Keir Starmer has been Britain’s prime minister since July. More than three months on the job and it was an especially rocky “first 100 days.” The Tory press has had their knives out for Starmer from the start, as he’s tried to turn the page from fourteen years of Tory rot at the heart of British politics. It seems that now is not the time for Keir Starmer to make enemies in the monarchist British press. So PM Starmer was called upon to praise King Charles in the wake of Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe’s one-woman demonstration in Australian Parliament on Monday. Not even twelve hours after Thorpe’s brave and ballsy protest, Starmer had to come out and defend the poor old colonialist king. The way the monarchist media is working overtime to make King Charles the “victim” of this story is really remarkable.
King Charles is doing a “fantastic job”, particularly in the context of his “health challenges”, the prime minister has said after the royal was heckled by the Indigenous Australian senator Lidia Thorpe. Charles had just finished addressing MPs and senators at Parliament House in Canberra, as part of his five-day tour of Australia with Camilla, when he was approached by Thorpe, who yelled: “This is not your country.”
After the launch of the public consultation on the future of the NHS on Monday, Keir Starmer was asked whether it was “disgraceful” that Australian politicians were “heckling the king”.
Starmer said: “Look, I think the king is doing a fantastic job, an incredible ambassador not just for our country, but across the Commonwealth. I think he’s doing a fantastic job, and we should remember in the context of health, that he is out there doing his public service notwithstanding, you know, the health challenges he himself has had – so I think he’s doing a great job.”
Charles has paused his cancer treatment, after his diagnosis in February, while he carries out his first tour as monarch to Australia, and his state visit to Samoa. Starmer also praised the monarch as an “incredible ambassador” for the Commonwealth, and said he was looking forward to joining Charles in Samoa for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) summit.
When asked if Britain was guilty of genocide in Australia, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said he would not be drawn on comments made in relation to royal matters. But he said Britain’s relationship with Australia was “fantastic” and that it was a key ally. But No 10 said Starmer remained opposed to apologising for the UK’s historical role in slavery, with the spokesperson noting talks around reparations are “not on the agenda” for the Chogm meeting.
“The position on apology remains the same,” they said. “We won’t be offering an apology at Chogm, but we will continue to engage with partners on the issues as we work with them to tackle the pressing challenges of today and indeed for the future generations.”
I actually chuckled at the artful dodge of “When asked if Britain was guilty of genocide in Australia, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said he would not be drawn on comments made in relation to royal matters.” It’s not actually funny, but at a purely political level, it’s amazing to answer accusations of historical genocide with what amounts to “We will not comment on what the royal family did for centuries.” Prime minister to king: that’s your mess, you clean it up.
As for what Starmer said on the record – it’s not actually a ringing endorsement to mention Charles’s health in the second sentence. It’s basically saying: he’s doing his job as king and please remember that he’s in very poor health. Starmer doesn’t want to go on the record, kicking a king with cancer. But there are other reasons why Starmer is choosing to back Charles at this moment too. And I appreciate that Starmer didn’t do any kind of character assassination on Lidia Thorpe as well, because the British media is braying for Thorpe’s blood at this point.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
Just another toady Tory in a different colour suit.
100%. From sending people to tell people who are inpatient for MH issues that they need to “buck up and get back to work” (so no benefit has to be paid to them)… to continuing to send weapons to Israel … it strikes me there was a double dodge on that genocide question, because Starmer is trying to avoid not only past accusations by lands colonized by UK, he’s trying to avoid discussion of current crimes against humanity enabled by the West in Gaza and Lebanon, which, 3 mos in without a change of tack, is absolutely his responsibility now.
Exactly.
I said exactly that on these streets after he won. But others were screaming from the hilltops that I was wrong. They claimed the fact that he’s a “sir” meant nothing. I reminded them that there’s a reason the guy’s nick name is “Tory plant.” I expected nothing good of him, so this doesn’t surprise me one bit. There’s a reason why it was all hands-on-deck to destroy Corbyn. Kier did his part on behalf of the establishment. He is what they call a “controlled opposition.”
This tour is a huge fail.
They are trying very hard to make it look like it’s not, especially here in Australia because it’s funded by taxpayer dollars but the general consensus amongst most average Aussies is a big, fat “So what” about this tour.
It’s the Downunder Struggle Tour. A failure with a capital F.
Thank goodness it’s over , the fawning in the media was at saturation level .
They can get the hell out of here and go rot somewhere else .
I feel EXACTLY the same. Go home! And take the plane load of butt kissing reporters with you.
We have plenty of butt kissing Australian media unfortunately .
I was hoping the ABC would be different , but they weren’t , it was like we had lost control of what we could view as it was all fawning monarchy .
Camilla and Charles smirked when the monarchy was criticized. The tour is a disaster.
Ladies and gentleman the prize for the biggest brown nose goes to Kier Starmer. And he’s already got his knighthood LOL
Doesn’t the Foreign Office request royals to go on tours? The FO must have an agenda to make UK- AUS relations solid. The Down Under tour is a car crash and it’s an embarrassment for the UK government so Stramer has to try to put lipstick on this pig.
Omg, I’m laughing so hard it hurts.. like we aren’t watching the disaster unfold in real time.
There’s no difference between this new Labour Government and the Tories. And Starmer is a royalist.
What a lot of boot licking!
Has everyone forgotten the brand new gold carriage and huge cost of the Coronation?
All that money could have gone to helping social programs instead.
The BRF are paper dolls. Expensive, useless, and out of touch.
I’m not a fan of Starmer and his Tory Lite policies but let’s be fair the PM is hardly going to go on public record and tell the UK the King and his wife have made a complete “balls up” in their attempt to “charm” the Australians. If Stramer really thought the King was such a great asset, he would have invited him to attend COP29. I’m not buying the KCIII would be too “frail” to attend narrative. KCIII (like his heir) would give his eye teeth to be on the world stage acting as if he was making some sort of important contribution to fate of our planet.