Keir Starmer's intervention in the row over the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans plumbed new depths in stoking division, argues Herald columnist Calum Steele

Keir Starmer is a man with an impressive CV. Former Director of Public Prosecutions, human rights lawyer who has appeared in genocide cases at The Hague, and a man who has argued the Iraq war was not legal under international law. He is precisely the kind of guy you’d want to turn to if you were seeking a paragraph or two to slap down a Prime Minister who had long forgotten the importance of the separation of powers between the executive and the police.

Now the flaw in that plan is obvious, and Starmer has form when it comes to that most trivial of details in making sure police and judicial independence are maintained. His comments on the Southport riots were worthy of more attention than they received, and when he delivered a speech in which he declared “Individuals will be held on remand”, he should have been taken aside and had a very bright yellow card waved in his face on the propriety of his being seen to direct the judiciary.

But for all his legal acumen, Starmer is increasingly showing that when it comes to the stuff that really matters and are fundamental to our democratic systems and rule of law, he is a man incapable of rising to the occasion.

Read more by Calum Steele

Just two weeks ago, the former human rights advocate was telling us he was so worried about the police being........

© Herald Scotland