The S*n backs Labour. Echoes of 1997
The S*n has has backed Starmer for PM as it did with Blair in 1997. Its Editorial is hardly full of praise for Starmer but the front page of the 4th July edition declares that the country needs a new manager (with a picture of Gareth Southgate). Murdoch does like to back a winner (and build on the relationship on the basis to his advantage)
I don’t read the S*n but I do cast an eye over the Times which is mostly just the S*n with longer paragraphs. The current Editor Tony Gallagher is a former S*n man. The best one could say about the paper’s numerous Editorials on Starmer and Labour policies is that they take the view that Labour will be elected and as many blocks as possible need to be in place to stop it doing anything at all. The Sunday Times has already backed Starmer.
The S*n and the Times no longer publish circulation figures but certainly the sales of the former are nothing like what they were in 1997. Influence lies elsewhere.
Starmer said he would not deal with the paper or write for it when he was elected leader but like everything else he has moved on from that. There are good reasons why a labour movement boycott of the paper remains in place.
Alastair Campbell has been too busy playing the bagpipes in Germany to comment so far but here is what he said before 1997:
As early as August 16th 1994 Alastair Campbell was recording in his diary:
‘I’d read an interview with Murdoch in Der Spiegel in which he said he could see himself backing Blair. TB said he was probably messing around. I wasn’t so sure. The right wing have had it with Major, and I think we can really make trouble. The aim should be to keep the left press on board, neutralise the Mail, and if possible get the S*n to back us’.
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