The Labour left were the first to learn this hard lesson. Starmer pledged to be continuity Jeremy Corbyn when he was running for the Labour leadership. He turned on them the moment he won.
He spent the general election dodging questions over which how Labour would hike taxes and cut state benefits, then shocked us all by scrapping the Winter Fuel Payment in its first notable decision.
Starmer repeatedly slammed Tory sleaze while simultaneously grabbing more freebies than any MP in Parliament. Even chancellor Rachel Reeves and deputy leader Angela Rayner couldn’t keep up.
We can’t trust him. So we need to view today’s keynote Labour conference speech with a critical eye. There’s a huge difference between what Starmer told party members in Liverpool and what he’ll do in practice.
His main message was that he is the man to help the UK find the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Which is ironic given that he has spend the last 10 weeks making that tunnel seem even longer and darker than it did under the Tories.
Business and consumer confidence were creeping up under the Tories. Both instantly slumped on Starmer’s watch.
Labour’s decision to axe the Winter Fuel Payment will make life darker for millions of pensioners this year, who face a tough choice between eating, heating and keeping the lights on.
And he can’t blame that on the Tories.
Today, Starmer had the gall to claim he was forced to axe the £300 payment because he didn’t want to show global markets “that this country does not fund its policies properly”.
Trust me, international bond investors had never even heard of the Winter Fuel Payment, and don’t give a damn about it either way.
So he just made that up and expected us to swallow it.
Starmer then outrageously claimed that “every pensioner will be better off with Labour”, thanks to next year’s triple lock state pension increase.
That’s nonsense, too.
Both of the main political parties pledged to retain the triple lock, not just Labour. And it’s not designed to make pensioners “better off” anyway. It’s there to help them keep up with everybody else.
It’s not a gift, an extra, a bonus or – dare I mention it – a freebie.
And the truth is that state pensioners would have been better off under the Tories, thanks to former PM Rishi Sunak’s proposed triple-lock-plus plan.
So what else did Starmer say today?
Starmer said Labour would “return the UK to the service of working people”.
By which he means the unions, of course.
We’re all at their service, now, as union baron Mick Lynch made clear today, with his terrifying demand for “universal” influence over all of the nation’s industries.
And Starmer is going to give it to him. Starting with the rail network, which he pledged to bring “back into public ownership”.
That was his promise to the unions. It will sound like a threat to passengers who remember the days of British Rail.
Starmer also promised us a heap of new workers’ rights, which will thrill the public sector unions who are jostling to demand higher pay, fewer hours, extra holidays and a four-day week.
The unions have funded Starmer’s Labour to be tune of £29million. They’re expecting a jolly good return on their money, and Starmer will give it to them.
While sticking it to taxpayers.
As ever, Starmer refused to set out which taxes Labour will hike. We will have to wait until Reeves holds her Halloween budget on October 30.
That’s when we’ll find out exactly what Starmer has in store for us. It’s not going to be pleasant, however he tries to sell it to us.
