The outward purpose of Labour’s campaign event in Thurrock on Thursday was to launch Sir Keir Starmer’s six “first steps” commitments, most of which were already familiar in some way. This was duly done, and with presentational panache. But the event had a far larger objective – to make it clear to the public that the Labour party is now ready to govern Britain.
In all but name this was a general election campaign launch, even though the vote is probably months away. The shadow cabinet was there, seated in rows. The event was professionally prepared, choreographed to include personal stories, none more powerful than that from the cancer patient Nathaniel Dye. There were also important video endorsements of Labour, including from the CEO of Boots, Seb James, and from the former senior Met police officer Neil Basu. Each pledge was presented by the relevant shadow minister. It was structured and slick, evidence of a party that knows what it is doing.
The six pledges have been carefully branded as first steps for a Labour government rather than final goals. All are costed. All are aimed at the swing voters Labour needs to capture from the Conservatives, hence, in part, the choice of Thurrock, a Tory-held marginal where Labour made local election gains. The pledges are all desirable. But they are also all limited.
This is especially true of the commitment to achieve economic stability, which has been made to appear radical only because of the Liz Truss-Kwasi Kwarteng debacle that caused so much financial hardship. Since Labour is asking for a two-term, 10-year mandate, it should set out some more radical goals, less constrained by Conservative orthodoxy. The other five pledges – cuts to NHS waiting lists, more neighbourhood police, recruitment of teachers, a border security command and a national clean power energy company – are more substantial. But all have uncertain timetables.
There was no doubting who was top of the bill in Thurrock. Sir Keir’s speech was the work of an opposition leader who has come through a punishing proving process with his party and in parliament, and is now auditioning with the public to be prime minister. His shirt-sleeved appearance, his platform manner and the way he answered media questions showed new confidence and authority – the sort that comes from successful local elections, strong poll leads and the realisation that he is now being measured for the highest office in the land.
The focus on six pledges, and the pictures of Sir Keir brandishing a pledge card, were a direct echo of Tony Blair’s approach in 1997. Sir Keir saw no reason to apologise for that; after all, as he said, Mr Blair won three elections in a row. But it may be significant that Sir Keir called his pledges a “downpayment” in difficult times on his longer-term missions. All the more reason, then, to spell them out more.
Little of what Sir Keir said was wholly new. Some was tantalisingly imprecise. But the general coherence of his speech, the self-discipline over political priorities and the sense of the historical moment were all impressive. It felt as if every phrase mattered and had been stress-tested as part of the larger campaigning argument. The contrast with the scare tactics in Rishi Sunak’s recent speeches was striking. Sir Keir performed like a party leader who has gone up a gear. It has never been clearer that he is now Britain’s prime minister in waiting.
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