Echo Comment on the abuse directed at Keir Starmer

Paying tribute to his fantastic rock of a wife, Victoria, and his beautiful teenage children “who are my pride and my joy”, there was a catch in Keir Starmer’s voice and perhaps a tear – not quite the full sob of a departing Theresa May but definitely supercharged emotion.

This was a reminder that while this was a profound moment for the country, it was a very human one for Mr Starmer.

It was a public humiliation: a man forced to admit to his failings, and to acknowledge that he was not leaving on his own terms, or because the British public had had enough but because his own party – the MPs who are supposed to support him – had told him he had run out of road.

With an approval rating of minus 56, he is the most unpopular PM in British history.

Yet he has now risen to the top in two professions – the law and politics. As PM, he made some poor decisions on U-turns and Mandelson, but he showed real backbone in keeping Britain out of Donald Trump’s war. He even had a home and car firebombed by the Russians.

Yet still he has suffered horrific abuse, especially online, particularly from anonymous posters, often from his own countrymen.

Perhaps it is because we live in the brutal age of social media where the phrase “I respectfully disagree” is never written, but this hate will drive people out of politics and so the whole country will suffer.

Keir Starmer is a decent man. He does not deserve to be vilified. He deserves our thanks for being brave enough to give the cruel job of being Prime Minister a go, even if he did come up a little short.