'Sleaze and scandal', claimed Labour's 2024 manifesto, have been hallmarks of the Tory years in government and had 'eroded trust' in our politics. Keir Starmer would be different, as befits a senior lawyer who dined out on his probity.
His Labour Party would 'always put the interests of the country first' by embarking on a 'clean-up' of public life 'that ensures the highest standards of integrity.'
Given the enormity of other matters unfolding, at home and abroad, Labour's progress or otherwise in this clean up campaign has perhaps not had the scrutiny it deserves, its promise to exude only the 'highest standards of integrity' in public office not sufficiently tested. So I thought it useful to do a quick audit of Labour's efforts, so far, to banish 'Tory sleaze and scandal' from public life.
An early indication that it was not going to be all plain sailing came shortly after the election. Starmer and other senior Labour figures (including his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves), while lecturing the Tories about their nefarious ways, had been quietly accepting lavish gifts from wealthy donors and lobbyists, including expensive designer glasses and suits, luxurious accommodation, clothing for Starmer's wife and high-value tickets to events like Arsenal matches and Taylor Swift concerts.
One especially generous donor, Waheed Alli, a Labour peer of Blairite vintage, was granted special access to 10 Downing Street in return for his largesse and allowed a role in appointing advisers.
Naturally revelations that even top Labour snouts could be found dipping into the freebie trough were something of an embarrassment for a Government anxious to exhibit its austere, roundhead credentials after years of the careless, cavalier Tories.
But it was excused as the folly of inexperienced newcomers and lessons had been learned. The fact that Starmer, by one calculation, has received more gifts than any other MP since 2019, was ignored. Labour's crusade against sleaze and scandal, we were assured, was still intact. Except that it wasn't. These early breaches of proper behaviour, far from being a one off, turned out to be the shape of things to come.
Sometimes on an almost farcical scale.
'Labour's crusade against sleaze and scandal, we were assured, was still intact,' writes Andrew Neil. 'Except that it wasn't'
For since then we've had the anti-corruption minister (Tulip Siddiq) forced to step down after getting caught up in a family corruption scandal in Bangladesh, where she has been sentenced in absentia.
A housing minister (Angela Rayner, who doubled up as deputy prime minister) forced to resign after being accused of failing to pay her property taxes (still a live matter which HMRC has yet to resolve).
And, perhaps at once most scandalous and ridiculous of all, a minister for the homeless (Rushanara Ali) resigning after reports she had evicted tenants from her property then relisted it with a £700 rent increase, thereby potentially adding to the homeless problem.
In each case, the irony of the clash between their ministerial roles and the reasons they had to resign served to amplify the embarrassment. Suddenly it looked as if the Tories had been mere amateurs in the sleaze and scandal stakes. Labour were the true professionals. It certainly had strength in numbers. The list of miscreants is formidable.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh was an early casualty, resigning only five months after the election when it emerged she had failed to disclose at the time of her appointment that she had been convicted of fraud for misleading police about a lost work phone in 2013.
Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons is the latest to bite the dust. It was clear he was toast after it emerged he had commissioned a 'dirty dossier' with which to smear journalists who had mounted an investigation into the finances of Labour Together, a think-tank he once ran.
He fell on his sword last Saturday just as all our attentions were turning to the US-Israeli attacks on Iran - demonstrating that, though in many ways this Government is still wet behind the ears, it can spot a good day to bury bad news when it needs one.
Of course some of those who've resigned would not have made much of a splash even on a quiet news day because they're hardly household names. Not so Peter Mandelson, whose sacking as our man in Washington made headlines around the world.
He was brought down by revelations from the Jeffrey Epstein files which showed him consorting and dealing with Epstein even after his conviction for procuring a minor.
They also suggest Mandelson was regularly feeding the paedophile highly sensitive information from the very top of the British Government of which Mandelson was Business Secretary. That's why he's being investigated by Scotland Yard.
Of course the allegations all relate to a time long before Starmer was Prime Minister. But when you promise a Government of 'the highest standards of integrity and honesty' then fail properly to vet someone like Mandelson (he's known as the Prince of Darkness for a reason), then you can hardly be surprised when your clean-up campaign hits the rocks.
Nor is there any sign that Starmer's judgment is getting better when it comes to Labour appointments. Three party worthies he sent to the House of Lords only last December are already in trouble.
Ann Limb has admitted lying about having a PhD from Liverpool University (what is it, I can hear you asking Rachel from Accounts, about Labour folk claiming qualifications they don't possess?).
She's not yet taken her seat pending an investigation. She also has questions to answer about a City and Guilds charity which, during the time she was chair, saw two executives pocket £1million bonuses a piece.
Joe Docherty, appointed a Scottish Labour peer at the same time as Limb, lost the Labour whip only weeks later after allegations surfaced of 'inappropriate sexual conduct' when a senior education executive in Newcastle. Another brand new Scottish peer, Matthew Doyle, has also lost the Labour whip. A veteran party spin doctor - he was 10 Downing Street director of communications following Starmer's election victory - he has faced major controversy over his past links to a convicted sex offender (a former Scottish Labour councillor for whom Doyle campaigned even after he was charged with possessing indecent images of children).
Now, hot off the presses as we used to say, we learn that the three men arrested this week on suspicion of spying for China all have Labour Party connections.
One is a former Welsh Labour press officer. A second, also from Wales, is a former special adviser to the Welsh Labour government. A third, also with Welsh Labour connections, is married to a Scottish Labour MP who has suspended herself from the party whip in the Commons.
Labour has been understandably making much of the Reform UK leader in Wales jailed for spying for the Russians. I doubt we'll be hearing much more about him from Labour now.
Labour, of course, does not have a monopoly of sleaze or scandal. Only yesterday a Tory peer said he'd leave the Lords after an inquiry found multiple breaches of standards in his efforts to win Covid contracts during the pandemic for a company in which he had a financial interest. He'd even refused to cooperate with previous inquiries.
But by July 2024 the country had had its fill of the Tories. It was Labour that promised to banish sleaze and scandal from public life.
Voters took the party at its word. They expected improvements. The PM, after all, never stopped reminding them he'd been England's top prosecutor.
Yet instead of a much-needed cleansing of the stables, at least 12 government members have resigned or been sacked in only 20 short months.
Other Labour figures have been mired in wrongdoing. Turns out Labour is just as sleazy and scandalous as the Tories - at their current rate of malpractice, perhaps even more so.
It has contributed not just to deep disillusion with Labour but to mounting disgust with our public life in general. No wonder those calling the shots in British politics these days are the anti-establishment insurgents of the populist Left and Right.
The public no longer thinks Labour or the Tories are capable of cleaning up anything, least of all their own messes.