Keir Starmer vows to ‘re-tool’ Labour as party of law and order

 

Keir Starmer vows to ‘re-tool’ Labour as party of law and order

 

Party grandee Peter Mandelson tells POLITICO hecklers offered a ‘great contrast’ with Labour leader’s speech.

 

BY ESTHER WEBBER AND EMILIO CASALICCHIO

September 29, 2021 3:46 pm

https://www.politico.eu/article/keir-starmer-vows-to-re-tool-labour-as-party-of-law-and-order/

 

BRIGHTON, England — Keir Starmer vowed to remake Labour as the party of law and order — and aimed some low blows at Boris Johnson — as he tried to turn the page on the opposition’s failures and win back disillusioned voters.

 

In his first in-person party conference speech since taking over as leader, Starmer — a former director of public prosecutions — promised tougher sentences for those who commit violence against women. He told delegates: “The fight against crime will always be a Labour issue.”

 

A “national mission” to insulate Britain’s homes, compulsory work experience for school children and mental health treatment targets were among the policy promises on offer as he wrapped up the Brighton gathering.

 

Starmer told a packed conference hall his job was “not just to thank those voters who stayed with us” but to reach out to those who had lost faith in Labour, by making Britain a “brighter, more prosperous” place.

 

His speech followed a fraught few days in which Starmer’s deputy threatened to eclipse him and a member of his frontbench team quit in a confrontation over the minimum wage.

 

But Starmer leaves conference having achieved a host of rule changes that will make it harder for the party’s left to take power or challenge MPs. “It will not take another election defeat for the Labour party to become an alternative government in which you can trust,” he said. “That’s why it has been so important to get our own house in order this week and we have done that.”

 

Starmer was interrupted by hecklers at several points. He faced complaints about his approach to Brexit, criticism of his party’s minimum wage policy — and one cry of “where’s Peter Mandelson?” That was a reference to a key lieutenant of Tony Blair, Labour’s election-winning prime minister who remains deeply unpopular with some parts of the left but whose achievements Starmer openly acknowledged.

 

Mandelson told POLITICO: “With every paragraph of his speech Keir sounded more and more normal and in touch with ordinary people’s lives. With every heckle from the fringe his critics sounded more marginal and lost. It was a great contrast. I am glad they were able to use me to help advertise their crankiness.”

 

Starmer had his own comebacks ready to go. One of his ripostes — “slogans or changing lives, conference?” — drew a standing ovation.

 

The Labour leader also found time to attack the government over Britain’s ongoing fuel crisis, its handling of the pandemic, and a perceived lack of progress on its flagship “leveling up” agenda to address regional inequality. “If you go outside and walk along the seafront, it won’t be long before you come to a petrol station which has no fuel,” Starmer said. “Level up? You can’t even fill up.”

 

Starmer — who leads a party that sank to its worst electoral result since the 1930s under predecessor Jeremy Corbyn — sought to bolster Labour’s economic credentials. He promised to “take the responsibility of spending your money very seriously” and boasted “Labour is back in business.”

 

In an effort to respond to claims he lacks emotion, Starmer talked at length about his family and the values he learned from his mother, a nurse, and father, a toolmaker. That set him up for a jibe at the prime minister’s expense. “My dad was a toolmaker — although in a way, so was Boris Johnson’s,” he quipped.

 

Manual labor was a theme throughout the speech, as he spoke about “retooling” for the next election and a greener economy. He wound up by telling the party faithful: “Work. Care. Equality. Security. These are the tools of my trade, and with them I will go to work.”

 

The speech received immediate and effusive praise from Labour MPs, but was not without criticism from the left of the party.

 

Jon Trickett, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and a longstanding Corbyn ally, said: “I expected to hear Sir Keir explain why he supported Jeremy Corbyn in shadow cabinet, at the meetings where the policies were made and through the general election. It’s surely now apparent to everyone that it was all a matter of convenience for his career development.”

 

The Conservatives, who gather for their own conference in Manchester next week, also took a swipe.

 

Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden — who pointedly referred to the knighted opposition leader as “Sir Keir Starmer” — said the party was “more divided than ever and has no plan.”

 

“Labour spent five days talking to themselves about themselves instead of to the country,” he said.

 

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the location of the Tory Party conference.