‘El Presidente Blair would treat Sir Keir like a puppet’ in Lib-Lab pact
As ex-PM eyes centrist power grab, top Tory warns...
SIR Keir Starmer would be nothing but a puppet Prime Minister in a weak coalition government where Sir Tony Blair would ‘call the shots’, it was claimed last night.
Senior Tories said Sir Keir would be just the ‘humble CEO to El Presidente Blair’ in a minority government propped up by the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party.
They raised fears that would be the result of Labour limping into power on the back of a ‘secret’ electoral deal to con the British electorate and deny the Tories a Commons majority at the next election, in a return to the days of the Lib-Lab pacts of the 1970s.
The warning comes just days after Sir Tony fuelled talk of a comeback into the front-line of British politics by hosting a ‘Future of Britain’ conference which included a call to change the UK’s voting system.
Broadcaster Andrew Neil wrote in yesterday’s Daily Mail that the former prime minister was ‘already on manoeuvres’ as part of a ‘new mission’ to oust Boris Johnson at the next General Election by masterminding a centrist movement that is likely to eventually attempt to reverse Brexit. Mr Neil said the aim of the ‘convocation of Remainers’ was to ‘begin the process of drawing up a new agenda for the centre and centreLeft’ which would likely reopen the question of Brexit ‘somewhere down the road’.
Sir Keir’s Labour and Sir Ed Davey’s Lib Dems were accused of a secret ‘Rainbow Alliance’
‘Limping to power on the back of a secret electoral deal’
electoral pact that helped both parties inflict defeat on Mr Johnson’s Tories in two by-elections last month.
Both Labour and the Lib Dems denied that. But it has sparked Tory fears the two rivals will repeat the ‘grubby backroom pact’ tactic at the next General Election to deny the Conservatives a majority at Westminster.
The Mail on Sunday has been told that senior Liberal Democrat strategists have discussed dusting down plans first drawn up before the 2015 General Election, under which the party would make a number of policy stipulations as a condition for forging an agreement with Labour.
A party source said they were code-named the ‘Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon’ plans – because the rooms at the Commons used to hold the discussions with Labour would be booked in that name to avoid arousing any suspicion.
The demands included the introduction of proportional representation and state funding for political parties – post-Brexit, they are expected to be updated to include a commitment to return to the EU Single Market.
Last night, Tory MP Richard Holden told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It seems increasingly obvious from last week’s Blair revival act that this is all designed to lead to a puppet Starmer government in which the current Labour leader acts as the humble CEO to El Presidente Blair.
‘Tony will be the one calling the shots and giving the orders to a weak Starmer.’ But Mr Holden added that ‘this con trick on the British electorate’ can only be achieved with the Liberal Democrats and the SNP propping it up.
‘This opens the terrible prospect of a cobbled-together coalition under figurehead Sir Keir ramming through proportional representation (PR) without giving the British people a say in a referendum,’ he said.
‘That’s no surprise as the last time electors were offered a vote on scrapping our hallowed first-pastthe-post system, they rejected it.’
The warning was echoed by former Labour MP Ian Austin, who said it would be ‘outrageous’ if the UK’s first-past-the-post system was scrapped in this way. In an article for The Mail on Sunday, Lord Austin – who quit the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and now sits as a non-affiliated peer – raised fears that PR elections would usher in an era of ‘secret horse-trading after every general election’, with manifesto pledges simply ‘torn up’ in power deals after polling day.
To make matters worse, he said it would mean the SNP demanding referendum after referendum until they managed to ‘break up Britain’. Lord Austin writes: ‘The initial effect of such a deal could be to create a weak Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer but at the beck and call of the Lib Dems and
‘The cost to our country would be enormous’
Scottish National Party. The cost to our country would be enormous.’
Sir Keir is expected to rule out a deal with the SNP to head off the Tory warnings. But at the heart of those dire concerns are fears the Lib Dems will demand a change to the electoral system but without a referendum, to avoid a repeat of 2011 when electors rejected plans for an ‘alternative vote’.
At last week’s event hosted by Sir Tony, ex-Tory Cabinet Minister Rory Stewart suggested Britain would be better off with a PR system as it would help centrist politicians as opposed to the current ‘adversarial’ first-pastthe-post rules.