Starmer Faces Labour’s First Conference as Prime Minister

Peter Cardwell, Senior Counsel, Sovereign Strategy

With 411 seats won in July and a working majority, currently of 167, Sir Keir Starmer should have been master of all he surveys as he arrives in Liverpool for Labour Party Conference.?His first conference speech as Prime Minister, the plan was for this address on Tuesday lunchtime to be a victory lap; a moment for delegates to lap up the wonder and promise of a Labour Party enjoying its first conference.

Not many Prime Ministers, never mind Labour Prime Ministers, have managed the feat Starmer has. Only five in the past 60 years have made their first conference speech fresh from winning a decisive election against their opposition: Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and David Cameron. Now Starmer does.?And the plan was he would do so confidently and triumphantly here in Liverpool.

Instead, after just 11 weeks in government, he and his party have no end of presentational and substantive political problems. From the significant – such as the alleged ￡22bn black hole, a figure disputed by the Conservatives and some economists – to the presentational, such as the furore over senior Labour Cabinet ministers having clothes and gifts paid for them by a member of the House of Lords, Lord (Waheed) Alli.? It might seem frivolous to some who wish to explain it away, but Alli’s donations of clothes are, quite literally, materially important.? If there is one thing, I learned from working in government for three-and-a-half years as a special adviser to four Cabinet ministers it was that perception is reality – what the electorate thinks is real to them, and politics is an emotional process.? It is unlikely many voters will remember the ￡22bn figure, or indeed how many dresses Angela Rayner had paid for her or how many pairs of spectacles Sir Keir Starmer was bought by Lord Alli. But they will remember how they felt at the time when a Labour party which swore blind it would not repeat the sleazy mistakes of its predecessor in government, the Conservatives, and then failed to do so.

The message deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, had yesterday when she addressed delegates in Liverpool was of hope, mainly on her ministerial bailiwick of housing, where she talked about the “biggest boost for social and affordable housing in a generation.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy pledged to take action on Russia’s misinformation in his speech yesterday which will, he argues, expose foreign agents.? He also talked about his desire for “sovereignty, security and dignity” for both Israelis and Palestinians as the Middle East teeters on regional war.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who speaks today, will rule out a wealth tax to pay for the changes she wants and to tackle the alleged fiscal black hole.? Keir Starmer will try to bring some hope tomorrow after the gloom and foreboding of recent speeches.

But hanging in the air will be yet more questions about who declared what when, who paid for it and whether Labour MPs were as transparent as they were supposed to be at the time.

The challenge for Sir Keir Starmer and his party is to transcend this, to bring back to the agenda to the substantive issues of policy which affect people in the United Kingdom and beyond.? Convincing pensioners cuts to the winter fuel allowance are fair, for example, will continue to be difficult.? It won’t be much longer that Labour can simply rely on blaming the Conservatives for the perceived mistakes of the past 14 years of their administration.

Instead, Starmer must be bold, take the public by the hand and convince them his medicine may be hard to swallow, but is nonetheless what is necessary to rebuild Britain.? And that is much easier said than done.