In the past months, everything kicked off. We’ve had walk outs in Westminster, an investigation into the Labour Party’s right-hand-woman, and a new controversial hate crime bill has been introduced to Scotland. The one thing that hasn’t changed is that our leaders are still letting us down. Also, if you want to check the rating system for our leaders, check the bottom of this article.
Rishi Sunak:
With the recent actions of Iran against Israel, the safety of those in Gaza still remains a pressing issue, as does Rishi Sunak’s stance on the matter. When questioned by George Galloway at PMQs, Sunak claimed that he asked Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to “show restraint”. Sunak has always expressed support for Israel in his time as PM, and stood by this belief as the UK joined a an American and French alliance to intercept missiles during Iran’s offensive on Israel, which Sunak called “reckless and dangerous escalation”. Surprisingly, Sunak is now is favour of a long term ceasefire, which he has been hesitant to pursue in the past, but following the killing of three British aid workers, he has become more open to the idea of something more than a “humanitarian pause”. He stressed on the 15th of April however, following Iran’s strikes, that “nothing that has happened over the past 48 hours affects our position on Gaza”.
For other policies, Sunak has a huge focus on crime, in his opening speech as PM that his government would “crack down on crime”. Defending himself in Parliament today (17th April 2024), he claimed that the government had reduced crime by 50% since taking office. That’s since 2010, fourteen years ago, and Sunak has only been PM since 2022, only an MP since 2015. Using a government legacy fourteen years in the making, five years of which he wasn’t even in Parliament for, is rather misleading. Sunak gets a 6/10.
Kier Starmer:
It’s fair to say that Kier Starmer loves a good distraction, as POLITICO accused the Labour leader of arguing with Rishi Sunak over “who dislikes Liz Truss more”. I came say I blame him, if I were Kier Starmer, I’d want to distract people from my distinct lack of left-wing passion too. A protest was held outside the leader’s home on the 9th of April, calling for Starmer to call for the UK to stop selling arms to Israel. Starmer’s poor an insincere stance on Palestine qualifies for a tracker of its own at this point. In his ten pledges (which, as a reminder, were officially taken down, as other news publications also picked up on how poorly Starmer fulfilled them and criticised him for this), Starmer claimed that Labour would review all UK arm sales. In a speech in 2021, Starmer stood by the Corbyn-era policy of recognising Palestine as a state if elected, and called himself a friend of Palestine. This speech was received as insincere, as it made no mention as to how Labour planned to achieve a two state solution, and condemned the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement, which acts to financially protest the actions of the Israeli government and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). More recently, Starmer has dropped the idea of recognising Palestinian statehood if he is elected as PM all together. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
Starmer gets his usual 2/10 (purely for his consistent commitment to trying to distract the public from his dishonest mediocrity).
Humza Yousaf:
The biggest news in Scottish politics recently has been the new Hate Crime Bill, and to be clear, this was introduced three years before Yousaf formally replaced Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister. He was however, the Justice Secretary who introduced the bill, which has been deemed controversial since the beginning. Yousaf has stood firmly behind it despite the Scottish Tories calling for the bill to be repealed, and over 3000 complaints being made to Police Scotland in the first two days of the bill coming into law. Yousaf’s pledges when he became First Minister included tackling and reducing child poverty, which has dropped from 23% to 14% in the last year. He also claimed that Scotland “is a wealthy country, but that wealth is not distributed evenly”, and promised to deliver the most progressive taxation system in the UK. Prior to his premiership, the top income tax bracket started at £125,140 and taxed 47% of an individuals income. It has increased by 1% under Yousaf. Not exactly the radical change he promised. Under the previous First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland already had the most progressive taxation system. Her government set the top income tax bracket, which in comparison to raising the top income taxes by 1% per year in the past few years, is what really makes the radical change. Yousaf is tied with Sunak at a 6/10.
Grading Guide
This is how leaders are scored each month out of ten.
Once a list of promises and their success are gathered for a leader, five things are considered. Here’s the list:
- Has the leader fulfilled their promise? (Or, is the promise still in progress? If the action wasn’t given a specific deadline that’s been missed and is still in the works, this is important to consider)
- Is the leader standing by their professed beliefs consistently regardless of its controversy? (This is where we get into morally murky waters, and its stressed that this is an Accountability Tracker, and so regardless of how much you may disagree with a belief, a leader gets points for standing by it)
- Has a leader abandoned a policy entirely? (Looking at you, Kier)
- Has a leader just failed entirely? Have they stood by the promise but just failed to deliver it? This tracker doesn’t just track someones beliefs, but also their competence.
- Has a U-turn been made? This isn’t the same as abandonment, its more formal and can sometimes come with an explanation. Does the leader give a good explanation?
Each of these five questions are asked, and 2 points are either added or deducted based off of this. For example, Kier Starmer often comes out with a two due to standing by his more recent beliefs, even if those are mostly based on shallow attempts at charisma and focusing on general, inoffensive values like “stability”. But in every other category, Starmer loses two points, explaining his consistently low score.
4th year Politics and Journalism student.
Secretary for Brig
The Herald Student Press Awards Columnist Of The Year 2024 (which sorry i’m still not over)
