Starmer, Lammy slammed for cynical ‘selfie’ video at Holocaust Memorial

Keir Starmer has been criticised for choosing to film a promotional video at the Holocaust Memorial, alongside his Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy:

Using the memorial as a backdrop for anything, particularly anything self-promoting, is considered utterly bad taste and Starmer has rightly been lambasted for it:

Labour’s Kier Starmer and David Lammy using the Holocaust memorial as a backdrop for their party political video

This is a massive faux pas in Germany pic.twitter.com/8nNZlR00OL
— James Jackson (@derJamesJackson) July 17, 2022

Disgusting to see you use the Holocaust Memorial as a backdrop for your campaign video pic.twitter.com/kX2OsTJv47
— j (@jrc1921) July 17, 2022

“Let’s monopolise a genocide to make ourselves look good whilst we persecute and expel all the socialist Jews from our party” Starmer in a nutshell.
— LongTimeLefty (@LongTimeLefty) July 17, 2022

They're using a place where I, and hundreds of thousands of others, have gone and openly wept for dead family.

They're using it, and us, as political goals and we're *not* that. This is antisemitic and trivialises the memorial.

How dare you dismiss this after everything you did
— Autist na h-Alba – Queer Crowboy. (@Easy_As_He_They) July 17, 2022

Despite the obvious offensiveness and narcissism involved in the decision to make and publicise the video, Starmer’s fans have pretzeled themselves to try to justify it, to justified derision:

I’m sure all the Starmer cultists performing mental gymnastics to explain why this is actually fine were equally charitable in their interpretation of how Jeremy Corbyn pronounced Jeffrey Epstein’s name.
— Joseph Attard (@josephattard02) July 17, 2022

And others have pointed out that Starmer is supposed to represent working people yet would run a mile rather than be seen on a picket line or in front of a memorial to them and their struggle:

A family member has just said to me;
“Starmer is meant to represent British workers … so would he ever do a photo shoot standing next to a Tolpuddle Martyrs or Peterloo Massacre memorial 🤷🏽‍♂️
Regrettably I think we all know the answer
— Alexis 🙏🏽🍷🌎 (@TocquevilleJnr) July 17, 2022

Significantly, by appearing with Lammy in the video Starmer underlined his contempt for working people and their struggle. Earlier this month Lammy told the public he did not support striking workers and lied about the reason British Airways employees were taking strike action. Lammy was not disciplined by Starmer for the comments and Starmer’s appearance with Lammy in a campaign video so soon after them is a clear signal that Lammy’s views are entirely in line with Starmer’s own, despite the anger of Lammy’s local Labour party members.

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