A few minutes before Keir Starmer gave his big conference speech, Andy Burnham, the man who appears to covet his positions as Britain’s prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, walked out of the venue.
After his party rival left, Starmer rhetorically chased the Manchester mayor down the road with an address that was stirring at times – and perhaps the best he has given since he led Labour to victory in July last year.
He has endured a torrid September. Its final day was his best in a while.
Starmer told Labour delegates crammed into the ACC arena in Liverpool that he “had enough of lectures” from politicians who would “crash the economy like Liz Truss” and who had “walked away after Brexit”.
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“No!” he shouted, as his party’s faithful were roused into an ovation.
Ostensibly, it was an attack on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. But elements of it could also be subtly interpreted as having a secondary target – Burnham. For days, Starmer’s allies have been briefing the Truss line about the Manchester mayor, who has implied recently that Labour should ignore bond markets and hike spending.
Burnham also stepped down from parliament in 2017, as the post-Brexit debate began to consume Britain. Now he appears to be considering coming back to challenge the UK prime minister and potentially replace him. Starmer intends to stand firm, however, on the evidence of his speech on Tuesday.
Whatever the Labour leader did or did not imply about Burnham, he was explicit in his targeting of Farage as he embraced the prospect of a direct face-off with his rival in a “fight for the soul” of Britain.
“When was the last time you heard Nigel Farage say anything positive about Britain’s future? He can’t. He doesn’t like Britain, doesn’t believe in Britain. [He] wants you to doubt it just as much as he does,” said Starmer.
It was, quite literally, a flag-waving speech. Starmer has long been intent on reclaiming the Union Jack and England’s flag of St George from hard-right factions. Half an hour before the prime minister’s speech was due to begin, Labour staffers were handing out Union Jacks and St George Flags, as well as Welsh dragon flags and Scottish Saltires.
They did not hand out Northern Ireland’s red cross and red hand flag, which is an unofficial emblem – the Union Jack is the only official UK flag of the North.
The speech was preceded by a video to gee up Starmer’s troops, listing actions his government has taken since entering government, such as nationalising the rail service and investing in five million extra NHS appointments.
Starmer was introduced by Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall, who said he had “kept his word” by introducing to parliament a Bill, known as a Hillsborough Law, to introduce criminal sanctions for those in authority who instigate cover-ups of disasters.
Starmer got off to a slow start, but soon warmed to his theme, decrying the racism that he said is creeping across Britain, and the “snake-oil merchants” of the right and left who he said needed the country to decline so they could succeed.
[ The Irish Times view on the Starmer question: Labour should be carefulOpens in new window ]
“The politics of grievance is the biggest threat we face,” said Starmer.
He drew a distinction between his regime and the governments of Tony Blair, saying Britain previously had “too much faith in globalisation” and become over-reliant on immigration.
He directly attacked Farage again and again. “The question I ask, seriously, of Nigel Farage and Reform is, do they love our country? Do they want to serve our country, all of it, our beautiful, tolerant, diverse country?”
He said Labour “must come together to fight Reform, with everything that this movement has. We must go into that battle armed, not just with words and condemnation, but with action.”
Starmer will have worse days again, most notably next May, and the hammering his party is due in Welsh and Scottish elections, and at council level in England. Some doubt if he will survive that.
But for now, for the day of his speech, Starmer could hold his head high, having taken the fight to his enemies.
