Keir’s policy wreck

IT’S not every day that the Mail and the trade unions are in full agreement.

But the GMB is right to say that Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas drilling would ‘decimate’ jobs.

Union bosses are also correct in warning that it would cut the tax take to the Treasury and leave us even more reliant on foreign imports of energy, thereby increasing our carbon footprint.

This is just the latest example of an illconceived Labour policy rapidly coming apart at the seams.

We also learned yesterday that the party’s plan to impose VAT on private schools may end up raising no money at all. It would put some out of business, potentially throwing thousands of their pupils on the state system for zero financial gain.

Meanwhile, having boasted that he would bring integrity back into British politics, Sir Keir will soon welcome as his new chiefof-staff Sue Gray, scourge of Boris Johnson and suspected by many of having been a Labour mole at the heart of the supposedly impartial civil service.

To win the next election, Sir Keir must demonstrate a coherent strategy for government which has so far been sorely lacking. Gimmickry and class-war politics are no substitute for competence.