I may spoil my ballot in the next election for the first time ever – this is why

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England and Wales’ top judge, Lady Carr, is “deeply troubled” by last week’s PMQ exchanges between Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch about a Palestinian family from Gaza seeking sanctuary in the UK.

The family applied through a scheme reserved for Ukrainians. (Desperate people try desperate means. And anyway, why is there an ethnic hierarchy for asylum seekers?) Their claim was dismissed, but an appeal was allowed by senior tribunal judges this January.

Badenoch mauled the Prime Minister for this judicial decision. He capitulated: “She’s right. It’s the wrong decision,” and promised to work on “closing the loophole”.

Starmer used to be a respected lawyer who upheld the independence of the judiciary. Now, as a politician, he is more squalid than Liz Truss or Boris Johnson. They never swayed from their political credos – you knew who they were. Starmer is a shape-shifter, apparently with no attachment to the history of, or commitments to, human rights previously made by the party he leads.

I wonder, has he impressed Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s Dominic Cummings? In Get In, a new book on Starmer and his party, Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund claim McSweeney thinks the PM is like an HR manager. Well, look at him now! Mainstreaming the demonisation of migrants and various other populist messages and policies. Labour publishes TV footage of forced deportations and vows to deny citizenship for ever to all adult refugees who arrive via irregular routes, even those with leave to remain i.e. legitimate reasons to seek asylum.

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, a backer of Starmer, and nine Church of England bishops are among 148 signatories to a letter warning these policies could encourage “a toxic politics” and validate far-right tactics to “bring hate and disorder to our streets”.

A party which espoused enlightened values and internationalism is today a monolithic, absolutist, undemocratic and uncivilised entity. Labour has become disdainful of voters who value equality, justice, redistribution, fair wages, compassion, humane immigration laws, diversity and inclusion or cultural heterogeneity. We are the party’s most reliable base and they treat us as the enemy within. How did this happen?

First, Starmer’s coterie purged left-wingers, then antisemites – some real, some imagined – then performatively stood firmly with Israel while showing little empathy for Palestinians – remember Starmer saying Israel “has the right” to withhold power and water from Gaza in the days after the Hamas attacks?

After Dianne Abbott was subjected to atrocious racist attacks by a Tory donor, Starmer and his circle expressed concern, but, as she writes in her book, to her it felt insincere because they were, at the same time, plotting her exit. She won her seat again in the last election.

In the same election, Faiza Shaheen, a respected economist and equality campaigner, was dropped because of tweets she had liked about Israel. Her candidacy in Chingford, Iain Duncan Smith’s constituency, was endorsed by local activists. She could have won. Several others were also cancelled. Loyalists, however, were rewarded with seats. McSweeney’s wife was one of the lucky ones.

Now Labour comes down hard against immigration and those on benefits, including disabled people. Meanwhile they court, flatter and service the needs of the moneyed.

All this to win over Reform voters – the only political game in town. Middle-class and liberal voters are disparaged and sidelined by the Tories, Reform and now Labour, even though we are the people who vote, pay proper taxes, volunteer, and care about the state of our nation. Minorities are disregarded too, in Labour’s case, because as one of Starmer’s circle told me, “They will vote for us whatever. And you will too. They are our captive voters.”

This captive will break out. If Starmer seeks only to appeal to Reform enthusiasts, if he believes we will back blue Labour, however reluctantly, he is misguided. Some liberals will stay faithful, because Labour is their tribe, but many of us have had enough already.

Even though I admire and like our hard-working local MP Rupa Huq, if the party carries on marching to the right, it will not get my vote. I may even spoil my ballot paper in protest.