Ed McGuinness: The real problem with government by ChatGPT

Ed McGuinness is a founder of Conservatives in the City, and a former parliamentary candidate .

Over the last few months, at 8am – almost without failure – the Twitter/X account of our estimable leader, Sir Keir Starmer, croaks into life.

Prime Ministers of the past have been masters of communication. Churchill used the wireless to utter aplomb, steeling the nation during the war.

Thatcher, whilst abhorring the implementation of television cameras in the Commons, was a master (or mistress?) of playing to the gallery when suited.

And, of course, Blair embraced modern communications in a way he seemed almost born to do.

Therefore it is no surprise that Starmer takes to Twitter/X to lay out his “thought for the day”.

The trouble is, it’s nonsense.

Of his aforementioned predecessors, they always, at least, had “something” to say; major policy announcement, a progress report or even a rallying call. Starmer seems to just vomit word soup midway between brushing his teeth and tying his shoelaces for the day. My working theory, based on timing and the fact that his messages occasionally bear the hallmarks of AI (the double hyphen being a critical flag) is that this is generated by ChatGPT. It would be hypocritical of me to suggest that, in the modern era, the population, and leaders, should not embrace ChatGPT (other LLMs are available) to communicate, but to do so without substance in unforgivable for two reasons.

First, in the case of Starmer, there is no golden thread.

Within literally twenty four hours his accounts rattle out the same three line rubbish with a seemingly random policy announcement at the bottom. Here is an example from 1st November 2025: “We’re choosing renewal over decline…Unity over division…Unlocking the potential of everyone in every part of the UK.” It’s absolutely rubbish, and no one really feels any affinity for any of the messaging involved.

It is worth pointing out at this juncture, before the pile on, that a politician at the top of government will likely, rarely, write their own social media messages. Nonetheless, and despite Labour’s penchant for throwing their staff under the bus, Starmer is the man whose photo appears beside the messages and the public assume it is, indeed, him.

This brings me on to my second point, and that can be summed up in one word (non-ChatGPT generated) and that is “sincerity”. It is all well and good, shoving an excel spreadsheet of upcoming policy announcements into an AI model and asking for some banal, middle of the road tripe that will allow you to offend, and inform, no one. But as you continue to be characterised by this, your ability to react sincerely is questionable; he’s the boy who cried wolf.

Inevitably, the nation will come up against extreme moments. And these are times where we often shift our gaze to the Monarch, but we also expect our political leaders to act and, crucially, actually ‘lead’. Starmer’s continued communications style on social media, which most people use now instead of mainstream media with its curated pool clips, is frankly eroding his leadership, during the times where, even as a Conservative, I believe we need it.

His lack of sincerity when the proverbial sun is shining, means when it pours, his ability to shape a narrative, rather than just commentate on it is severely limited. We have seen this in action during the reaction to the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans being banned from an upcoming Aston Villa game – where he received huge amounts of criticism as an armchair critic rather than the most powerful person in the country.

I fear now, following the extreme violence we saw on that train in Huntingdon, that his initial response seems fake, insincere and generated by the committee.

Empathy is a huge quality required of our politicians.

By the very nature of our political system we have a single person, representing huge numbers of constituents. There is no way anyone could have experienced the vast array of human experiences of those they represent – and never any way they possibly could. The increasing use of tools at the top, which seek to perhaps make government more efficient is, in fact, widening the chasm between our leaders and the people.

Starmer’s use of social media is a clear example of this.

However this is a rectifiable situation. All one needs is a real, honest to god, human being, with empathy, to craft a message. The real problem, and perhaps a foolish point for an author to make, is whether the entire premise of this article is wrong and this is the “real” Starmer.

If that is the case, sadly we really are all doomed.