That Starmer fella...

Here's what he should have said: "Of course he should resign. I spent a large portion of my career prosecuting criminals on behalf of the people of Britain. I firmly believe there needs to be repercussions for breaking the law. However, do I think he will resign? No. As we have seen again and again, there is one rule for this government, and another rule for everyone else."

Instead he rambled on about needing more vaccines, despite that being the one thing the UK is doing objectively well at. What a muppet.

I would understand "I don't think it would be constructive for him to resign now but when this is all over there needs to be a thorough investigation into [etc etc]" as a bland middle of the road answer.

Instead he downplays billions in overt corruption as an administrative error. WTAF?

Agreed

Agreed, that is clearly better.

Don't @ me either bro

I think it's partly that (only pick fights you can win) and partly that Johnson has a LOT of anti lockdown skeptics in his party. Matt Hancock may be a corrupt condom filled with vomit-flavoured blancmange but at least he believes the virus is a real thing

I don’t think you understand how the forum works.

What’s all this not @ ing about?

Ask the person with the bouncing sheep avatar ( although don’t @ them). I’m as mystified as you. Also ask him why he keeps me calling me ‘bro’. I have one brother and I don’t think that’s him.

https://youtu.be/h5kYo_OHStk

Honestly this argument is super powerful and may have swayed me. If Labour are going to portray themselves as the party of law and order and the flag - and christ there are worse sales pitches - then that means it has to be a value we live and demonstrate even if 'people don't want to see it right now'.

We need to think not just about this news cycle but in six months and a year's time.

It's a similar problem with Brexit. I undersatnd why he doesn't want to touch it with a ten foot barge pole, it's political cancer to Labour. But if we're going to be the party of business, then we need to talk about what business is facing right now, and that is: Coronavirus and Brexit Red Tape. Ignoring one of those things because the focus groups said it polls bad is walking into the same triangulation trap Corbyn fell into over Brexit. It's not strategic thinking.

EDIT: On the other hand - is filing paperwork 14 days late really a resigning matter?

EDIT: On the other hand - is filing paperwork 14 days late really a resigning matter?

His job is to turn people against the Tories. Being asked about this topic gives him airtime to talk about squandered money and croney contracts, which are topics that resonate easily with the public.

If he can't make hay on this then he might as well not bother.

That's pretty awful really. I could understand it to a point of the guy was amazing at his job otherwise, whilst also illegally syphoning off billions to mates, maybe you'd want to keep him doing his good work whist we get through the pandemic, then look into it.
He's shit though, he's shit at the important part of his job and he's been bunging PPE contacts to brand new companies run by Tory donors and he's shit and a court has ruled at least a little bit of it was illegal and he's shit. It's fucking stupid that he's not getting an absolute kicking over it from Labour and the press, and then maybe some guy in prison after a proper investigation into the horrific amount of money that's been "wasted".

Starmer can't even call for the resignation of a government member who's been found to be breaking the law? Sorry, but this fellows a wet wipe of an opposition.

Being asked about this topic gives him airtime to talk about squandered money and croney contracts, which are topics that resonate easily with the public.

Wouldn't be surprised if the General Public don't give a shit about anything other than when little Timmy can get the fuck back to school so they can carry on with some semblance of their normal lives.

They'll worry about the detail of how it came about latter, when they have the bandwidth. I think Starmer's position on this is defensible if not particularly ambitious. Calling for a resignation would at best be playing to the gallery, at worst a trap.

Let's remember what this judgement said and what it didn't. It said Hancock acted unlawfully by filing his paperwork late. It did not say he acted unlawfully with crony contracts and squandered money (though I'm 100% sure he did both). Starmer would be very foolish to accuse Hancock of any of those things before it were proven.

Of course when a judgement comes out further down the line which finds that he did do those things, and Starmer doesn't call for his resignation, I'll join you lads on the front lines. But honestly having rolled this around my head I think I come down on the side of this being one of those situations where it's better to keep your powder dry.

If I asked my mum (my yardstick for 'what Britain thinks') whether it should be a sacking offense to file your paperwork 14 days late during an unprecedented health crisis, she will say 'absolutely not'. I think this is one of those situations where pragmatism has to trump anything else.

TBH, I see it more as "if a member of government is found to have acted unlawfully, then should they resign accordingly?"

Whether its speeding, filing late paperwork or whatever, its about the expectation of standards from government. Which is pretty laughable in this day and age, I fully admit.

Still - Starmer can hardly be pushing the LAW and ORDER line, whilst turning a blind eye when its not politically convenient.

I am semi-agreeing with @BleakRefs and I dont like it

I think it's hard to argue that this is some kind of trap, like the Tories set up a web of cronyism and backhanders on the back of a pandemic in order to goad someone into challenging it down the road.
Also it's not just filing paperwork late, it's not a benefits form or vehicle excuse duty, which anyone would be actually bollocked for, it's a few highlighted cases of millions of pounds of public funds, the sharp end of billions, that has been given to friends,family and donors of the party, to companies that existed for other purposes, or not at all, to deliver vital PPE, much of which was inappropriate or non existent. Yeah, people might not want him to resign over just some late paperwork, but when that paperwork is for such vast amounts for life-saving things that weren't delivered because the contracts were handed out so poorly, it starts to look more like attempts at covering up massive corruption than simply forgetting a stamp because you're busy saving the country.

He was only too busy to file the paperwork because all his time was spent making sure all of his mates got some cash?
This is the time to pound this in, just when the tories have their vaccination bounce.
It can still be used later on. Labour needs to be hitting the Tories again and again.

I think it's hard to argue that this is some kind of trap, like the Tories set up a web of cronyism and backhanders on the back of a pandemic in order to goad someone into challenging it down the road.

Hah, yeah. That would be a struggle. I don't think anyone is doing that though.

The trap here - being set by the journalist doing the interview - is taking an extreme position when the majority public for various boring reasons just don't give a shit because the story is boring and inconclusive. Apart from the filing the paperwork late. Which is at least an objective fact, albeit a boring one. The real danger is a big song and dance is made of it but a bewildered public think 'the vaccine guy was just trying to get PPE to help protect our NHS'.

As above, the story might become more interesting later. Perhaps some more conclusive evidence that something murky was going on bubbles up to the surface. Maybe then they can apply some real pressure.

Just wait til everyone's vaccinated then have an inquiry into the handling of the whole pandemic. Boris's (lack of) decision-making, procurement, whatever.

Drag that on for two and half years and we're nearly at the next election (I know it's unreasonable to expect an inquiry to take less than 10 years, but what can I say? I'm an optimist)

Obviously he needs to point out that the NHS is doing the good vaccine work, not this chump, and despite giving away billions of public money to his mate's recently created companies, a lot of PPE didn't turn up. This boring little story is the front of a much bigger one of corruption greed at regular people's expense.
It's hardly an extreme view to say that the person responsible for, illegally, not releasing details relating to it should take some responsibility for it.
Starmer doesn't need to bang on about it or lead any kind of charge himself, but can and should condemn it properly and say that he should resign, because that's the least he should do. If there was a half decent press they could fill in for more.

It strikes me that the difference between that Starmer fella and that Corbyn fella is that Starmer isn’t led by morals, but by strategy. Challenging the vaccine guy to resign might well be the right thing to do, but calling for resignations during the most optimistic phase of this pandemic would look completely barmy to the majority. Only time will tell if the strategy works, but it’s clearly not an error.