Where is Sir Keir Starmer, former DPP, when we need him?

Do we have a part-time Leader of the Opposition? During a weekend when violence erupted on the streets of London and Bristol, Sir Keir Starmer was nowhere to be seen. This is a man who was, until a few years ago, the Director of Public Prosecutions. It would then have been his job to bring charges against those responsible for attacking police, vandalising statues and other public order offences. Now, however, Sir Keir doesn’t have a word of support for those whose job it is to keep the peace. A mounted WPC is seriously hurt, one of 14 officers to be injured on Saturday. Sir Keir is silent.

Racism is indeed a hideous, dehumanising phenomenon. Throughout human history, slavery has been a shameful fact. But you would never know from the comments by Labour Shadow Cabinet ministers such as David Lammy or Lisa Nandy, retweeted by Keir Starmer, that British society is among the least racist in Europe, let alone the rest of the world. Yes, racist attitudes are still to be found in police forces and elsewhere, but no, Britain is not a country beset by “systemic racial discrimination”, as Sir Keir claims.

The Leader of the Labour Party is, however, a canny politician. He knows that the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have been marching through many of our cities are swelled by hundreds of thousands of angry young people who have been confined for months by the coronavirus pandemic. When George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, it released this pent-up tension, providing an outlet for energies suppressed by enforced idleness. Labour is now, more than anything else, the party of the university towns, the ethnic minorities and the liberal professions. By siding with the protests, while ignoring the police, Sir Keir was telling his voters what they wanted to hear. Coming from a potential Prime Minister, however, it was irresponsible of him not to warn against spreading the virus by congregating in crowds while ignoring social distancing. And it was disturbing that a barrister, a Queen’s Counsel and a former law officer, had nothing to say about law and order.

There is youthful idealism. There is righteous indignation. There is the hunger for justice of Martin Luther King, whom Sir Keir quoted in a statement released more than three days ago. None of these admirable things, though, can excuse the scenes we have witnessed in the past few days. King was an advocate of peaceful protest, who himself fell victim to racial violence. If he were alive, he would have urged the black community to disown the minority of marchers here in Britain who have deliberately provoked confrontation with the police, or who have looted, burned and even murdered in America.

It is legitimate, of course, for Sir Keir to condemn Donald Trump and to call on Boris Johnson to “ensure that British exports are not being used in the suppression of democratic rights in the US”. He may be right that “the response of President Trump and the US authorities…is an affront to humanity”. But the greatest threat to democracy and human rights, on both sides of the Atlantic, is a breakdown in public order, threatening the rule of law. Black Lives Matter is not a moderate movement in the tradition of Martin Luther King. In the United States, some of its leaders are demanding the defunding or outright abolition of police departments. These are extreme demands that do not reflect the views or the interests of black people.

The Leader of the Opposition knows all this. He knows that he has no business endorsing an agenda that, if it were enacted here, would remove the protection of the law from the most vulnerable in society. Our streets and squares, above all those in Whitehall and Westminster, do not belong to any one movement. They are not merely a stage, but public spaces that the authorities have a duty to keep open and safe for the public. Like the Mayor of London, who has endorsed and enabled the marches, the Leader of the Labour Party should be on the side of ordinary men and women who put their lives in harm’s way to protect us. As a former DPP, he must know many police officers personally, including Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. She has called the assaults on police “shocking” and asked demonstrators to desist. But she has had no support from Sir Keir, the public prosecutor who was once her colleague.

The conscience of this country has been touched by the case of George Floyd. He was no hero, having served time for armed robbery and other offences. But he died a horrible death at the hands of four police officers (not all white) who behaved at least callously by ignoring his cries for help. A court will decide after due process whether Floyd was murdered. Keir Starmer, who in the course of his legal career has sent many criminals to prison, ought to beware of prejudging the trial, let alone holding up Floyd as a martyr. When Tony Blair, another former barrister, was in Sir Keir’s shoes as Leader of the Opposition, he was more careful to balance his message. Blair promised to be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”. The public, regardless of race, class or religion, warmed to that message. Sir Keir Starmer would do well to follow his predecessor’s example.