't think I did anything wrong' – (or at least, not until a few months' time when the government in which I serve will pass legislation making what I just did illegal).
In his letter of reply, Sir Keir said that Ali's time in office would 'leave a lasting legacy'. Again, you get the impression that members of this government genuinely believe they will be spoken of as one of the great reforming ministries, rather than in the hushed and embarrassed tones normally reserved for a teacher who turned out to be a paedophile.
In opposition, the PM spent years at the despatch box presenting himself as a byword for integrity – sometimes actually placing his hand on his heart as he bemoaned the absence of virtue in politics. The Lord Alli debacle soon revealed the PM's preference for having his snout firmly in the trough. The capacity of him and his cabinet to indulge in the trappings of office, from concert tickets to private jets (having condemned their predecessors at every opportunity for doing the same), suggest that even by the venal standards of our parliamentarians, this lot really do love a freebie. They may genuinely believe that holding the 'correct' (i.e. left-wing) opinions absolves them of having to behave properly too. Or perhaps, like adults who wear crocs in public, they have simply forgotten that we can see them.
The question really is – who's next? It's no secret that the government's supplies of incompetence are far from exhausted. Still more astonishing is that Sir Keir can and will continue to pose as a man of great moral probity, aided and abetted by media double-standards. Half a dozen ministerial resignations within a year, several involving weapons-grade hypocrisies. Had this happened to a Tory government, we'd no doubt still be in the midst of a media circus.
ENDS
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