Labour has a story to tell about a government that talks tough on crime but lets victims down in reality
What happened to us? When did we stop caring about honesty and integrity?
Line of Duty fans will instantly recognise those words: not mine but those of a fictional police officer, Supt Ted Hastings, on hearing that the anti-corruption unit he led was being neutered after finding one bent copper too many. Yet as someone in Keir Starmer’s office presumably clocked on Sunday night, Hastings’ moral indignation at the sight of a “bare-faced liar promoted to the highest office” is an uncanny fit for current political circumstances. The Labour leader too wants voters to see him as an honest cop, the former barrister still dogged in pursuit of justice, and Boris Johnson as a shifty old lag. No wonder that as he cross-examined the prime minister this week over the Greensill scandal, Starmer crowbarred in a slightly laboured joke about needing Hastings on the case.
