The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday September 19 2024 #Starmer
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's video bulletin for this Thursday. My name is Dale Miller. I'm deputy editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Westminster correspondent, Alexander Brown. Alex, we've got a big few days coming up with Labor Conference, the first one that they'll hold as the government.
00:19But ahead of that, there has been plenty that Sir Keir Starmer's had to deal with and plenty of mud flinging happening over the past couple of days. We'll get to that shortly. But to talk about the front page of the Scotsman, firstly, we did a big package of the Scotsman on 10 years since the independence referendum.
00:40And John Swinney was speaking about it yesterday. He said Indyref 2, effectively a second referendum, was on the backburner. He made some really interesting comments about where he saw the issue of independence at when he spoke from the assembly rooms on Wednesday.
00:58You can read that full story at Scotsman.com and all our coverage around 10 years since Indyref, including pieces from Swinney himself, Henry McLeish, Jackie Bailey and many more. You'll be able to find those either in the politics or the opinion tab on the homepage.
01:17Alex, Sir Keir Starmer, he's faced criticism about level of GIFs, which has been a big talking point over the past couple of days, and now also facing criticism over Sue Gray's salary, which is higher than his as prime minister and something that I believe that he had to tweak the rules around just to make that allowable.
01:42Is this a big deal in your mind and what sort of platform does it create for Starmer and the party heading into Labor conference?
01:50I don't know that it's a big deal or something that's going to drastically damage the government and leave, overshadow the Labor conference completely.
02:00But it does speak to a complete failure to understand the public mood and issues of both communications and I think also perception. So the prime minister has accepted more GIFs than any other MP in the Commons.
02:15This includes tickets to Taylor Swift. And I mean, tickets are already expensive. He's getting box tickets. He's always in the box of Arsenal. He's defended that previously saying, well, you know, I can't go to away games or, you know, I can't go in the stands because I'm the leader. That doesn't seem fair.
02:30Well, you know, you've got a big job. Maybe it's not something that you should be doing. And the issue for the Labour Party is they were supposed to be better than this. They talked about, you know, country first, party second, restoring standards, restoring faith. And for the Tories, they say, well, hold on a minute.
02:46And the SNP are making the same argument. And you're in a difficult position when the SNP and the Tories are making the same criticism. They're saying, well, hold on. You're saying how things are tough, how you need to make cuts. And then you're accepting all these freebies and all these jollies. And you're having a donor who you then later gave a Downing Street pass to borrow your wife's clothes. So it just looks really bad.
03:05And Labour will say, hold on, we're just focusing on governing. And the Tories used to do this all the time. Boris Johnson had his holidays paid for. They had all that, all the donor money that then put that, you know, gold wallpaper in Downing Street, which I think has now been torn down. They say, you know, they didn't make hay of this when the Tories were doing the same. But that doesn't really matter. They're supposed to be different. They've made the whole campaign about how they were going to be better and party of service. And the optics of it are terrible.
03:32As for Sue Gray, you know, Sue Gray's payment is £170,000 a year, which is nice work if you can get to it. I think it's worth noting that's less than the BBC political editor and many of the political editors who are criticising it. And also about where Dominic Cummings' salary would have been. I think he was on £143,000. But if you take into inflation, it would have been about the same. So it's not ideal. And I think we're told that she was said, you know, could you take a lower salary? And she declined.
03:59I'm less interested in the fact that she has a higher salary than the Prime Minister. What's more interesting and shows us more about where the Labour Party and the government are, is that we know that she was paid more than the Prime Minister. We know this because there are briefings coming out against her. There are, you know, I think there was one from a senior Labour source saying she was the only elderly person to do well after the Labour government. You know, there's these angry briefings because people do not like Sue Gray.
04:26Sue Gray came in controversially, having been involved in the examination of Boris Johnson's behaviour. And for many in the Labour Party, they think she's overbearing. She is too in control. She is leading with an iron fist. This meant that every minister who has their SPAD, you know, your special advisor, you will say, well, maybe I want this person. I've worked with this person before. They know the brief. I'd like to come over. They needed Sue Gray's approval.
04:50It may be that she's, you know, Chief of Staff. That's OK. But there was a lot of backlash when Dominic Cummings was telling people they had to fire their staff or these certain people couldn't work for certain ministers. So it's hypocritical and it just looks bad. And it shows a real split in the government over who likes and who really doesn't like Sue Gray.
05:09So, you know, three months effectively in the government. Are they going into Labour conference more divided than we would have expected at this early stage?
05:40Even when numerous MPs have gone on the record previously in the general election campaign or when they were backbenchers in the opposition saying, I don't support this policy. And then they've all voted for it. So Keir's got complete control of his party. I don't think there was any huge rift or threat.
05:56And I think the real issue for Labour, and I think this is something that Downing Street is mindful of, is they want to have more optimism. And this is what MPs want to see. It's OK to say to people, you know, we're going to make some tough decisions, but you have to balance that with optimism and a reason to think, you know what, things can get better.
06:11So my understanding is Labour are really going to focus on showing what a Labour government can do for the country, what Labour can do in power in the next five or however many years it is. Will this mean huge sweeping policy or investment? I'm not sure.
06:27I'm not sure. I think we're more likely to see reference to what the Labour Party has done before and promises of what they're working towards. I don't think we're going to see abolishment of policies that people want to get rid of or huge U-turns. But the party's general feeling is complete support.
06:44And, you know, bear in mind, you and I will talk about this in our job. We will go, is there any unhappiness? Is there anything you can write about? And I'll talk to Labour MPs and they'll go, well I completely support the government. At the moment, I'm going to say that to you, but I'll come back to you later if things don't improve. So they know that there's this whole dynamic that we know exists where they kind of want a bit more and if they don't get a bit more, they'll start talking and there'll be a bit of a divide between us MPs and the government. But at the moment, everything is hunky dory.
07:12Alex, I know you're going to be at Labour Conference starting from Sunday and rolling through into next week. You'll be able to read all the latest of Alex's coverage from every day of the conference at Scotsman.com. Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X and go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow for all the very latest.
07:34We'll have a wrap of what's happened at First Minister's Questions and there's also a couple of key ministerial statements on climate emissions and education taking place today. You'll read all the latest on both of those at the Scotsman. Thanks for joining us.