The Sun Faces Backlash Over Hit Claiming Keir Starmer Helped Killers Escape Death Penalty
Keir Starmer during the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. (Press Association via AP Images)
The Sun faced backlash on Tuesday over an article published about Labour leader Keir Starmer after the newspaper accused him of aiding “baby-killers and axe murderers” during his legal career.
The article, co-written and shared by the newspaper’s Political Editor Harry Cole, claims that during his career as a lawyer Starmer worked “pro-bono” to help “twisted killers around the world” escape the death penalty.
The article digs through Starmer’s legal interventions between 2002 to 2014, specifically instances where he worked in the domestic legal system to end UK involvement in foreign death penalties in African and Caribbean countries. Some of these actions, including a case in Jamaica, led to a significant legal reform.
The attempt to discredit Starmer insinuates that he was helping the most violent criminals escape justice, a form of ‘justice’ that appears to even contradict the newspaper’s own stated anti-death penalty stance. In its additional editorial on the subject, The Sun appears to confusingly suggest that opposing the death penalty in the UK is different from doing so in other nations.
The Sun Says… pic.twitter.com/dxtNlsFhdF
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 9, 2024
Further to that, the newspaper seems to miss, wilfully or not, a fundamental understanding in the legal profession, known as the “cab rank rule,” which mandates barristers to take cases as they come, without cherry-picking based on personal preferences.
The articles were lambasted widely by readers and those in the media. Even those left-leaning reporters who believe that there are fair digs to be had of Starmer criticised its misrepresentations.
In some ways it’s a slap in the face for Starmer who has frequently written in The Sun in recent years to try and draw support from the centre right, even to the anger of Labour Party members who protest the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid’s history.
The story was different in 2020. During his party leadership campaign, Starmer sought to rally anger against the tabloid for political clout in Liverpool, where the newspaper is largely despised for its coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster.
All said, it was former Prime Minister Winston Churchill who famously quipped that “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” The Sun, it appears, despite Starmer’s flirtations, has not forgotten his words in 2020 nor forgotten who it’ll be rooting for in the coming general election — whenever it happens.
