After Keir Starmer’s rose garden speech last month, which some inside government believe overdid the gloom, I wrote that the Prime Minister would soon need to offer voters more hope. That’s the pivot Starmer will make in his conference address today. While warning of further “tough decisions”, he will assure the public that there is “light at the end of this tunnel”.
What is that light? Starmer has been aided by Rachel Reeves who used her conference speech to signal that she may revise her fiscal rules to allow for greater public investment (another pivot ministers have yearned for). As I have reported, Starmer will use his speech to revive the theme of a “societal black hole” as well as an economic one (“our decimated public services leaving communities held together by little more than good will”).
The Prime Minister will define his aims as “living standards [rising] in every community… waiting lists at your hospital down; safer streets in your community; stronger borders; more opportunities for your children; clean British energy powering your home; making our country more secure.”
This is the politics of and rather than or with Starmer attempting to root himself in the common ground of public opinion: economically interventionist, authoritarian on crime and borders and socially liberal. But can he recover from a supposed “honeymoon period” marred by plummeting approval ratings?
There has been no shortage of policy activity from the government as Starmer will point out, hailing planning reform, solar and offshore wind projects, the launch of GB Energy, the ban on MPs’ second jobs, the Renters Reform Bill and the rail public ownership bill among other measures. But there’s still a fear among Labour MPs and advisers that his government has lacked definition, making it all the more vulnerable to storms over cronyism and donations.
Starmer will attempt to change that in his speech, which one No 10 aide described to me as “his most personal yet”. Having put class back at the centre of political debate, Starmer will promise “a country that won’t expect you to change who you are, just to get on” (Tony Blair, by contrast, declared “I want to make you all middle class” in a 1999 speech).
He will also speak, more lyrically, of how “the cost-of-living crisis drew a veil over the joy and wonder in our lives”. This is a conscious reference to the terrain explored by the likes of Dylan Thomas, George Orwell and Anthony Crosland: the magic of everyday life.
There’s been a risk that this Labour government is typecast as joyless: warning that things will get worse, taking money off pensioners, cracking down on smoking and junk food. Can Starmer use his speech to recast his image?
This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here.
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