Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Marina Hyde

With the best glasses donor money can buy, surely Starmer can see that this week has been a total disaster

Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, arrive at No 10 after Starmer’s appointment as prime minister, 5 July 2024.
Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, arrive at No 10 after Starmer’s appointment as prime minister, 5 July 2024. Photograph: Rory Arnold/No 10 Downing Street

Can someone gift the prime minister a designer spade? He wants to keep digging. If Keir Starmer were a celebrity, this week we’d be looking for the black hole in his publicist’s brain. Alas, these are mildly testing times for anyone who bought into the always ridiculous idea of No Drama Starmer. The prime minister has officially graduated into his Some Drama Starmer era, and – like all prime ministers ever – is on the ineluctable journey towards his All Drama Starmer era. This journey is of variable speed, of course – sometimes it takes 11 years, and sometimes it takes 44 days.

The PM is never going to be Loves the Drama Starmer, though, judging by his amusingly defensive response that it is basically essential for him to be by far and away parliament’s biggest receiver of hospitality and freebies, as well as being one half of the sort of couple on a combined salary of over two hundred grand who can’t buy their own clothes, and also a guy who has a weakness for multiple pairs of designer glasses. Forgive me – “luxury eyewear”, with a value of £2,485.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.