the times | Saturday May 28 2022 2GMK1 3
News
Sir Keir Starmer is to publish a book
about Britain under a Labour govern-
ment, originally written as a private col-
lection of his thoughts, in the face of
claims that he has failed to communi-
cate his vision.
The leader of the opposition has been
paid about £18,000 as part of an
advance for the book, and will donate
the sum to charity. It is due to be
released later this year.
He started writing it in his office at
home in Kentish Town, north London,
during lockdown and initially intended
it to be a space to organise his ideas.
However, he realised there was some
“good-quality stuff” which officials felt
could be used “properly”, so agreed a
book deal with the publishers Harper-
Collins, a subsidiary of News Corp, the
ultimate owners of The Times.
Starmer has been criticised for failing
to communicate what Britain under
to sending a grossly offensive and
menacing message via a public elec-
tronic communications network, con-
trary to the Communications Act 2003.
He was given a suspended 12-month
prison sentence when he appeared in
court on Tuesday. He was fined £2,000,
ordered to pay a victim surcharge of
£128 and costs of £85, and made subject
to a restraining order banning him from
contacting Lammy.
Chief Superintendent Damien
Miller, of West Yorkshire police, said:
“No one should have to endure the
kind of disgusting racist abuse that was
directed at Mr Lammy. Members of
parliament can be particular targets
for threats and abuse, either directly or
online, and we continue to work
closely with them and their staff to
safeguard and reassure them as they
carry out their vital public duty.”When Jeremy Corbyn took to the
Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2017,
he was greeted by rhythmic chanting of
his name by tens of thousands of
festivalgoers.
This summer, in the midst of festival
season, Tony Blair will be hoping for a
pilgrimage of a different kind — back to
the centre ground. The former
Labour prime minister is hoping to fill
the “gaping hole” left by, he says, the
lack of imagination in
British politics. His Future of Britain
Conference, which takes place the
week after Glastonbury returns for the
first time in three years and promises a
line up that may include President
Macron, will hope to provide answers.
But will the party (small p — organis-
ers insist they’re not launching a new
political force) be enough to bridge
the chasm left in the middle of the polit-
ical spectrum by the 2019 election?
Blair’s organisation, the Tony Blair
Institute, has teamed up with the Britain
Project, a “progressive” group
modelled on Macron’s La Répub-
lique En Marche, to hold the
event on June 30.
The project is headed by,
among others, the former
Conservative cabinet
ministers Rory Stewart
and David Gauke, and
the former MPs Luci-
ana Berger and
Angela Smith, who
left Labour to set up
the ill-fated Inde-
pendent Group/
Change UK before
finally finding a
home in the Liberal
Democrats.
In a yet to-be-con-
firmed venue in central
London, these faces of
politics past, many of
whom have left the scene or
lost their seats, will convene
to come up with ideas for the
future.
The conference will be hosted
by Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis,
the broadcasters who recently
Starmer to set out his vision in book
Labour would look like, and party insid-
ers have said they understand why
some may think there is a shortage of
new ideas. At a recent shadow cabinet
meeting, such concerns were raised by
a variety of voices.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancel-
lor, faltered on Times Radio when she
was asked to name Labour’s next plan
after celebrating victory over the
government’s decision to impose a
windfall tax, despite having just
claimed “the big ideas in politics today
are coming from the Labour Party”.
The book is expected to set out where
the country is heading, how it can be
improved, plans for a “renewed Britain”
and what Starmer’s place is within that.
It will build on the “contract with the
British people” of security, prosperity
and respect that he set out in January in
his first big speech as leader.
While the book is expected to men-
tion his family background, it will be
more politically focused and addresshis priorities, shaped by his career as
director of public prosecutions before
entering Westminster, including tack-
ling violence against women and girls
and upholding integrity and honesty.
The payment for the advance, which
is due to appear in Starmer’s register of
interests next week, will be donated to
causes including those supporting
female victims of violence.
A spokesman for Starmer said: “The
result of a project started during lock-
down, Keir’s book lays out his plans for
a renewed Britain, and why he believes
in the vital importance of putting integ-
rity back into public life.”
The book will not be Starmer’s first,
although previous publications have
focused on law and human rights.
Boris Johnson is also known for writ-
ing books. A biography of Shakespeare,
due to be released in October 2016, was
shelved for the “foreseeable future” in
2019 after he became prime minister.
Starmer faces tribunal claims, page 23Geraldine Scott Political Reporter
Lammy defiant after racist
convicted over death threat
David Lammy says he will not be
silenced by the far right after a racist
was given a suspended prison sentence
and fined for sending him a death
threat on Twitter.
The shadow foreign secretary was
responding to the conviction at Leeds
magistrates’ court of Glenn Broadbent,
62, who asked him: “Are you hanging
off a tree monkey boy? You will hang
from a lamppost if you’re not careful.”
Lammy, 49, who has been the MP for
Tottenham in north London for almost
22 years, tweeted yesterday: “Pleased to
report a vile racist who sent me this
death threat using a pseudonym has
finally been convicted, given a suspend-
ed sentence and fined thanks to
@WestYorksPolice. The far right will
never silence me or stop me standing up
for justice.”
Broadbent, of Leeds, pleaded guiltyleft the BBC to join the radio station
LBC, the Politico website reported.
There may even be an appearance by
the man behind MoneySavingExpert,
Martyn Lewis.
Politicians expected to speak
include Baroness Davidson of Lundin
Links, the former Scottish Tory leader
and now a Times Radio presenter.
David Miliband, the former foreign
secretary who runs the humanitarianBlairfest asks: What’s the big idea?
The three-times
victorious Labour leader
is behind a conference
to tackle Britain’s woes,
writes Geraldine Scott
organisation the International Rescue
Committee, is understood to have been
approached.
For Blair, the intervention marks his
latest step in a return to political life. In
an interview with the New Statesman in
March, he said he did not want to return
to a frontline role but wanted to advise
the next Labour government.
He has thrown his support behind Sir
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, in a
marked difference to his approach to
Corbyn. Blair appeared in a video last
month praising Starmer for putting
Labour “back on a winning path”. He
has lamented there being a “gaping
hole” in the governing of Britain where
new ideas should be” in both parties.
In a speech in January he said in
order to avoid a “steady, inexorable
compound decline”, such as that seen in
the 1960s and 1970s, parties needed “a
plan, into which hard work and thought
has gone. Policy detail. Strategic
analysis. At present, there isn’t one,” he
said.
An appearance by Macron would
prove a coup for Blair, who has previ-
ously showered the French leader with
praise. Writing in Le Monde in 2017,
Blair called his achievements “extraor-
dinary”, said he had “remarkable ideo-
logical clarity” and moved “beyond old
paradigms of left and right and pitting
himself vigorously against the new
populism sweeping western politics”.
The admiration goes both ways.
Damon Mayaffre, a French linguist,
found that Macron “sometimes literally
plagiarises the success of Tony Blair”.
After plugging more than 1,
Macron speeches through an artificial
intelligence program, Mayaffre said
that, like Blair, Macron’s addresses speak
to the left while playing to the right.
Macron was even accused of
channelling Blair when he posed, shirt
undone and lounging on a sofa, before
last month’s presidential election that
secured his second term. Blair had been
known to undo two buttons but never
to go quite as far as the centrist French
leader.
Suggestions that Project Britain
could be Britain’s answer to En Marche,
the political movement launched by
Macron in 2016 before winning power
the following year, have been
dismissed, however.
One person involved with Project
Britain described the group as
“progressive” but definitely not a new
centrist political party. “It’s an opportu-
nity to bring people together to discuss
ideas,” they said.ROBERT PRATTA/REUTERSPresident Macron is touted as a guest
speaker at Tony Blair’s Future of
Britain conference, to be hosted by
the broadcaster Emily Maitlisf