Keir Starmer has had a good few weeks. I say that as a Tory donor and someone who has been broadly opposed to the way this Labour Party has governed since coming to power. This isn’t down to luck. He handled the Trump vs Zelenskyy situation very well, and the public noticed. Even better, after sensing the world had become more dangerous, he moved swiftly to increase the defence budget at the expense of foreign aid. Boosting national security while cutting aid ticked two big boxes for most voters.
The increase in defence spending was actually tiny. We need much more and finding that money will be politically painful — but if Starmer moves with confidence, the country will back him.
Threats to national security unite the public, and decisive leaders gain support in dangerous times. The opposite is also true: if a leader hesitates in the face of danger, they’re finished.
There is a very real threat that Starmer is avoiding. In fact, he’s making things worse.
We are hideously over-reliant on food from other nations and this puts us in massive danger. Our chronic neglect of farming is at least as big a risk to us as our depleted armed forces.
The real danger for food under-producers like the UK is geopolitics and foreign conflict — both can shatter our security and bring us to our knees.
Think back to the cost of living crisis — it was driven by war between Ukraine and Russia, two of the world’s biggest food and energy producers. The resulting food price inflation in 2023 was bad everywhere, but much worse here because of our over-reliance on imports. That war,1,700 miles away, caused UK food prices to jump 19%, generating increased poverty, stress and political turmoil.
Future conflicts could be far worse. Imagine food prices doubling — panic buying, theft, and violence would follow. Price rises of 200% or more are feasible.
It’s obvious that we need to produce more food. We absolutely must rear more animals, grow more vegetables and increase our fishing fleet. Amid a fracturing and increasingly nationalistic world we are beholden to the good will of other nations — this is negligent. Now is the time to back British food production and support our farmers.
Instead of working with farmers our government’s antagonised, alienated and demotivated them — morale is at an all time low. Starmer needs to rebuild his bridges and do an about turn.
U-turns are difficult for politicians to make and justify – but when national security is at stake nobody will criticise a pragmatic PM.
To continue to repair his national standing Sir Keir must put his farm tax on hold for 24 months. This will generate good will with farmers and mutual respect. From this point they can work together to devise and implement a plan for increased food production and security. There’s only a brief window for Sir Keir to show leadership and make this happen.
If he doesn’t, as soon as the public sees just how at risk we are from food shortages then it’s curtains for Keir.
I hope he sees sense.
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Source: Politics
