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KEIR Starmer has been panned for dodging the press on a trip to Scotland.
The Prime Minister visited a shipyard in Glasgow on Thursday morning – but failed to take questions from all but one Scottish newspaper.
It is one of a number of occasions where Labour ministers have travelled north of the Border and ducked media scrutiny.
Starmer’s visit comes as his deputy Angela Rayner’s political future hangs in the balance after she admitted on Wednesday that underpaid stamp duty, the English property tax, on her luxury seaside flat in Hove, East Sussex.
She has referred herself to the independent advisor on ministerial standards though Downing Street has given no indication if Rayner (below) will be expected to resign if she is found to have breached the rules.
Starmer’s low-key visit also allows him to minimise scrutiny over the impending Budget, which has been delayed to the last minute, prompting fury from the SNP in Holyrood.
Finance Secretary Shona Robison on Wednesday said that the delay “makes it incredibly difficult for the Scottish Government to undertake the detailed financial planning needed to bring forward our own budget in the usual timescale”.
It appears unlikely the Scottish Government will be able to set out its Budget before Christmas.
His Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing for what is expected to be a deeply unpopular spending announcement on November 26, which is likely to include a range of tax increases and spending cuts as she struggles to get a grip on Britain’s ailing public finances and almost stagnant economy.
It was revealed this week that the cost of borrowing had reached its highest level since 1998 and economic growth slowed between April and June – with gross domestic product growing just 0.3% in that period compared with 0.7% in the first three months of the year.
Meanwhile, the Government is facing criticism from both ends of the political spectrum on immigration.
Starmer’s critics on the right say he is failing to get a grip on the number of people making the perilous journey across the Channel in small boats, while those on the left accuse him of demonising migrants, fanning the flames of the far-right and neglecting the rights of asylum seekers.
And on foreign affairs, the Government has failed to prevent the genocide against the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli state.
Starmer would have been asked about all of these things and more if he had fielded questions from the Scottish press pack.
But instead, he decided to invite three broadcasters – who usually do not dig into issues in as much depth as newspaper journalists in these environments – and one newspaper, The Herald.
As Conor Matchett, political editor of The Scottish Sun put it: “The irony of Keir Starmer visiting Glasgow to trumpet the £10bn Norway warships deal and NOT speak to Scotland's press pack after he kicked John Swinney for failing to hold a press conference on the issue at PMQs yesterday is not lost on me.”
It is part of a wider pattern of behaviour of Labour ministers ducking scrutiny when they travel north of the Border.
Reeves did not take questions from the national press on visits to Scotland in May or in August.
Rayner has twice visited Scotland and attempted to refuse access to the Scottish press, and Lisa Nandy has also refused to speak with the Scottish press while in the country.
We only ask: What are they afraid of?
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