Keir Starmer’s glaring HYPOCRISY is why TWO-TIER KEIR is now a household name

A prime minister already in crisis

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I want to tell you something very personal. There is a member of my family who is a pensioner. They are not well off and they live alone. Even before the recent election, like most pensioners across the country, they were worried sick —worried sick about the spiralling food and energy prices, worried sick about the increasing council tax bills, and worried sick about the worst cost-of-living crisis for generations.

And then along came Keir Starmer.

Contrary to anything Starmer’s Labour said before the general election, one of their first acts in office was to slash winter fuel payments for around 10 million pensioners —payments of £200-300 that are made in November and December to help older people make it through the winter.

Even more shockingly, this harsh cut for people who have paid into the collective pot for decades was introduced with no government assessment of its impact, with no serious examination of how it would impact people’s lives. They just did it.

And now, on top of that, come rumours that Starmer’s Labour government is also planning to remove a council tax discount for people who live alone —what we might call a “widow tax”— which is estimated to cost pensioners another £600 a year.

I don’t know about you but I find these decisions utterly outrageous, not least because at the very same time Starmer’s Labour government is managing to find the best part of £100 million quid to throw at other countries around the globe in the hapless and completely misguided belief this will somehow stop migration at source (it won’t).

Everything in politics is a choice. And again, I don’t know about you but if the choice is between wasting money on openly corrupt tinpot governments in Africa and the Middle East or handing this money instead to British pensioners then I choose British pensioners every time.

But what makes all this even more galling for the millions of pensioners and their families up and down the country is not just the cack-handed way in which these decisions are being made, and the general indifference Starmer and his team display toward the British people, but the glaring hypocrisy that lies at the heart of all this.

At exactly the same time as we discover that Keir Starmer —or “Two Tier Keir”, as much of the country is now calling him—was making these decisions he was also taking more freebies, payments, and gifts than any other Member of Parliament in the House of Commons!

Remember, this was the guy the elite class told us to back —the man who would return us to moderate, sensible, grown up and responsible politics. This was the man who everybody from Andrew Marr to more than a few Times columnists told us would treat the British people with the respect they deserve.

But now here, in all its glory, is what we have learned about the Right Honorable Keir Starmer in just the last few days —the man who has spent years projecting his moral righteousness onto the rest of the country, the man who at every possible turn insists on reminding us he was Director of Public Prosecutions and understands the importance of respecting the rules more than anybody else, the man who only a few weeks ago took to the Rose Garden in Downing Street to declare that the era of sleaze and cronyism is over:

• Since 2019, Keir Starmer has taken more freebies in holidays, gifts and entertainment than ANY OTHER MP in parliament

• Starmer has received two-and-a-half times more freebies than the next Member of Parliament, including £107,145 worth of freebies

• He has taken 40 sets of tickets to sporting & pop concerts, including dozens of free tickets to football games and an elite box at stadiums that is usually reserved for the celebrity and elite class and costs £8,750 per game

• He has taken £12,588 worth of Premier League tickets

• He has had a free holiday, paid for by a private company

• He has taken free clothing worth £16,000 from a party donor, Lord Alli

• He has taken accommodation from the same donor, valued at some £20,000

• He has taken GLASSES worth £2,485

• His wife has taken £5,000 worth of clothes

• And, on top of all that, he’s seen his top aide, Sue Gray, take a £25,000 pay rise, taking her total salary to an astonishing £170,000, above even Starmer’s own official salary and despite the fact that only a few years ago Starmer himself took to social media to berate Boris Johnson for presiding over a similar pay rise for Dominic Cummings

And all this despite the fact that, last year, Keir Starmer himself earned more than £400,000! Nearly half-a-million quid!

I mean, seriously, ask yourself a question. What kind of man lets another man buy him glasses and clothes while making close to half-a-million a year? And what kind of prime minister —who much of the country is now mocking as “Free Gear Keir”—thinks “yes actually it’s okay if somebody else buys my wife stuff and then we forget to declare it?”

What does this tell you about Keir Starmer’s character? Who does all this while knowing full well they are working in the frontline of British politics, they are the leader of a political party, may soon be prime minister, and will come under immense public scrutiny?

What kind of politician makes these kind of judgements? A politician who is simply not living in the same world as the rest of us, a politician who is completely away with the fairies, a politician who has remarkably bad judgement, that’s who.

And what kind of prime minister and his political advisors do all this, make these decisions, while presiding over £600-a-year cuts for financially insecure, vulnerable pensioners, some of whom are on as little as £13,000-a-year and, like my relative, worrying about how they’ll make it through the winter?

Is this what responsible, grown up, moderate, sensible politics looks like? A politics that’s more interested in helping other people around the world than its own people here at home? If it is then no thanks, I want something else.

The hypocrisy completely stinks. For example, let’s remind ourselves. Who said this? “We need to toughen the rules so that Members of Parliament cannot profit from their office and open the door to vested interests”. That’s right. Keir Starmer.

But now, ensconced in office, our new Labour prime minister appears more than happy to profit directly from this very office and open the door to Mr Alli and countless other vested interests.

Starmer and his team might hate the name but this is exactly why much of the country is now also calling him “Two-Tier Keir”, which has now become a household name. Because that is exactly what he is. A prime minister who has clearly decided there is one rule for some groups in British society and another rule for him, one rule for pensioners, another rule for him, one rule for protestors who write offensive things on their own social media in their own homes and another rule for actual criminals who are let out of prison early.

And this is at least part of the reason why, in the polls, his leadership ratings are already crashing, dropping more than 20-points since he became prime minister to around the MINUS 25 mark, or what I call Prince Harry territory.

Keep going in this direction and he’ll soon be where Liz Truss and Boris Johnson were at the lowest point of their premierships —Prince Andrew territory.

This is because what Starmer is doing is exactly what Boris Johnson and all those MPs during the 2009 expenses scandal did —he is violating the British people’s profound sense of fair play.

We are a fair and tolerant people but we also demand that people honour this sense of fair play. Free Gear Keir might say he’s playing within the rules but he is most definitely not playing within the British people’s sense of fair play.

So don’t believe the hype. Much of the elite class will tell you that sensible, grown up, moderate, and progressive politics is back. Only nobody is falling for it. We can see Free Gear Keir or Two Tier Keir for exactly what he is —the same kind of crooked politician who puts himself before the rest of the country. And like my relative who is worrying about the months and years ahead, the British people have already, clearly, had enough of it.

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Matt Goodwin’s Substack goes to more than 54,400 subscribers from 167 countries around the world and thousands of paying supporters who support our work. Like our stuff? Then help us expand by becoming a paid supporter and access everything —the full archive, exclusive posts, polling, leave comments, join the debate, get discounts, advance notice about events, and the knowledge you’re supporting independent writers who are not afraid to push back against the grain. You can also join our community on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X and Facebook.

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