SIR KEIR STARMER was accused of hypocrisy yesterday as he vowed to defend civic institutions from “Tory McCarthyism.”
The Labour leader criticised the Conservatives for targeting organisations such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the National Trust as part of their “war on woke.”
Jewish Voice for Labour’s Mike Cushman, however, said that Sir Keir is an expert when it comes to McCarthyism — named after the infamous US senator responsible for spreading fears and persecuted leftwingers in the postwar “red scare.”
He told the Morning Star: “We welcome Starmer’s recognition of the Tories’ McCarthyism: freedom of action by civic groups is important to protect, but we would wish he would recognise the McCarthyism within the Labour Party, which attempts to police legitimate discussion of Palestine and Israel by falsely labelling it as anti-semitism, in a clear McCarthyite attempt to shut down needed discussion.”
In 2019, Tory MPs criticised the RNLI for spending money on anti-drowning charities abroad; two years later former Ukip leader Nigel Farage claimed that the voluntary organisation was acting as a “taxi service for illegal immigration” because of its work helping asylum-seekers in distress in the Channel.
The National Trust’s stance towards rewilding Britain’s countryside and how to depict the links between the properties it oversees and Britain’s colonial legacy has also faced a barrage of right-wing attacks.
In a speech to a civil society summit yesterday, Sir Keir said: “The Tories seem set on sabotaging civil society to save their own skins.
“They got themselves so tangled up in culture wars of their own making, that instead of working with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution — an organisation the late queen was patron of for 70 years — to find real solutions to stop the small boats, their rhetoric has helped demonise them.
“Instead of working with the National Trust so more people can learn about — and celebrate — our culture and our history, they’ve managed to demean their work.
“In its desperation to cling on to power, at all costs, the Tory Party is trying to find woke agendas in the very civic institutions they once regarded with respect.”
He added: “Let me tell you, waging a war on the proud spirit of service in this country isn’t leadership. It’s desperate. It’s divisive. It’s damaging.
“It comes to something when the Tories are at war with the National Trust. That’s what happens when politics of self-preservation prevail over commitment to service.”
North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll told the Star: “Sir Keir Starmer talking about McCarthyism is the pot calling the kettle black.
“He has presided over a vicious purge in the Labour Party, sidelining anyone who dares to question his leadership, sacking MPs who stand with striking workers and silencing party members during selection processes.
“When London Labour HQ blocked me last summer and denied north-east members their right to choose a candidate, one journalist asked me if this was McCarthyism.
“I said: ‘No: under McCarthyism you got a public hearing and a chance to refute the charges.’
“They’ve even changed the Labour rule book to state the principles of natural justice no longer apply.”
