On Tuesday, in the Downing Street garden, Keir Starmer delivered a grim, generation-defining warning that “things will get worse” for Britain. On Wednesday, in Berlin, he gave a more upbeat resetting of European relations, with more to come in Paris, describing it as a “once in a generation opportunity”. The abrupt juxtaposition is striking. It embodies why so many still find it so hard to get a convincing handle on the prime minister and to have confidence in what he is really about.
Many responses to Starmer’s speeches often seem predetermined, in some cases lazily so, while others contain a nagging descant of truth. That has happened this week too. Starmer’s Labour critics said he was not bold enough – but then, that’s what they always say. The Conservatives – who spent the past decade raising performative politics into almost an art form – also dismissed the speech as performative. The Daily Mail denounced an attack on middle England, as usual. The Tory right alleged Starmer was undermining Brexit, whatever that now means.
