Johnson laughs at coal mine closures as Starmer makes effort to woo donors

Boris Johnson’s sense of humour has given the public another glimpse of the callous nature that lies beneath his jovial, matey exterior. Asked about ending oil and gas exploration during a huddle with journalists on a visit to Scotland, the Prime Minister said: “Look at what we’ve done already. We’ve transitioned away from coal in my lifetime. Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines [laughs] across the country, we had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.” It followed Keir Starmer’s call for a “hard-edged timetable” for ending that exploration.

“Boris Johnson’s shameful praising of Margaret Thatcher’s closure of the coal mines, brushing off the devastating impact on those communities with a laugh, shows just how out of touch he is with working people,” Starmer responded. Lisa Nandy added: “Without investment in good, green jobs as we move away from fossil fuels, the Conservatives risk repeating the mistakes of the past. It is vital that the green transition is a fair transition. The Prime Minister should apologise.”

As Johnson made jokes that touched on the traumas of his newly won voters in former mining communities, forgetting to maintain the misleading impression that he is a Tory Prime Minister unlike and unconnected to any other, Starmer used his own visit to Scotland more effectively. Labour has launched a campaign around “making Britain the best place to work”, with a different theme each week. Week one was security and rights; week two has centred on the creation of high-quality, well-paid green jobs.

Labour has highlighted via press release that 75,000 green jobs were lost under the Conservatives between 2014 and 2019. Starmer, now out of self-isolation and able to continue his series of summer trips, joined Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in speaking to young people in Glasgow about the climate emergency ahead of COP26, seeing allotments and gardens built by volunteers in North Lanarkshire, and visiting the largest onshore windfarm in the UK. He also recommitted Labour to achieving the “substantial majority” of greenhouse gas emission cuts by 2030.

Starmer made interventions that look particularly designed to attract Labour donors, too. The party is in a poor financial state, at least compared to recent years: in the Noughties, party debts rose to tens of millions; now, as LabourList reported exclusively in July, party reserves are down to just one month’s payroll according to general secretary David Evans. With legal cases yet to be resolved and a more expensive complaints process on the way, the party is currently looking to cut at least 90 staff – first through voluntary redundancies, but tensions will rise between unions and Labour if the voluntary route alone is not enough. In short, the situation is urgent.

That may explain why Starmer did not only signal his strong green pledges in Scotland, but also appeared to make overtures to Gary Smith. The new GMB general secretary, Edinburgh-born and a former Scotland secretary of the union, has repeatedly suggested since taking up his post that donations from his trade union to Labour are under threat. Well-placed sources say he is utterly serious about the move. GMB has already made a start in London, where it recently announced that it will not offer any more financial support to local Labour campaigns unless a row over Islington Council’s dismissal of a caretaker is sorted out.

Gary Smith declared last month that he would back strike action during COP26 in Glasgow because it is “hypocrisy” for the climate summit to be held in the “crumbling” and “filthy” city. Alongside Sarwar, Starmer drew attention this week to the failures of the local SNP council and posed with GMB key workers saying: “Don’t treat us like trash.” GMB, with many members who work in energy, was strongly opposed to the socialist green new deal motion at the 2019 Labour conference, which makes Starmer’s public backing for GMB members here all the more important.

It is Starmer’s Financial Times interview from Scotland that has got Labour members talking on social media today. Despite Labour’s policy-heavy week, his key message here is that the party will develop a partnership with business and talk about Brexit. The top lines relate to the party’s internal troubles, as the leader urges members to be proud of Labour’s record in government and pledges to “turn the Labour Party inside out”. He warns: “Too many of our members and supporters think winning an internal argument in the Labour Party is changing the world – it isn’t. We’ve got to get real.”

Some members find it frustrating that Starmer would use this opportunity to criticise party supporters and stress the need to focus outwards while not actually doing so. Why would Starmer give such an interview to the FT? To me, it looks like another attempt to woo donors – a pool of people who are thought to want Labour to be more pro-business, to want Starmer to talk about Brexit and to prefer Tony Blair over Jeremy Corbyn. And, of course, who are more likely to read the FT.