As I write this I am feeling incredibly sad because Keir Starmer is a politician utterly devoted to nothing more than honesty, decency and the national interest, and he has just announced his resignation as Prime Minister.
Whatever his political detractors say, this level of profound decency is something that I personally hold very dear in anyone (it’s all too rare generally these days, in my opinion) and earned Keir my absolute loyalty to the very last. This is not a Party-political point. I do meet people both within politics from other political parties, who I identify as honest and decent people – just all too few. In terms of the Prime Minister – for that is what I will call him until the end of his tenure – I can now disclose that I have been pretty instrumental, behind the scenes over the last few months, in pulling together the list of 115 MPs who’d publicly supported him, even in these toughest of political times. I was proud to do so – not because I was looking for a job in Government, as those that know me know that the honour to serve the people of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle is quite enough for me – but because I felt that under his premiership we were on the way to turning around the fortunes of many of our communities.
And what a legacy the Prime Minister leaves! The Labour Party was on its knees, wracked by antisemitic racism, when he took over in 2019. Commentators universally proclaimed Labour would be out of power for a generation. Slowly, painstakingly, Keir turned the ashes of 2019 into a massive Labour landslide in 2024. Since then, NHS waiting lists down, 6 cuts to interest rates, the fastest growing economy in the G7, wages for the lowest paid workers up, net migration over 80% down, asylum hotels closing. But, for me most importantly, 500,000 children being taken out of poverty, free breakfast clubs and free school meals for the poorest children.
For us in Cornwall, the Kernow Industrial Growth fund, the largest ever local government settlement for Cornwall Council, including for the first time extra adult social care funding recognising remote coastal additional service costs, the largest ever fund for roads and potholes, solar panels on schools and hospitals, Part 3 Cornish language status, the opening of the Camborne & Redruth diagnostic centre, and South Crofty 28% nationalised and well on the way to the return of Cornish tin mining once again. All this under Keir Starmer’s premiership.
Public perceptions are not always accurate. I know Keir. I’ve met him about a dozen times. A more decent, honest human being you couldn’t hope to meet. I am very, very sorry – really quite emotional, in fact – that he has been forced out, in my view, well before his time. One thing of which I am certain: his legacy will be appreciated far more over coming years, than it is today.
