Britain’s Conservative government is beset with problems, from a still-rumbling coronavirus pandemic to a fuel crisis that’s draining gas pumps across the country. This should be a great time for the country’s main opposition party.
But Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is struggling to break through to a largely indifferent public. He’s hoping to change that with a speech Wednesday at the party’s annual conference, arguing that Labour is “back in business” after being out of power for a decade.
Starmer has troubles of his own. Labour is deeply divided following its election disappointments. Allegations of anti-Semitism under Starmer’s hard-left predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn tarred the party. Issues from nationalizing utilities to transgender people’s rights are causing bitter internal feuds.
Starmer also struggled to make an impact with the wider public while the country’s attention was consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left 135,000 people in Britain dead — the highest toll in Europe after Russia.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives won a thumping 80-seat majority in Parliament in December 2019 by wooing voters in working-class northern England towns where people felt neglected by successive governments.
Starmer wants to win them back. In his speech, he plans to stake his claim to be Britain’s next prime minister, and tackle many voters’ biggest concern about Labour — that the social democratic party will hike taxes and hobble the economy.
“Too often in the history of this party our dream of the good society falls foul of the belief that we will not run a strong economy,” according to extracts of his speech released in advance. “But you don’t get one without the other. And under my leadership, we are committed to both.”
Televised conference speeches are one of the few chances politicians have to address the public directly outside of election campaigns. Britain is not scheduled to hold a national election until 2024, though many expect Johnson to call one at least a year sooner.
Party conferences are an annual fixture of British politics, though the pandemic curtailed them in 2020. This year, the country’s political clans are gathering in seaside resorts or provincial cities for meetings that are part pep rally, part campaign pitch and part political sideshow.
Labour’s conference ends Wednesday in the English south coast city of Brighton The governing Tories hold their own four-day shindig starting Sunday in Manchester, northwest England.
Labour has not governed the U.K. since 2010, a decade that brought the country three Conservative prime ministers: David Cameron, Theresa May and Johnson.
A former national chief prosecutor, Starmer was elected Labour leader in April 2020 to replace Corbyn, who had led the party to two heavy election defeats in 2017 and 2019 — the latter Labour’s worst result since 1935.
Starmer is now caught between two wings of the fractious party. Many Labour members think the party must veer to the center to win, as it did under former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who won three successive election victories. But Corbyn’s still-numerous supporters want Starmer to stick to his predecessor’s socialist policies of nationalization and spending hikes.
A pro-Corbyn lawmaker, Andy McDonald, quit as Starmer’s employment spokesperson mid-conference, saying the party’s economic proposals to raise the minimum wage were not bold enough.
Senior lawmaker John McDonnell, a Corbyn ally, said Wednesday’s speech could be Starmer’s last chance to save his leadership.
“I think if Keir gets the speech right on Wednesday, he can lift everyone’s spirits and go further,” he said. “If he doesn’t, and we’re not lifting in the polls, Keir is a sensible enough person to actually sit down and assess his own future.”
