Keir Starmer’s Labour Government recently celebrated 100 days in office.
I say celebrated – I expect there hasn’t been much celebrating.
For one, it’s not much of a milestone - though admittedly it is one that hasn’t been cleared by all of the Prime Minister’s recent predecessors.
But in truth, in those 100 days, there hasn’t been much cause to celebrate.
Sure, there was the biggest Labour majority since 1997, with the keys to Downing Street falling into Starmer’s lap wrapped up in a bow.
But the shine wore off fast, and the honeymoon period is well and truly over.
If the keys to Number 10 arrived for Labour like a gift, it’s perhaps some poetry that it is the recent scandal about gifts which has contributed to the rapid tarnishing of Labour’s 2024 election winner’s crown.
Clothes worth thousands of pounds. Concert tickets. VIP boxes for football games.
The gifts of wealthy donors to a party whose election narrative was to make a reset in the standards of integrity in public life.
What has been remarkable in the middle of this scandal has been the absence of any apology.
Some gifts may have been handed back – but not all. At the time of writing, out of the £100,000 worth of gifts and free tickets he has received, the Prime Minister has generously agreed to hand back £6,000.
Instead of a fulsome apology, some gifts, like those VIP tickets to football games, have been defended.
Why?
Well, the line has been that it makes good sense for the Prime Minister to accept them.
The Prime Minister has said that ‘As a result of security, I can’t go in the stand anymore’ going on to say that the tickets mean that ‘I can continue to do something which is really special to me’.
With the risk of upsetting all the Arsenal season ticket holders in the room – I’m going to say something unpopular.
Maybe going to see the football is just something you have to give up when you become Prime Minister.
At the heart of leadership is sacrifice.
Perhaps we, and the Labour party, have lost sight of that.
To serve others, leaders are called to give up their comforts, their self-interests and their control over their own lives.
As public servants, our leaders should remember the example of the Public Servant who laid down all he had to give his life as a ransom for all.
It is in the example of the Public Servant that our ‘reset’ in the standards of public life must begin.
It is a high standard, but it’s the only standard worth following.
