Inside and Outside the Big Tent

Hands up everybody who was blind sided by the news that Keir Starmer cut a deal with the Murdoch papers? Anyone? My, what a cynical bunch. But it is true. In exchange for an easy ride and The Sun's general election endorsement, Labour have promised not to launch the second part of the Leveson inquiry. This, which was abandoned by the Tories in 2018, was meant to investigate the cosy and corrupt relationship between tabloid "journalism" and the police. Some comrades are mistaken for thinking this is another example of Starmerite cowardice, however. There is a mutual benefit to both parties. Murdoch is spared a raking over of his company's accounts, with senior hacks and executives hauled in front of an inquiry and having to answer very awkward questions under oath. And for Labour, with its efforts at trying to restore state legitimacy, having yet another plod scandal is far from ideal. Nor, to be honest, is Starmer fussed about changing the media. It's served him well so far, and launching another inquiry will only cause newsrooms to start noticing things. Like the lying, and the outrageous embarrassments.

However, not all elite interests get a free pass in Starmer's Britain. Rachel Reeves has vowed to get tough with the Covid fraudsters and tackle the £7.6bn worth of fraudulently claimed payments and procurement contracts that Rishi Sunak showed an interesting reluctance to deal with. Not least because friends of the Tories, including quite a few actual Tories, did well out of the government's largesse. A nice bit of populism that sees the state smite those who diddled the hard working, rule-abiding taxpayer.

Why should Labour be gunning for these people? Because they're an open goal, politically speaking. There are easy plaudits to be won from those parts of Labour's coalition that want progressive gestures, and might start getting a touch rebellious if none are forthcoming. Wider than that, who but the idiots from Spiked would defend such a bunch? It's a crusade that allows Labour to style itself the political arm of the British people, as Tony Blair once cringingly put it. But also, it's a tell for which bits of capital are outside the the big tent of Starmer's bourgeois politics. I.e. The most uncompetitive, labour intensive, and domestically oriented sections of capital that did well under the last 14 years of Tory government. The crony capital that benefited from their personal relations with the Tories, and struck it lucky when the government was throwing money at anything that resembled personal protection equipment. Labour are offering the spectacle not just of vengeance, but a clean break between their "grown up" politics and the sleaze and corruption of the Tories. Not that Labour isn't cultivating its own clientele capital, but like the Blair years this will be done "properly" through regulated investment vehicles, "crowding in" initiatives like the National Wealth Fund and Great British Energy, and whatever wheeze Wes Streeting comes up with for the NHS. Singling out corrupt practices of the recent past eases the passage for the in-plain-sight corrupt practices to come.

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