Sir Keir Starmer is to travel to France and Albania in a bid to show voters that he would “clean up the utter mess” of illegal migration, “created by the British Government”. An ally told The Times that “we need to demonstrate that we are as keen as the government to stop the boats — the difference is competence.”
Starmer’s visit to Albania, a country from where many of those heading across the Channel appear to be economic migrants, will be heavily trailed and choreographed. Of interest might be the identities of those who are doing the trailing and choreography for both the Labour leader and the Left-leaning Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama.
It is quite conceivable that both former prime minister Tony Blair and his one time director of communications Alastair Campbell, who have long lent their services to the Albanians, may have a hand in the speeches for Starmer and Rama. It wouldn’t be at all surprising to learn that they came up with the whole Starmer-Albania caper in the first place.
After all, Blair was appointed a ‘special adviser’ to an Albanian government seeking EU membership back in 2013, while Campbell can claim some credit in helping Rama, a New Labour fan, get elected around the same time. Last year he was even rumoured to have advised Rama respond strongly to Home Secretary Suella Braverman for her comments on Albanian migrants entering the country.
And in 2016, the Blair relationship with Albania’s Government became a rather touching family affair when it was revealed that Cherie Blair’s law firm had been paid nearly half a million pounds for legal advice by the government of Albania. Here, Omnia Strategy earned a fee of £493,000 for acting as Albania’s official adviser in a legal dispute with a British scanning company.
So the exact nature of Tony Blair’s work for the Albanians has remained starkly unclear, with advice apparently being offered via the ‘Tony Blair Institute for Global Change’. If this work were pro bono, doubtless we would know about it.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe