Starmer needs to stop courting the hateful Tory vote with benefit claimants comments

As we hurtle into our last full week of campaigning before the general election next Thursday, the leaders’ true colours are showing more and more. On Sunday, I wrote about how the prospective PMs all seem to be shouting over each other to prove who hates disabled people most and not one to miss out on a trend, Keir Starmer stepped up.

Starmer and the Torygraph: new bedfellows

Writing in the Telegraph, Starmer wrote about how handouts lack the dignity that wages bring. The first red flag here is that he wrote an op-ed for the most right-leaning paper in the country; one which regularly demonises anyone who isn’t rich, non-disabled, white, straight or cis.

This was a clear dog whistle to the most hateful in society. Coincidentally I’m sure, the hateful wet wipe in charge of the DWP (but not for long) Mel Stride also regularly writes for them.

The piece was a classic appeal to Tory voters, signposting economic growth, tax burdens, our country is going backwards, etc:

Serving the interests of working people means understanding they want success more than state support…

He said, as only someone who has never needed state support could.

He spoke about who Labour would apparently benefit: young families, taxpayers, and entrepreneurs – and then attempted to sneak this in about welfare:

The Labour mission was built on the pride of working people earning a decent living for themselves.

We will never turn our backs on people who are struggling. But handouts from the state do not nurture the same sense of self-reliant dignity as a fair wage.

‘Yes that’s right, why do all you scroungers think you deserve any sort of support when you should be working? Have some respect!’ – he might as well have said.

Oh, the indignity!

This language is very deliberate – calling benefits handouts instead of support to live and using words like dignity – because it implies those who don’t or can’t work are lacking in dignity or self-respect.

The only reason we lose our dignity in the first place is by having to jump through hoops and lay all the worst parts of our illnesses out to unqualified strangers in order to get benefits. 

It’s in the fact the PIP form asks you to detail your toilet habits and that the government and media spew out so much bile that we’re scared to go shopping. 

Though he never directly mentions those on disability-related benefits, the insinuation is there: work is good for you, laying on your arses faking disability isn’t. It also couples with the fact that all proposed changes that activists are already fighting are to disability benefits. 

He, like every other Labour and Tory politician, is focusing a lot on work and taxpayers, but the fact is many disabled people do work and are taxpayers – it’s just the fact that life costs so much more for us and benefits aren’t enough. 

Starmer then has the audacity to appeal to regional voters by talking about levelling up and how unfair it has been to any regions outside of London and the South East:

If it all comes from London and the South East, no matter because we can “level up”.

Now, nobody could walk around our country and deny how urgently we need to tackle regional inequality.

Which of course is true and something that does urgently need fixing, but I’m from Sunderland, one of the most deprived areas in the UK and one of the safest red areas. 

Levelling what up?

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that in 2021/22, 31% of disabled people lived in poverty – with this jumping to 38% of people with long-term mental health conditions. In the North East, 25% of the population lived in poverty.

So basically you’re more likely to be poor if you’re disabled and from the North East, which a good portion of Mackems and Geordies otherwise are.

ONS data found that 21.2% of people in the North East are disabled – the highest in the UK. Also, 7.8% of households in the North East have two or more disabled people in them, compared with 5.1% in London. 

So it’s all well and good Starmer promising more for the regions – something which happens so often during the elections that I’m surprised they haven’t all visited the Tyne Docks or Nissan yet – but those are empty promises when you’re going to harm so many of us with other policies, or lack thereof.

There have also been some interesting stats out today from the TUC about child poverty. 

69% of all children in poverty live in a working household. and there are 900,000 more children in working households in poverty since 2010, bringing the total to three million. So despite Starmer and Sunak running with taglines that work pays, it clearly doesn’t.

Not to mention how hypocritical it is of him to be criticising those claiming benefits for sponging off taxpayers when, as my Canary colleague James Wright pointed out, when he’s spent vast amounts of public money in expenses and handouts himself.

Starmer: the lowest common denominator ftw

What Starmer is doing in his Telegraph op-ed is clear – he’s courting the Tory vote. 

Those who hate what Sunak has done to the country and still think too many people are pretending they have poor mental health or ADHD so they don’t have to work. They probably don’t even believe those things are real and what people really need to is get a job. 

With the lack of opposition to the proposed welfare cuts this last year we’re already mostly feeling conflicted and only voting Labour because we have to. How are we supposed to trust it’ll be any different?

It’s the same thing he’s doing with trans rights, his team saw how badly the “Tories know what a woman is” bullshit paid off for him with the evil wizard lady and her minions so they’re attempting to claw it back.

But by appealing to the lowest in society Labour are alienating those on the left who would’ve voted for them because they desperately want rid of the Tories. Disabled and LGBTQ+ campaigners feel they can’t vote for them now.

Labour needs to spend less time begging for the hate vote and give more attention to those who want to fight for real change – or they’ll split the left vote like they did in 2019 and the Tories – this time with Nigel Farage’s Reform in tow – will win again. 

Featured image via the Canary