There was a distinctly familiar feel to Keir Starmer’s speech today. Preaching change in front of heavy machinery, it was a near-identical setting to the speech he gave this same week last January. For a New Year’s speech, it was devoid of new policy but there were plenty of old favourites: the Great British Energy and planning reform pledges that underpinned his last two conference addresses, Labour renewal, Tory cronyism and the obligatory reference to Liz Truss (but no named mention of Rishi Sunak).
There was enough in it to get decent write-ups, with the Telegraph focusing on his rejection (again) of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics while the Guardian stressing his plans for increased transparency. But it was, in truth, quite a boring speech – a charge that is not likely to bother Starmer much. Boring is his brand and while it’s not one that excites many voters, it certainly doesn’t alienate them either. He pledged to the audience: ‘A politics which treads a little lighter on all our lives. That’s the thing about populism or nationalism… It needs your full attention, needs you constantly focussing on this week’s common enemy. And that’s exhausting.’
In the aftermath of the Brexit, Covid and cost-of-living crises of 2016 to 2022, that’s a popular message with many voters. In 2019, the final advert of the Tory campaign lent heavily into this theme ‘Stop the chaos. Get Brexit done.’ Both parties know that there is an electoral prize on offer for whichever side can best demonstrate that – hence Starmer’s consistent messaging that he is the man to take politics out of most people’s lives. On current polls, he looks to be doing that fairly well.
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