Starmer no-showed a climate and nature hustings

Independent candidate Andrew Feinstein has called out billionaire stooge Keir Starmer for no-showing a climate and nature general election hustings in his constituency seat of Holborn and St Pancras. At the event, Feinstein criticised the contempt Starmer’s side-stepping of the event demonstrated for both his constituents and nature.

Starmer dodges Climate and Nature Bill hustings

On Thursday 27 June, campaign group Zero Hour hosted a climate and biodiversity hustings in Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s constituency.

At the event, residents and local environmental organisations quizzed candidates on their commitment to tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis.

In particular, organiser Zero Hour called on those standing to commit support for the landmark Climate and Nature (CAN) bill:

1️⃣

⛪We were joined by a packed house of passionate campaigners, residents and voters who had an energetic debate about how we address the most existential threat of our times:

The climate and nature crisis.

Here is what the candidates had to say on the #CANBill pic.twitter.com/p1mq9c2CYA

— Zero Hour (@zerohour_uk) June 28, 2024

This proposed legislation would ensure a joined-up, cross-party approach to tackle the dual climate and nature crises. It offers a robust plan for a new UK law that addresses the full extent of the climate and nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science.

Specifically, the bill calls for concrete action on the two crises, including for instance:

• Ensuring the UK cuts emissions in line with 1.5°c – tackling its emissions footprint domestically and abroad.
• A new nature target that would commit the UK to reversing nature decline and facilitate recovery of biodiversity by 2030 at home and overseas.
• Establishing a climate and nature assembly to enable public involvement and oversight of Parliament.

CEO of the Zoological Society of London Matthew Gould chaired the session. This drew in the slate of candidates standing for the Holborn and St Pancras seat at the upcoming election. Independent candidate Andrew Feinstein, Liberal Democrat Charlie Clinton, and Green Party nominee David Robert Stansell attended the debate on the vital election issue.

However, Keir Starmer, who’s standing in the London seat for re-election, dodged the event. Instead, a stand-in from the local council took part in the proceedings.

Feinstein lambasted the Labour leader’s absence, saying:

Keir Starmer is more interested in the needs of his billionaire donors, than the needs of his constituents or the environment.

Labour frontbench fails to support CAN bill

Feinstein’s comments reference the fact that throughout his gambit for Number 10, Starmer has courted the support of billionaire capitalists.

As the Canary has previously reported, the party has doubled-down on its pro-business rhetoric. Notably, Labour’s key climate plan, Great British Energy, is a smokescreen for funnelling public cash to the private sector.

By contrast, Feinstein declared his whole-hearted commitment to the Climate and Nature Bill, which he argued stands as a “challenge” to Starmer’s brand of corporate-captured politics:

that degrades our planet, degrades our environment, and destroys nature. But we must have strong and robust enforcement measures to enforce any piece of legislation.

Former Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas first introduced the bill in 2020. Since then, it has garnered the backing of over 180 MPs and peers across all major political parties. What’s more, the bill has drawn the support of over 200 scientists, multiple businesses, and famous advocates for nature like Chris Packham.

Predictably, Starmer is not among them. Writing for the Big Issue on 14 June, CAN bill climate activists criticised Labour’s manifesto commitments for kicking “the can down the road” on the climate and biodiversity crises.

The article noted how the Labour leadership has offered only vague platitudes to the “aims and ambitions” of the bill.

Moreover, to date, just 12 members of the Labour former frontbench have independently pledged to back the bill. These included just two secretaries of state, Ian Murray (for Scotland) and Louise Haigh (for transport).

Crucially however, not a single minister from the party’s Energy Security and Net Zero team had signed up to support it. Meanwhile, just one environment minister – Emma Hardy – had done so before the dissolution of parliament.

Feinstein: the gaping CAN-shaped hole in Labour’s manifesto

An analysis by Greenpeace determined that Labour’s manifesto fell well short of the concerted action needed. Significantly, it met barely over 50% of the green policies Greenpeace set out as key for the next government.

In particular, the party’s manifesto dropped the ball on sewage, industrial fishing, and plastic pollution. Greenpeace also pulled up Labour on the omission of plans for reversing the Tories’ draconian anti-protest laws.

On sewage too, Feinstein has called out Starmer and his party’s connections to private corporations:

This is pathetic. Water companies, which have been making mega profits from massive price increases while polluting our rivers, must be returned to public ownership. Labour’s ultra cautious manifesto doesn’t go nearly far enough and will have no meaningful impact on the numerous… https://t.co/8F48tmxo5l

— Andrew Feinstein for Holborn & St Pancras (@andrewfeinstein) June 22, 2024

Contrary to Labour, the independent candidate has made repealing the Tories’ authoritarian legislation a key plank of his manifesto.

At the hustings, Feinstein argued that:

Climate is the greatest existential crisis that we as humanity, as a planet, face. And this is an existential election.

Despite the gravity of these threats however, Starmer couldn’t even be bothered to show up to the hustings. Evidently, if he had, Feinstein would have held his feet to the fire and shown the Labour leader up for the shameless capitalist sycophant he is.

It’s clear that Starmer is not the climate and biodiversity choice on the ballot. Now, it’s up to the residents of Holborn and St Pancras to give him the boot. The choice at this election is between a Labour corporate lackey who will kick the can down the road on climate and nature, or a principled politician who will finally kick CAN into gear and the capitalist class to the curb.

Feature image via Kristian Lam-Clark