Labour's Racist Attack Ad

After the theatrics of the last few years, leading Labour politicians have appeared on umpteen politics programmes to declare that racism is over in the party. What was it that Lisa Nandy said last weekend? "Keir Starmer said he would tear antisemitism out by its roots, and that's exactly what he's done." Be that as it may, there's still some distance to go on racism generally if this - roundly condemned - attack ad against Rishi Sunak is anything to go by. In case you hadn't been following the political discourse this week, the Prime Minister and Suella Braverman, the gutter-dwelling Home Secretary, have leant heavily into Tory racism by playing the race card over Rotherham and northern paedophile gangs. Another episode in the war on woke, and an easy jab at Labour authorities who, so goes the argument, turned a blind eye to rape and sexual assault because political correctness.

The brainboxes in the Labour leadership thought the appropriate riposte would be a piercing dog whistle about as subtle as a flashing sign. They might be all innocent face "nonces are not getting jailed under the Tories", but their obvious implication is that as a British Asian Prime Minister of course Sunak's going to be soft on paedophiles. Challenged by Naga Munchetty on Friday morning's BBC Breakfast, Lucy Powell said it was just an example of the cut and thrust of politics. That being the case, I'm sure Labour won't complain now it's widely known that the sentencing guidelines the Tories have been working to ... were written and endorsed by Keir Starmer himself. Having not long ago been smeared by Boris Johnson for not prosecuting Jimmy Savile, you'd have thought the master strategists at LOTO's disposal might have investigated the basics and determined the possibility of blowback before painting targets onto the leader's flanks.

Equally wise commentators have noted that, despite the advert, we're all still talking about it so job done. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as bad publicity, as the Jeremy Corbyn years attest. And there are consequences. People in the Labour Party, including senior officials and shadow cabinet members, and outside of it are horrified not because of "the optics" or "the vibes", or even the impact it will have on the rather dull local election campaign. It's that it significantly adds to the coarseness of British politics and will encourage racist bullying in the playground, the workplace, as well as incidences of racial abuse. Soft on racism, soft on the political party causes of racism. Incidence of hate crime ticked upwards when Johnson likened Muslim women to postboxes, and there's no reason to believe a viral social media campaign - now amplified by much coverage - would have the same effect.

Let's be blunt. If racism against black and Asian people was taken seriously by the Labour Party, this ad never would have been conceived let alone published. It's symptomatic of the cynical politics of the Labour right, who think these attacks are the essence of super clever politics, and for whom the definition of what's racist depends on the politics of the target. But this isn't just a rank-and-file problem, but an issue of leadership failure and of turning a blind eye. Those responsible for the ad are in daily contact with the top of the Labour Party, and someone senior - maybe more than one - in the apparat and the political leadership would have given it the once over and nodded it through. Perhaps with a laugh and an appreciation of what "hard bastards" they are. The buck for this shitty state of affairs stops with the leader. Starmer, whose lying and shiftiness has become as routine as it was for Johnson is responsible for Labour's culture, for the attacks put out by the national party, and for what their content is. If there was anything decent about the man, this wouldn't have happened in the first place. But because it has and there will be no one calling for accountability and an apology in the media mainstream, it will happen again. And again. And again and again.