Familiar sound of Labour back-tracking on election promises - Vladimir McTavish

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during his speech and press conference in the Rose Garden at 10 Downing Street

The man who five years ago was campaigning for a second referendum is now saying that there is no chance of his government reversing the process.

Of course, back in 2019 he didn’t have to pander to the demands of racist voters in England.

Before jetting off to the continent, the PM held a press conference in the Downing Street garden to announce that the country was in a much worse state than everyone thought.

He might as well have said “Look, if I’d have known how much of a mess this country was in, I wouldn’t have taken the job in the first place.”

However, he was at pains to point out that nobody was using the garden for illegal drinks parties, unlike the last lot in charge.

Boris Johnson’s hangers-on had used the garden for a massive booze-up where they broke a swing, but now things will be totally different we were told. Or maybe not totally different.

No swings will be broken and no suitcases full of liquor will be consumed in Number Ten, but otherwise it’s business as normal. Namely, there is going to be more pain to come and loads more cuts are in the pipeline,

Surely we should expect more from an incoming Labour government ? Shouldn’t they be offering the voters some hope?

In 1945, Britain was totally skint as a result of World War II but Clement Attlee still had the vision to launch the most ambitious programme of state spending this country has ever seen.

He gave us the NHS and took key industries into public ownership. There was no talk of balancing the books. It was all about not going back to the grinding poverty of the 1930s.

In the seventies, the Chancellor Denis Healy promised to “squeeze the rich until the pips squeak”.

Now, every time Rachel Reeves opens her mouth, she sounds more like Margaret Thatcher.

In 1997, Tony Blair was swept into office on the back of the anthem “Things an Only Get Better”.

Now, we have a Labour Prime Minister telling us that things are going to get a whole lot worse.

Apparently when he was promising ‘Change’ earlier in the summer, he didn’t know how bad a state the country was in. Like a mechanic who changes his estimate once he’s had a look under the bonnet.

Most people who voted Labour in July did so in order to get rid of the Tories. What’s the point when they end up peddling the same policies?

Starmer says that the burden will be borne by those with the widest shoulders. So says a man who has cut the winter fuel allowance at the same time as the energy price cap is lifted, and is insisting on keeping the two-child benefit cap.

It seems there are a lot of broad-shouldered pensioners and single parents in this country.

It took Blair’s government a few years to betray Labour voters. This current lot seem to be intent on doing it in double-quick time.

Perhaps that’s what Starmer meant when he promised ‘Change’.