The Guardian and the Sun, along with the Economist, the Sunday Times, the New Statesman, the FT and the Mirror/Sunday Mirror, have all united in endorsing Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in the general election.
Guardian Labour Party pomp
In its endorsement, the Guardian hyped up the Labour manifesto. It champions “eye catching policies” such as “creating a publicly owned green energy company”.
But Keir Starmer has admitted, the idea it’s a ‘publicly owned energy company’ is pure propaganda. He conceded:
It’d be an investment vehicle, not an energy company, it’s an investment vehicle in the energy of the future.
As Labour has said, the so-called ‘publicly owned company’ will in fact be for removing risk to bring in private sector investment:
It is government’s job not just to regulate markets but to shape them and to de-risk them so that we crowd in the private investment that allows new industries to take off
So it looks like another instance of socialised losses and privatised profit, rather than public ownership of an essential we pay for by necessity. Referencing the policy, the Guardian quipped “how refreshing”.
Labour has said it will provide £8.3bn over the next parliament for the ‘company’, which isn’t much compared to its previous abandoned pledge of £28bn per year. This is also far short of the £100bn a year the Green New Deal needs, according to the Women’s Budget Group.
The New Statesman, in its endorsement, also lauded Labour’s fictional “publicly owned renewables company”. The Sunday Mirror offered similar propaganda for Labour, claiming “this election is about saving [the NHS]”. If rip off for-profit privatisation means ‘saving it’, then perhaps. As Starmer has said:
One of the issues we’ve looked at is whether or not we’re using the private sector effectively, a number of people do go as NHS patients to the private sector. Our research shows that’s been under used and we could do more of it.
Labour has since committed to expanding private sector provision of NHS services.
Starmer’s long relationship with the Murdoch family press
Starmer has followed Tony Blair in cosying up to Rupert Murdoch who’s family business owns the Sun, the Sunday Times, and Times through News Corp.
The Labour leader attended Rupert Murdoch’s summer party in 2023. One News Corp executive said “we can’t keep him [Starmer] away”.
But Starmer’s love in with the Murdoch press goes back to when he was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008-13. During this period, he accepted hospitality from Murdoch-owned outlets on ten occasions. As Declassified reports:
This included eight lunches or drinks with journalists from the Times, Sunday Times, and the Sun, alongside his attendance at Rupert Murdoch’s summer party and the Times Christmas drinks. As DPP, Starmer was treated to lunch by two editors of the Sun
The Guardian and the Sun, along with other newspapers, united in smearing Jeremy Corbyn. Now they’ve united in backing Starmer. When it’s crunch time, the establishment outlets show where their allegiances lie.
Featured image via the Sun – YouTube and TalkTV- YouTube
