Make Labour Normal Again. That has been the defining mission of Keir Starmer since the spring of 2020, when he took over a battered and demoralised party in the grips of an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Today, he made a little clearer what his leadership meant for the country. A Labour Party that was unequivocally pro-Nato, opposed to antisemitism and a safe bet for ordinary people tired of permanent economic crises.
As the Tories’ reputation for economic stewardship has taken a mauling from the markets, Starmer talked about “sound money” as if his speech were co-authored by Nick Macpherson, the former Treasury permanent secretary (only nerds need click).
There was a headline grabber, too. Starmer announced that a Labour government would establish a publicly owned energy company – Great British Energy. He even touched Brexit – a subject Labour has been loath to address in recent years.
I was in Liverpool in 2011 for Ed Miliband’s famous ‘predators vs producers’ speech, which went down like a bucket of cold sick. Is a public energy firm re-heated Ed Milibandism, or the Blairite third way between full-on nationalisation and the government’s unpopular decision not to impose a further windfall tax on the oil and gas giants?
Ultimately, Starmer, who in strict policy terms is closer to the former than the latter, enjoys one major benefit that the now Shadow Climate Change Secretary never enjoyed. The Tories appear to be in the process of shredding their reputation for economic competence.
At the same time as Starmer was speaking, Huw Pill, chief economist at the Bank of England, warned that there would be a “significant monetary policy response“ i.e. higher interest rates, following Kwasi Kwarteng’s £45bn tax-cutting mini-budget last week.
As the Conservatives have demonstrated time (1983, 1987, 1992) after time (2010, 2015) after time (2017, 2019), under first-past-the-post, you only have to beat whoever’s in front of you.
This is not to say that Labour is on course for a big win. First, plenty can change before an election that is not expected to be called for another two years. Second, Starmer requires a 1997-like swing (larger, in fact) simply to secure a majority of one. That is how badly the party lost in 2019.
But after a week of turmoil in the markets, Starmer the safe bet may be an appealing enough proposition to those voters who ditched Labour in favour of the Tories in the last few election cycles.
In the comment pages, Matthew d’Ancona warns that if Starmer is serious about becoming prime minister, he must — to borrow the language of The Godfather — get ready to “go to the mattresses”.
While Defence Editor Robert Fox says that Italy’s next prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, shares the Putin view of history.
And finally, long-standing Wandsworth favourite, Chez Bruce, has been named London’s restaurant of the year at the 2022 AA Hospitality Awards. I’ve not yet been, despite embarking on a multi-year odyssey with my dad to eat at all the capital’s French restaurants. This must surely change, n’est-ce pas?
