'I deeply regret using it'
North London Bubble #9: Sir Keir is interviewed by a friend, Labour's new adviser at the Town Hall and a protest against AI
NORTH LONDON BUBBLE
Here is edition number nine of our new weekly politics column from Richard Osley and Isabel Loubser. You can also read it at newjournal.substack.com and find previous columns under the Bubble tab on the menu bar.
Look out for our digest of news covering everything that’s been happening and coming up in Camden and Islington – sent out to all subscribers tomorrow.
SIR KEIR AND TOM
SO from now on, if Sir Keir Starmer wants to get something across, will he simply hand his inner feelings to Tom Baldwin, his chum biographer – rather than take questions from a more probing interviewer?
You have to wade through accounts of how the Holborn and St Pancras MP’s new cat gets into the garden through a wooden platform system at Downing Street and other such banalities in Mr Baldwin’s much talked-about ‘essay’ in The Observer today before the Prime Minister reveals he regrets the ‘island of strangers’ speech he made earlier this year.
“I wouldn’t have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be interpreted as an echo of [Enoch] Powell,” he told Mr Baldwin.
“I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn’t know either, but that particular phrase – no – it wasn’t right. I’ll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it.”
Sir Keir is agreeable over the time he provides to the Camden New Journal despite now being right at the top, but he also told a recent local press reception that he expects us to ask him tough questions.
One burning one would be, if he regretted the speech so much, then why – amid the quick backlash and critics pointing to the ‘echo’ of Powell’s words – were Labour MPs sent out on to TV screens for the next few days defending it? Not for the first time, it doesn’t smack of a team of aides and advisers who are good at spotting the holes in the road ahead.
WHAT HAPPENS IN ENFIELD STAYS IN ENFIELD
HERE’S a little welcome to Islington Labour’s new political advisor Harry Redmond. He’s been heading up the leader’s office since last month.