Starmer Has Finally Found A Story

Keir Starmer has always reminded me of one of those schoolteachers – the perfectly decent, dithering kind whom good kids pity, and bad kids prey on. The kind that starts the term brimming with do-gooder ideas only to have abandoned them before Week One is out, by which time the kids, launching questions and rogue glue sticks their way, have reinstated the law of the jungle. Maybe it was just my school…

Except if the first 14 months of his premiership are anything to go by, then this image is no real stretch of the imagination. Having spent his first year in office lecturing on the “difficult decisions” needed to restore the country’s foundations, to no avail – and having made enough U-turns to warrant an honorary feature in the Strictly Hall of Fame, it is clear that Starmer, with his hesitant authority and lack of vision, has never really got his classroom – the country – under control. 

In large part, this is due to his, and the Labour Party’s, reluctance to settle on a clear, convincing narrative to advance to an increasingly disillusioned electorate; not even their landslide-winning, abstractly titled 2024 manifesto, Change, ever really meant anything to anyone outside the political machine. 

But this week, something shifted. Starmer found a story he could get passionate about. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, just as he was about to embark upon a fight for his political life at Conference, Starmer stopped pussyfooting with pragmatism, nuance, and compromise, and said something seriously exciting, galvanising even. He finally called Farage’s plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain exactly what they are: “racist” and “immoral”. Careful to highlight that this affirmation did not include labelling Reform voters racist, whom Starmer will need to win back onside if he is to stabilise his position, he nevertheless has managed to get a grip on the strongest narrative of his premiership. 

If anyone doubted this on Sunday, they could not on Tuesday. Carving out the battle lines for the next general election at his keynote speech at Conference, Starmer was clear and combative, making the least worst speech of his career so far. “We can all see that the country faces a choice, a defining choice. Britain stands at a fork in the road. We could choose decency, or we could choose division; renewal or decline,” proclaimed Starmer to a sea of Labour Party members roused into a flag-waving fever. Taking the fight directly to Reform UK, Starmer questioned Farage’s patriotism whilst reaffirming his own, asking the crowd to think about the last time Farage said anything positive about Britain’s future. “He can’t. He doesn’t like Britain, doesn’t believe in Britain, wants you to doubt it.”

Advancing further still, Starmer got to the heart of the immigration debate without once having to mince his words. “This great party is proud of our flags. Yet if they’re painted alongside graffiti telling a Chinese takeaway owner to go home, that’s not pride. That’s racism.” He told delegates: “Controlling migration is a reasonable goal. But if you throw bricks and smash up property, that is thuggery.” At long last, Starmer appears to be standing for something – and all that talk of hanging a St George’s flag in his own house suddenly carries more weight than just proof he needs an interior designer. 

More than merely words, it appears that finally, Starmer has landed on an attack line that cuts through. Farage, who normally errs on the side of passion rather than anger, responded furiously, accusing Starmer of inciting violence: “It directly threatens the safety of our elected officials and our campaigners and frankly in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder I think this is an absolute disgrace.” He went on: “This is a desperate last throw of the dice from a Prime Minister who is in deep trouble.” Fighting talk, yes, and when Farage says he is more determined than ever, we should anticipate the next step of the populist right, but it is also a sign that Labour’s punch landed. He is, for once, genuinely rattled by Starmer. A feat that felt impossible mere weeks ago. 

But, having weathered the storm of Conference, Starmer’s work is not yet done. Stories, even those accompanied by stellar – for Starmer – speeches, do not cut it in today’s political landscape. Informed by our volatile, algorithmic lifestyles, narratives flicker and fade. The budget will be a pivotal moment, the May local elections too. And if Starmer cannot find the substance to back up his story, if there is no policy nor purpose accompanying his words, then this new-found clarity will dissolve. Starmer has finally found a story and the headlines may read “Job Done”. The fine print, however, will whisper “for today”.

Illustrations: Will Allen/Europinion