KEVIN MAGUIRE: 'Starmer needs to start acting less Clark Kent and more Superman'

Recast as a man of steel, Keir Starmer showing mettle is the key to unlocking better fortunes ahead for the country and Labour. The Prime Minister’s hitherto bendy figure contortions in Downing Street, leaving voters wondering whose side he was on as first winter fuel payments then welfare benefits were scythed, left many of his own benches despairing.

Stepping in to save Scunthorpe’s 2,700-job steel plant from a Chinese owner threatening to shut the blast furnaces is an opportunity to recast his and the UK Government’s image. Because higher living standards, improved public services and controlling borders matter more to folk than rearming and investing No 10 air miles on building a coalition of the unwilling for Ukraine.

Starmer’s sounded weak by biting his tongue to avoid criticising loony tunes Donald Trump and regrettably is determined never to speak truth to US dangerous power yet Brits want to see and hear an interventionist leader on their side. Taking control of the steel works will also be a rod for his own back as other groups demand their closure-earmarked firm, company or organisation is rescued.

The latest “me too” movement is generating demands from Port Talbot to Grangemouth and rightly so when abandoning communities and the country’s industrial base to the mercy of feckless speculators is a Thatcher experiment way beyond its sell-by date.NHS waiting lists falling six months in a row, an economy sparking into +0.5% growth and Scunthorpe are flickers of what could be for the PM and Labour.

Or disaster may be lurking around the corner, Trump’s tax madness despite climbdowns still threatening to plunge Britain and the world into global recession. Gordon Brown used to speak of power with a purpose and how Governments he was in and led were best when they were Labour rather than timid and triangulating.

Starmer acting less Clark Kent and more Superman would help.

Noch, Noch, it's Nige

Vote Reform, get the Tories with Nigel Badenoch or Kemi Farage back in charge. Imagine the Labour assaults after Hard Right Tory Shadow Cabinet desperado Andrew Griffith leapt through a door opened by his leader to town hall pacts with Reform. Deepest blue Farage feels he’s strong enough to replace the Conservative Party so is currently ruling out compacts while pretending he never knew close friend Trump.

Badenoch knows she’s weak and reaches out to Reform while similarly distancing herself from the US Pres, hoping nobody remembers she called at a first PMQs for Trump to be gifted the honour of addressing both Houses of Parliament Most Labour MPs, Ministers and Starmer himself expect Farage and Reform to be their main Right-wing enemy at the next General Election. I wouldn’t, however, rule out a Tory-Reform dirty deal.

No Brexit bonus

Trump's so-called Brexit "bonus" vanished like every other supposed benefit for Britain quitting the EU when dumb Donald dropped higher tariffs, instead hitting the UK and our 27 neighbours with the same flat-rate 10% plus 25% on cars and steel. Brexit, an unparalleled act of national self-harm.

Sink the rich

Rachel Reeves could do with a few extra bob so why not plug a loophole allowing superyacht owners to use low-tax red diesel intended for farmers. Sink the rich!

Stockwood's my guy

Grimsby tech millionaire Jason Stockwood sounds my type of guy as he stands for Labour to be Greater Lincolnshire’s first ever Mayor. The council estate lad who saved the town’s football team never forgot the place or people he’s from and wants to give something back. What a contrast with Reform rival Dame Andrea Jenkyns, a Boris Johnson fan girl and former Tory West Yorkshire MP who lost her seat then chicken flapped to Farage and another county because, said ex-colleague Nadine Dorries, she needed a job. Over to you, Yellowbellies.

Southport lies

Chair by Tory ex-Minister Karen Brady, the cross-party Home Affairs Committee’s demolition of “disgraceful” two-tier policing claims during and after last Summer’s riots is hugely important.The 11-strong Commons body includes two Conservatives including Brady and a pair of Lib Dems so is no Labour whitewash into violent lawlessness fuelled by Far Right lies after the horrendous Southport murder of three young schoolgirls.

Elon Musk and Farage owe the injured and attacked apologies but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Both are hostile to facts, feasting on division and bigotry.

Points of disorder

China refusing Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse entry into Hong Kong to visit her newborn grandson demonstrated why unprincipled Kemi Badenoch was wrong to back Israel barring two Labour MPs.Countries blocking elected politicians just because they don’t like what they think and say is an assault on British democracy and freedom of speech any decent, virtuous leader would oppose.Chancer Badenoch siding with authoritarian Governments encapsulates the fall of a party that once believed in basic rights.

Going up

Durham coalfield pit village lad Jonathan Reynolds took a bit of nudging but the Labour Business Secretary and Greater Manchester MP did the right thing in giving the people of Scunthorpe hope in place of despair.

Going down

We heard the sound of another rivet hammered into Kemi Badenoch’s political coffin with the exposure of the fast-rusting Tory leader as a fantasist who had no plan no plan to save British Steel when Business Secretary.

Speaker's corner

“WHAT is happening today is something mining communities like Swadlincote in my constituency of South Derbyshire will be feeling deeply in their souls. It’s something they could have only dreamed of back in the 1980s when they wanted a Government who had their backs and prioritised the national interest. Instead they had a Conservative Government who sold them down the river.” Labour MP Samantha Niblett nailed why Starmer shouldn’t, couldn’t and didn't let Scunthorpe collapse.