DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Use this victory for the good of the nation
Barring an unexpected and dramatic turn of events, the nation will today – for the first time in 14 years – have a Labour government.
Unless the opinion polls have been embarrassingly wrong, Sir Keir Starmer will travel to Buckingham Palace for an audience with King Charles.
In that historic setting, the Monarch will invite him to become the 58th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. To the victor, the spoils.
Should that scenario come to pass, the Mail offers Sir Keir our sincerest congratulations. The people of this country have spoken, and Labour has almost certainly won the election by a healthy majority.
True, many will be disappointed. But it is important to remember that our democracy can only function if the losers of a free and fair election graciously accept the result.
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Unless the polls are embarrassingly wrong, Sir Keir Starmer will be travel to Buckingham Palace for an audience with King Charles
There is little doubt Sir Keir has turned his party around since becoming its leader.
Then, it was slipping towards irrelevance under Jeremy Corbyn. Sir Keir set about expunging its Marxist policies and MPs, and has tackled the scourge of anti-Semitism with some success. Transforming Labour has surely tested his mettle. But if he ends up in No 10, then the hard work will really begin.
However, other than saying he puts ‘country first, party second’ and wants ‘change’, Sir Keir has left voters with little clue about what he intends to do in power or how he would tackle the country’s many problems.
Wealth creation is his priority, yet he would saddle business with a slew of new rules and obligations, while driving rich foreigners away by abolishing non-dom tax status.
Relying on faster economic growth to pay for better public services is welcome. But what will fuel such a miraculous spurt?
Creating a stable political environment can help. However, Angela Rayner’s trade union reforms, and plan to give workers more rights, would throw sand in the engine.
As a result, Labour will inevitably need to raise money to fund its ‘agenda for change’.
Since it has pledged not to borrow more and will not slash spending, the answer is likely to be taxing businesses, pensions, property and inheritance. The politics of envy are never far from the party’s surface.
Despite Sir Keir’s insistence that Labour can be trusted with defence, he has refused to put his money where his mouth is to boost our dangerously depleted military.
On soaring immigration, which is putting intolerable strain on public services and social cohesion, Labour offers no fresh thinking.
Labour will inevitably need to raise money to fund its 'agenda for change', likely to be generated from taxing businesses, pensions, property and inheritance
Other questions proliferate. Given the need for energy security in a volatile world, will Sir Keir really ban new drilling for North Sea oil and gas? And will he stick to the dogmatic target to decarbonise electricity by 2030, which would risk the lights going out?
To cut the NHS waiting list backlog, will he put patients first – or the striking junior doctors? And will he defend the ancient freedoms of the Press?
If millions give him a landslide victory, Sir Keir must use it for the good of the whole nation – not just Left-wing interest groups.
For the Conservatives, a disaster at the ballot box must lead to a period of reflection.
Over the years, the Tories have boasted of being a broad church, encompassing a wide range of views. Today, the congregation seems to have no unifying creed at all.
Indeed, for much of the past 14 years, the party has seemed more interested in squabbling than running the country. It must revert to traditional True Blue principles, which have led to so much electoral success.
In the event of defeat, whether or not Rishi Sunak stays as leader remains to be seen. If this decent man does step down, who will boldly lead the Tories out of the darkness?
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