Before I reveal the biggest lie Keir Starmer has ever told, I will first need to prove the premise of the title, that Keir Starmer is a liar.
We don’t need to travel far to find conclusive evidence that the premise is true. The evidence can be found in the first sentence of the first pledge Keir Starmer made to Labour members when he stood to be Labour leader. He pledged to increase income tax for the top 5% of earners in the UK, but abandoned the policy after winning the contest. This leads to another and more recent lie Starmer has told. Although he has broken most of the pledges he stood on to become Labour leader, he claimed he has kept most of the pledges - a bare faced and provable lie.
Some of his supporters would argue his decision to abandon the policies he was elected on is not a matter of dishonesty but rather one of pragmatism. They would argue the state of UK economy is far worse than Labour thought and the policies Starmer offered in 2020 are simply not affordable now. That is a difficult position to maintain for two reasons.
John Maynard Keynes said “Anything we can do, we can afford.” This is particularly relevant and sage advice for a government when a country is teetering on the edge of a recession. Investment is needed to stimulate economic growth, and when the private sector is not investing enough the government must fill the investment gap. It is good and timely advice which Starmer has studiously ignored. Instead, he has chosen to copy Tory fiscal rules and adopt a fiscally conservative approach to public spending, the very same neoliberal policies which caused the mess in the first place. As he is repeating a failed neoliberal experiment, we can only expect the same results.
Secondly, Starmer’s supporters have boasted about tricking left wing Labour members into voting for him by offering policies they wanted but he had no intention of delivering. They have publicly admitted the deception and describe it as ‘clever politics’, which suggests Starmer’s team was well aware they were committing fraud against the membership and the lies he told members were intentionally designed to deceive them.
I could provide several more examples but I think I have already proved my point. However, I will give two more important examples of Starmer’s dishonesty, the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners, and also one regarding foreign policy.
Keir Starmer firmly held the pen for the 2024 Labour manifesto, so can be considered its main author. In the manifesto, Labour attacked the Tories for taking money away from pensioners and said they would use it to pay for “the Tories’ blackhole.” This is, of course, precisely what Keir Starmer has done, so is not only a lie, it is also a breach of the Labour manifesto by Starmer, just two months after he became prime minister. It is also worth noting that while Starmer claims to be responsible, he has not undertaken an impact assessment on how removing the heating allowance will affect pensioners and the extra costs it could generate for public services, specifically the NHS.
On foreign policy, when he stood to be Labour leader, Starmer pledged to “put human rights at the heart of UK foreign policy.” Mr Starmer is currently providing weapons and military support to the Israeli government. The International Court of Justice has ruled it is plausible the IDF is committing genocide against the Palestinians and an arrest warrant is pending for the prime minister of the country for war crimes.
So, of all the lies Keir Starmer has told, which one is the biggest? Time for the big reveal! Eagle-eyed readers will realise I have already revealed the elements of the lie in earlier paragraphs. Keir Starmer told his biggest lie during the general election when he told people he offered change. There has been no noticeable change to the UK government’s economic or foreign policy. Labour’s campaign slogan was a lie.
Keir Starmer stood on a false prospectus to become prime minister.