In the end, it took 50 minutes. Journalists were betting in advance of Keir Starmer’s address to the Labour conference in Liverpool, his first as prime minister, how long it would take for a protester to disrupt it. Twelve minutes? Twenty? Too long, most surmised. Nobody bet 50.
Disruption had seemed inevitable. Instead of a victory celebration, it had been a strange, rather repressed conference so far, as Starmer’s government reeled from self-inflicted wounds caused by donor rows and infighting. Meanwhile, the wider Labour movement had seemed uneasy with its new role as the party of government, as reality bit hard over the scale of the task ahead of fixing Britain.
The most verve had come from anti-Israel protesters. Shortly before 11am on Tuesday, three hours ahead of Starmer’s speech, members of one of the pop-up left-wing protest groups – this time it was Youth Demand – were arrested as they sprayed “Genocide Conference” on the entrance to the secure compound.
Starmer seemed ready for disruption; to relish it, even.
A year ago he had addressed the party, then giddy at the prospect of power instead of awed by its possession, from the same spot and was covered in glitter by an environmentalist. The prime minister referred to it in his speech on Tuesday, as dismissed those who “still hanker for the politics of noisy performance, the weak and cowardly fantasy of populism”.
“Mere glitter on a shirt cuff,” he said, tutting, as he recalled what had happened the previous year. “It has never distracted me before, and it won’t distract me now.”
A half-hour after he said this, and with a heavy security presence ensuring nobody would be able to rush the stage this time, a lone male protester stood and shouted about the genocide that he believed was being committed by Israel in Gaza.
As the man was removed, Starmer, waiting for this moment, had a pre-cooked line ready. “This guy obviously has a pass from the 2019 conference,” said the prime minister, referring to the dying days of the Jeremy Corbyn regime and its annihilation that year by Boris Johnson’s Tories.
“While he has been protesting, we’ve been changing the party [and] that’s why we have a Labour government,” said Starmer. It was a decent retort, and most of the delegates recognised it with sustained applause and cheering. A cohort of union delegates who were seated near the press area, however, were far less enthusiastic and, at times, were studiously cold towards Starmer, declining to join in with any of the ovations that punctured his speech.
Party conference speeches are like scripted performances. A bit of hope here, a dash of rhetoric there, personal anecdotes, some soaring oratory and crowd favourites designed to spur applause – the delegates know when they’re expected to make noise. These can be predictable affairs.
[ Mark Paul at the Labour conference: Rachel Reeves accentuates the positivesOpens in new window ]
The prime minister’s speech was predictable, too, but in a very Starmer-esque manner. It was polished, solid, not too flashy and a bit stubborn. But it was also decent and he delivered it well. After the wobbly week or two he has endured, he will be satisfied with it.
It designed to steady the troops, to remind them the job of government was never going to be easy and to steel themselves for the task ahead, because it would lead to better days. Britain was “no longer sure of itself,” he acknowledged. But he promised that if they put in the work to fix the country, it would see “a rediscovery, in the full glare of the future, of who we are”.
He focused heavily on values of tolerance and respect for the rule of law. The strongest part of his delivery, by far, was a section about the anti-immigrant riots that engulfed the UK during the summer. He decried the “vile racism” and lambasted rioters who targeted mosques and tried to “burn refugees”.
“The country sees you and it rejects you,” he said in a raised voice, addressing the rioters. “And to those who say that the only way to love your country is to hate your neighbour because they look different, I say not only do we reject you, we know that you will never win.”
It was a genuinely stirring moment, delivered with real force by Starmer. His supporters will see it as a demonstration of the inner fortitude they say he will bring to the job.
He tried to paint a vision of a better Britain with properly restored public services, a reformed economy and better opportunities. He warned of the hard work ahead, and that he could not offer “easy answers and false hope”, but only toil.
He finished with a flourish, never stopping to pause through a cheering ovation, his voice raised, as he laid out his vision of a better Britain with more homes, hospitals, roads and schools.
“That is what people will get, and mark my words – we will deliver it.”
A solid, sturdy, and occasionally rousing speech will not on its own gird Labour for the job ahead. But it cannot hurt. As delegates streamed out afterwards, the sun peeked out in Liverpool for the first time since this rain-sodden conference had begun.
If that was a harbinger of a steadied ship, Starmer will surely take it.
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