Shame is one of the most underrated forces binding together and protecting our political norms. Take the case of Amber Rudd, in what may turn out to be the last time someone resigns after doing something wrong: Downing Street wanted to keep her in post, but she thought, rightly, that having misled the home affairs select committee, she had to go. Compare that with Esther McVey, whose offence was in every measurable sense worse, but is still in the cabinet.
The Conservative Party has said, rightly, that the ongoing problems with anti-Semitism in the Labour ranks are a scandal. But its correct criticisms of the Labour Party, ought to, if she had any sense of shame, mean that Kemi Badenoch wouldn’t have felt able to say that when the Muslim Council of Britain says there are institutional problems with Islamophobia in the Tory Party, it does so for a “political motive”.
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