ESTHER McVEY: Our increasingly authoritarian PM shows why Labour will always be the polar opposite to the Conservatives

Sir Keir Starmer is turning into a dictatorial PM, writes Esther McVey (Image: PA)

One of the many problems with socialism is that behind it lies a belief that the state knows best, and the public cannot be trusted to make decisions for themselves. But Starmer’s increased authoritarianism is going beyond even that of typical socialists. He is starting to take on the mantle of a dictator. Last week he announced the planned cancellation of local elections next year in 63 areas which even the Electoral Commission classed as “unprecedented”, and those delays come on top of the four mayoral contests he’s pushed back until May 2028.

As leading psephologist Professor Sir John Curtis puts it: “Labour is in deep electoral trouble.” Starmer knows Labour faces wipe-out in large parts of the country, but instead of accepting the views of the public, he has instead decided to do what a banana republic leader would do and cancel the elections. Any Conservative councillor who goes along with this democratic outrage should have the Conservative whip withdrawn. A belief in democracy is a fundamental part of being a Tory.

Starmer’s also sneaked out a last-minute announcement to cancel the daily afternoon briefing for journalists – to remove scrutiny of him and his government – which the Society of Editors slammed for undermining democratic accountability. Of course, dictators don’t want to facilitate a free press holding them to account. They have only their narrative they want to peddle. Like No.10’s Orwellian double speak for cancelling those briefings that change was needed to “better serve journalists” and “better inform the public”. What utter tosh.

But dictatorships feel comfortable lying to the public. Remember Saddam Hussein’s henchman Comical Ali telling the Iraqi public that they were winning the war when you could virtually see the US troops in the backdrop advancing on the centre of Baghdad.

Whether it’s Rayner and her stamp duty, Reeves and her cv and home rental licence, or Starmer over what he knew about Mandelson, lies roll off their lips. Starmer even thinks he can tell people that Labour hasn’t broken their manifesto promise not to increase taxes on working people, and the public will swallow it.

Just like all dictators he holds the public in disdain, thinking they’re stupid, which in turn gives him the right to lie to them, because either they won’t understand or can’t be trusted to do the right thing.

Starmer’s abolition of jury trials falls under this. To a socialist the public can’t be trusted to make decisions like that – they have to be left to a state appointed judge – and the lie used to justify this was that it is to get the backlog of cases down.

Starmer makes a lot about being a lawyer, but his government has become a law unto itself. Mendacity and clinging to power have become their only guiding principles. I bet the PM’s currently trying to work out how to delay the next General Election. All for our own good of course – it’s just we don’t understand that yet.

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Lily Collins and Ashley Park on the red carpet of the new series of Emily In Paris (Image: AFP via GettY)

Series five of Emily In Paris has just returned to the screens and I, along with fellow fan Rishi Sunak and 58 million others, will be watching it. The lead, Emily, is played by Lily Collins, daughter of Genesis legend Phil Collins, and one of the love interests is played by Lucien Laviscount, son of a Burnley bodybuilder. It is a cross between a travel show, a fashion show and a rom com. It’s my TV secret pleasure and I recommend it to everyone.

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On Christmas Eve, 1925, Winnie the Pooh first appeared as a story in The Evening Standard newspaper. One hundred years later and Pooh is thankfully still going strong.

The author, AA Milne, was a playwright, Punch humourist and survivor of the Somme. I always wondered whether Milne created those dreamy stories about honey, the weather and friendship to find some tranquility after the horrors he must have seen in the war. Whatever the reason, let’s hope the simplicity of the stories of a little bear, Christopher Robin, piglet and Eye-ore manage to captivate audiences for another 100 years.

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Tyson Fury is the latest in the long line of rich people quitting the UK after Rachel from Accounts tax-raising budgets.

The boxer and his family are heading for the Isle of Man where the tax is almost half that of the UK – 21% compared to 40% for the higher rate. Reeves and her fellow Labour MPs play down the number of wealthy people quitting the UK but Tyson is just one of the 252,000 Brits who quit the UK year alone.

How many people will take to leave before this rotten Labour government realises that these tax hikes are counter-productive/

Tyson Fury is the latest celebrity to say he’s quitting the UK (Image: PA)

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What is it about Labour grandees that feel they need to mislead about their qualifications? First Reeves, then Chief Whip “I’m-not-really-a-solicitor” Jonathan Reynolds, and now Dame Ann Limb, donor to the Labour Party, who has been nominated for a peerage by Starmer this month, appears not to be a ‘Dr’ despite her CV suggesting otherwise. Maybe they know deep down they are out of their depth and so feel the need to pretend otherwise.

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This year started with the government being exposed for not protecting young white girls from being raped by predominantly Muslim men of Pakistani heritage and it has ended with white boys having to take misogyny classes in a bid to halve violence against women in the next decade.

How typical of Labour. They don’t want to tackle the major issue of rape gangs in the UK, but instead divert attention by announcing some pointless, expensive, spurious politically correct programme which won’t make any difference at all. The £1billion cost should have gone to funding the rape gang inquiry at the start of the year rather than trying to kick it into the long grass.