Words matter. They are all you have as a politician. They are your only weapon. We wage war and we broker peace with words. We inflame or we calm. That is why it is so important to deploy them carefully and responsibly.
Unfortunately, a cynic knows how to cast aspersions, make an insinuation and whisper sweet nastiness in the public ear – preferably without anyone noticing. But it’s a dangerous business. The poison you pour in the well may be intended for your enemy, but it can all too easily poison your friends and all around you too.
This is my problem with Boris Johnson’s foul slurs against Keir Starmer.
Johnson knew precisely what he was doing when he falsely claimed Starmer failed to prosecute Savile when he was director of public prosecutions. He had discussed it with his advisers beforehand. He knew he was up against the wall, and he desperately wanted a distraction. He was advised against it, in the strongest terms. He was told it was irresponsible and dangerous. He was leaching off the conspiracy theories of the very hard-right in the UK and the US and giving dangerous elements in society succour. It would provide an authoritative platform for the very nastiest characters in the body politic.
It was bound to inflame feelings – and yesterday we saw precisely what it could do, when an angry mob lambasted Starmer as he returned to parliament from the Ministry of Defence.
The fact that the braying crowd recited the prime minister’s vicious slurs would have counted as a victory for Johnson. He had achieved his aim. They were ventriloquising him. He had incited them. There was malice aforethought.
Perhaps the most cynical aspect of this is the fact that Johnson seems to have no thought for Savile’s victims – whose representatives have universally condemned him – nor is he doing anything to ensure that present and future generations of child abusers are brought to justice. He doesn’t care about child abuse. The victims are just collateral in his insidious ploy.
It is not the first time Johnson has done this. He loves inflammatory language. It is his modus operandi. When he is in trouble you can see him reach for a more exorbitant metaphor, a sharper quip, a harsher turn of phrase.
Back in 2019 he was endlessly accusing everyone who disagreed with him of “surrender” and “betrayal” and being a “traitor”, deliberately whipping up anger. When the Labour MP Paula Sherriff took him to task for it in the Commons and begged him to moderate his language because of the daily death threats she and other female MPs were receiving, he launched another attack at her. She was almost in tears, but he said he had never heard such “humbug” in all his life. Then the predictable (and intended) result was that all the demons of Hades were unleashed upon her on social media.
And so it has been this week. As minister after minister has defended the PM in ever more outlandish fashion, criminal and unsavoury factions have taken to social media to back him up.
We know how this plays out. We have seen the same tactics in the US. It ends up on the steps of Congress.
But it’s not yet too late to stop that fatal trajectory here. It will require, as a very minimum, that the PM apologises fully and with genuine contrition, withdraws the remarks and condemns those that repeat them. But I suspect he can’t do that. It’s not in his nature. He’d far prefer to smirk, like Muttley the cartoon dog, at the success of his cunning plan. That’s why he really will have to go – and Tory MPs will have to do the deed sooner rather than later.
Chris Bryant is the Labour MP for Rhondda
