Keir Starmer & the working class
There is apparently no such thing as Starmerism and working out what the Labour leader thinks about most things has been problematic (Gaza aside).
His is famous/infamous for noting that his late father was a toolmaker. As Lord Kinnock pointed out (below) this meant he was not a proletarian but a member of the labour aristocracy.
Leading Labour, a new podcast from the Institute of Historical Research sees Neil Kinnock tell Keir Starmer that his father being a toolmaker does not prove his proletarian credentials. Kinnock (correctly) notes that where he comes from toolmakers are ‘aristocracy'(the labour kind)- Times 10 July
The claim that the current Cabinet is the most working class one ever was made a year ago and Starmer repeated it again at a Cabinet away day at Chequers this week (Times 12th July)
It remains erroneous, although if qualified as the most working class since 1945 it would likely be correct.
The most working class Cabinet to date is that which took office in January 1924- the first ever Labour Government. Of course numbers had by this date gathered experience as MPs or union officials but probably only Sidney Webb qualified as someone who had been to a fee paying school (several in fact)
The PM Ramsay MacDonald was the illegitimate son of a farm labourer. Arthur Henderson had been an iron moulder, Jimmy Thomas a railwayman, Willie Adamson and John Wheatley were previously miners.
Most of these men (there was one woman Margaret Bondfeld) are not in the socialist hall of fame for the reason that while they had working class backgrounds, social being determines consciousness. The Chancellor Philip Snowden was possibly even keener on fiscal rules than Rachel Reeves although in his May 1924 Budget he did cut taxes on what was known as the free breakfast. That is he reduced tax on items that workers had for breakfast.
Working class credentials do not read across to socialist politics. Most of the Labour MPs elected in 1906 for example, were union officials who were ‘Lib-Lab’ essentially Liberals.
The qualification, arguably, is how Starmer understands ‘working class’. A source of collective strength that can, via unions, improve conditions for all, or something to be risen out of.
The once well known lines ‘the working class can kiss my arse, I’ve got the foreman’s job at last’ may refer.
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