We are sleepwalking towards a Labour government, it's time to wake up, says Mark Dolan

In his latest speech, when Sir Keir Starmer says he is taking back control, he's taking the p***. The cervix-free leader of the opposition has got a nerve invoking the language of Brexit – given that he tried to reverse it.

As the shadow Brexit secretary, he campaigned for a second referendum, which, if granted, would in my view have provoked the greatest democratic and constitutional crisis in our history.

Now, I don't want this to be personal, because Starmer is clearly a clever guy, and I'm sure a lovely bloke. But is he really the answer to Britain's problems?

Is he really the answer to Britain's industrial strife for example? Can Labour stand up to the unions, when they are in the pocket of them.

Donations from the unions, are essential in keeping labour financially solvent. Let me tell you, it's very hard to be tough with people upon whose money, you are reliant.

We face an economic crisis, with raging inflation. Are labour the ones to tackle that, given the fact that not only would they likely yield to inflation-busting pay demands from the public sector, but their talk of investment is really just a snake oil term which in reality just means borrowing and spending more money.

And tell me how that will settle the nerves of international financiers and Rolex wearing investors, upon whose largesse we are now dependent. Are you really telling me that the financial markets would be more forgiving of a big spending labour government?

Good luck with that.

And Starmer said yesterday he will reverse legislation making it harder for workers to go on strike. Look forward to strikes aplenty with him in Number 10.

And how will Starmer get the national debt down, given the fact that labour enjoys massive support across the public sector – education, the health service and beyond. Do you think these interest groups will be happy to live with austerity?

Quite the opposite. If Keir Starmer gets into number 10, they will expect a tsunami of cash.

And if not, I predict a civil war within the Labour Party - hardly the basis of a stable government. Don't take my word for it, notwithstanding his largely well received speech, powerful voices within his own party are already critical, and he's not even prime minister yet.

The Labour MP for Hackney Diane Abbot for example, has described the speech as full of empty promises and says new funding is needed to underpin his plans.

Is Keir Starmer the right person to tackle poisonous, divisive woke culture, which is demonising British history, and turning our public institutions into crucibles of mad, politically correct extremism, with everyone being forced to declare their pronouns and sign up to a narrative that everything about this country is shameful.

Can Sir Keir really push back on bonkers gender ideology, which rejects the idea that there are two biological sexes, given the fact that he himself, can't even define what a woman is, even though he's married to one?

And he has shown in the past a willingness to signal his virtue at the drop of a hat, whether it's taking the knee in an empty gesture met with scorn by many voters –

Or wearing a mask in the company of Justin Trudeau on the very same day he met our ageing queen mask free.

Is Keir Starmer really the right person to tackle our other great challenge – the energy crisis? Given the fact that he wants to go net zero by next Tuesday and borrow taxpayers billions in a 1970s style state-sponsored company to invest in flaky renewables?

We saw in the 70s what happens when the government tries to be entrepreneurial – it decimated the motor industry, telecommunications, airlines, rail, gas, you name it. Governments can't run companies. Well, actually they can, but they just run them into the ground.

Now I have voted New labour in the past. They made huge mistakes, namely the Iraq War and uncontrolled immigration, but they were aspirational, business, friendly and fiscally prudent.

So it's Never Say Never that they should win my vote again. I'm like one of the millions of people that makes my mind up on election day, I'm not tribal. But right now, Keir Starmer does not get my vote. This is not Tony Blair 2.0.

Blair banned the word socialism from new labour and recently said in an interview that his party must ditch the woke stuff. Well, they can only do that if they ditch Keir Starmer, who is rooted in the right on groupthink of Islington in North London.

Do you think a labour government would be more robust with illegal migrant crossings given his plan is to make a deal with France? Bonne chance with that. And I've got a concern about Starmer's character too, not just his policies.

This is the man that campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister. And be clear, Jeremy Corbyn in number 10 would have been an economic a national security disaster.

So far from being Tony Blair 2.0, Starmer is Jeremy Corbyn light. And whilst I grant you that the Tories have - in many ways -made a Horlicks of the country over the last 12 years, it is Starmer, whose fingerprints are all over the current crisis.

He was leader of no opposition during the pandemic, and called for longer harder lockdowns and more Covid tyranny.

So he owns the economic, societal, human and health damage from that failed experiment as well. Don't be fooled by the slogans, the snappy catchphrases.

Starmer promises the end of sticking-plaster politics. Well, he can stick it as far as I'm concerned. Right now we are sleepwalking into a labour government. It’s time to wake up.