As the party departed Liverpool, still clearly grappling with the challenges of what being the party of government brings, we’ve learned a lot about the direction the party is going. Here are our quick takeaways.
Keir Starmer has shored up his position…for now. With the noise going into this conference all about the leadership challenge from Manchester’s Andy Burnham, the sight of his early departure from conference before the PM’s speech will please No.10. In what could have been a perilous week for the PM, strong reaffirmation of the Chancellor’s fiscal rules, coupled with strong defences from cabinet ministers and aides, resulted in Burnham conceding that Starmer is the “right person for the job”. You can’t help but add the line “for the moment…” with other rising stars like Shabana Mahmood and Wes Streeting clearly biding their time.
Labour is taking the fight to reform. In what was probably his strongest speech as party leader, Starmer clearly set the parameters for British politics. For him, this is about Labour vs Reform. Decency vs division. Ultimately, the class-conscious speech was a deliberate attempt to win back the working class that has increasingly abandoned the party over the years to the likes of Reform. In this more combative approach, he also decried Reform’s policies on immigration as “racist”. A punchy line of attack which worked in the room, but he will hope doesn’t unravel as a perceived attack on all Reform sympathisers who are doubting the centrist parties’ ability to deliver.
The looming budget has not got any easier. In media briefings over the weekend, and in her speech, Rachel Reeves continued the manifesto commitment to not raise taxes on working people. Whilst at the same time, to appease critical voices in the Labour party, she is flirting with the idea of more spending – both on infrastructure and lifting the two-child limit. She said she is a chancellor that wants to invest. None of this sounds like a chancellor staring down the prospect of having to find £30bn in November to plug the gap predicted by the OBR.
The difference a Labour government makes. This has been the underlying strategic narrative of the conference to fend off criticism there is no difference between this government and a Conservative one. We saw speech after speech rattle off long lists of tangible activities the government has taken across the policy spectrum. We can expect much more of this narrative to come, together with a clear focus on ‘showing’ that delivery to the electorate, rather than just ‘telling‘ them.