The BBC Covered the Leaving Do. A Children's Charity Covered the Record.
Keir Starmer stood up for his 64th and final Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, told the Commons "this is the end of my political journey," and got a standing ovation from his own benches. On Monday he hands the keys to Andy Burnham. That's the news. Here's the coverage.
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The BBC's front page ran his words as the headline — Starmer says it's the "end of my political journey" — plus a video card titled "Watch: Starmer's kind send-off across the Commons." Kind send-off. That's not a report, that's the caption on a retirement card. The Guardian's sketch went full leaving-drinks: Starmer "soaked up the love from all sides – and even some tenderness from Kemi."
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The same afternoon, a rather different review of the same career went up. Save the Children — a children's charity, not a rival campaign office — posted a mock blue plaque: "History will not forget complicity. Keir Starmer witnessed 73,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, including 21,000 children, and kept supplying arms to Israel."
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A government minister called the plaque "divisive hyperbole and misinformation," adding it was "completely unfitting for a children's charity." Which is a strange complaint. Counting dead children is, unfortunately, rather central to a children's charity's job description.
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The Guardian, to its credit, put the clash on the same front page as the tenderness: "Save the Children clashes with Labour after accusing Starmer of 'complicity' in Gaza deaths." Two verdicts, one page. Reader's choice.
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On the BBC's news front on Wednesday evening, we counted the send-off video, the "political journey" headline and a story on Burnham's chancellor dilemma — and no plaque. Maybe it's coming. But a farewell isn't a mood, it's a record. "I am proud to leave this country in better shape than I found it" is a claim, and checking claims is the bit journalists are for — even at the goodbye party. Especially at the goodbye party.
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Nobody heckles a eulogy. Which is exactly what makes it the safest place to store a legacy.