LABOUR leader Keir Starmer may be an Arsenal fan but his election squad seems more in tune with Millwall and its 1970s anthem: “No one likes us, we don’t care.”
The defiant Cold Blow Lane chant went global as Millwall reached the FA Cup Final in 2004, only to lose 3-0 to Manchester United.
Some party insiders fear arrogant Starmer is tempting a similar fate.
None more so than former party boss Neil Kinnock, who speaks from bitter personal experience.
Nobody loves Starmerite Labour, he told the BBC.
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“Expressing enthusiasm is different from expressing desperation,” said the Welsh windbag.
“People will say, ‘Let’s get the bloody Tories out’, but they won’t say, ‘Hurrah, hurrah, marvellous, freedom, liberation is with us because of Keir Starmer’.”
He then blasted his successor for embracing right-wing Tory deserter Natalie Elphicke.
Such disloyalty from a former Labour chieftain would have been unimaginable in his day.
But Kinnock is well placed to offer an opinion.
Like Starmer, he dumped all his loony Left baggage so as to appear electable.
In 1992, with a stonking lead in the polls, he effectively declared victory at a Sheffield party rally.
He never forgave The Sun for sticking his head in a lightbulb under the headline: “Will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.”
To quote the Tories, Starmer is a man with no plan. We haven’t a clue what Labour would do about tax and borrowing, immigration, the EU, Russia or Gaza.
In the event, he was wiped out by John Major with the biggest Tory vote in history.
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Nobody, including Kinnock, is predicting a Tory upset this time.
But along with other Labour bigwigs, he seems strikingly critical of a man who could be his party’s next Prime Minister.
Future storms
Blairite plotter Peter Mandelson, aka the Prince of Darkness, was accused recently of “fat-shaming” after urging Starmer to “shed a few pounds”.
In private, Mandy goes further, blaming Starmer for failing to deliver a manifesto — the contract with voters all governments need to survive future storms.
To quote the Tories, Starmer is a man with no plan.
We haven’t a clue what Labour would do about tax and borrowing, immigration, the EU, Russia or Gaza.
The only certainty is a massive splurge in state spending.
Pundits, myself included, might write off Rishi Sunak’s chances of re-election.
But with polling day still six months off, the worm is turning.
Last week’s swathe of economic news shows the PM does have a plan. And it IS working.
The UK is out of recession with a 0.6 per cent growth spurt.
Inflation is plunging.
Mortgages will follow.
“The economy is going gangbusters,” whooped the usually sedate Office for National Statistics.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey admits interest rates will fall faster than he predicted.
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Pensioners who saved for old age or own their homes, sneeringly dubbed “rich codgers”, will be fleeced by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves. “Green” taxes will hit us all.
The Bank’s only job is to control inflation by raising or lowering interests rates.
Bailey failed to act promptly as inflation leaped and was slow to trim rates as prices fell.
The Bank, says one of its own policy advisers, was guilty of “persistent and systematic” errors, but voters still blame the Tories.
Starmer might not reveal his secret manifesto but clues can be found in London and Wales, where Labour is already in power.
In our crime and stabbing capital, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is plotting to bash long-suffering motorists with pay-per-mile road pricing.
Watch that go nationwide.
Taxes will hit us all
The chaotic Welsh government is raising council tax for anyone lucky enough to live in low-crime areas or near good schools — a plan Starmer will roll out across the UK.
Pensioners who saved for old age or own their homes, sneeringly dubbed “rich codgers”, will be fleeced by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
“Green” taxes will hit us all.
Don’t expect Starmer to spell this out before the election.
He and Rachel will just carry on lying about the economy.
But be in no doubt, there IS a Labour plan.
It will involve the biggest tax raid since Gordon Brown stole our pensions, sold our gold for a pittance — and one of his team left the incoming Tory Chancellor with a note saying: “I’m afraid there is no money.”
FOREIGN Secretary Lord Cameron gave the mealy-mouthed BBC an ear-bashing yesterday.
In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, he challenged the Beeb’s refusal to brand Hamas a terrorist organisation after it released a “callous” video of a hostage allegedly killed by an Israeli bomb.
“If you kidnap grandmothers, kidnap babies, if you rape people, if you shoot children in front of their parents – what more do they need to do for the BBC to say, ‘look, these are terrorists’?”
Millions of BBC viewers – and ex-viewers – are asking the same question.
