Quote of the day 28th April 2026: Dan Hannan on Sir Keri Starmer

"This is going to be unpopular, but here goes.

I believe Sir Keir Starmer. I don’t think he would be so foolish, or so careless, as to lie to Parliament.

He is an ultra-cautious man, a creature of procedure. When he says that he did not discover until this month that Peter Mandelson had been denied security clearance as a potential ambassador, I think he is telling the truth.

But here’s the thing. 

He never allowed the slightest leeway to others in similar circumstances. 

As leader of the Opposition, he always assumed the worst, always levelled accusations of lying, always demanded resignations.

Boris Johnson was, in my view, also telling the truth as he understood it when he said that he had been “assured that no Covid rules were broken”. He plainly took the word “party” to mean a festive congregation of invited guests, not a break for tea among keyworkers.

The only actual party in Number 10 was organised by officials while Boris was 40 miles away. Yet Starmer insisted that this was “industrial-scale law-breaking,” and that Boris must “do the decent thing and resign.”

Having set those standards for everyone else, he can hardly now expect an opt out himself."


(Lord Dan Hannan on X yesterday.)

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