Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will address his party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday 27 September, taking to the stage at the Arena and Convention Centre at King’s Dock at a dramatic moment in British politics.
Just three weeks into Liz Truss’s tenure as prime minister, much of which was given over to national mourning following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the UK finds itself in a fresh state of crisis.
Her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-slashing, heavy-borrowing “mini-Budget”, delivered to Parliament on Friday, has spooked the global currency markets, leaving the value of the pound sterling in freefall and the Bank of England forced to consider an emergency intervention to steady the ship by raising interest rates.
The panic has already seen Labour surge to a 17 per cent poll lead ahead of the Conservatives in the latest YouGov survey, with the public seemingly favouring Sir Keir and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves’s message of fiscal responsibility over the “reckless gambling” of Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng, which has been derided by many economists and even their own fellow Tory MPs, some of whom are believed to have already submitted letters of no confidence.
Tuesday morning at the Labour conference will begin with a session on “Britain in the World and a Green and Digital Future”, in which the party will lay out its ambition to turn the country into a “clean energy superpower” by investing in renewables and taxing the outsized profits of utility companies, before Sir Keir commences his address from the main hall at 2pm.
While last year’s conference was largely about Sir Keir finally finding a platform to introduce himself to the wider public after two years of lockdown frustration, his latest address will see him lay out his credentials to be Britain’s next prime minister, a possibility now much closer to reality in light of Ms Truss’s disastrous start in Downing Street and its reflection in the latest polling.
Sir Keir is expected to present his vision for what a future Labour government might look like, spelling out plans for the sound stewardship of the economy, reaffirming Britain’s ongoing commitment to Ukraine and introducing new policies on workers’ rights, childcare, climate and the restoration of the NHS.
It is hard to imagine he will be able to resist ridiculing Mr Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, widely seen as favouring the rich, or the myriad scandals that engulfed the previous Boris Johnson government, from Wallpapergate to Partygate to the Chris Pincher affair and the spewing of sewage onto Britain’s beaches.
The Labour leader perhaps offered a preview of the tone his address is likely to take on Tuesday when he told party activists recently: “There’s a change in the air. There’s an atmosphere, there’s a sense that Labour is ready to deliver.
“And don’t we need change after 12 years of this shower, 12 years of failure under this government, wages stagnant for 10 years, public services on their knees?”
What is certain is that this speech this afternoon will be one of the most important of his career so far.
