Timing is everything in politics. So it was intriguing to see Wes Streeting – the great hope of Labour moderates – being given prime billing on the morning of Keir Starmer’s big speech. The Health Secretary’s 20-minute address was so perfectly pitched to his audience’s prejudices that you might have thought it had been created by the AI he lauds so frequently. All of Labour’s buzzwords were there: talk of 1945, attacks on Nigel Farage, a war on health inequalities and Streeting’s own council estate back story. There was even glutinous praise for Angela Rayner. ‘We need her back’, he told the party faithful, to inevitable rapturous applause.
Streeting’s appeal as a communicator has been his ability to deliver the government line in an interesting and original way. A health secretary at a Labour conference can be virtually assured of an ovation as soon as they say the letters ‘NHS.’ But Streeting used an arresting example to highlight inequality and stress his faith in universal provision. ‘Half the Commons tearoom’ he claimed, is on weight loss jabs. ‘The wealthy talk about how they have transformed their health, their confidence and their life. But, seriously, what about the millions who can’t afford them? That is a return to the days when health was determined by wealth.’ For party members, it was good strong stuff that they applauded approvingly.
Reform has been the spectre hanging over Liverpool these past four days. Streeting, a political pugilist to the core, relished the chance to lambast the party’s plans on NHS reform and migrant workers. ‘Nigel Farage is the snake oil salesman of British politics’, he said ‘and it is time to stop buying what he is selling’. He told the conference that Farage wants NHS porters, nurses and doctors all gone, accusing him of wanting to tear families apart. ‘Farage says go home. We say you are home’, he declared. ‘I’ve got your back. We’ve got your back. And at the next election we’ll send Farage packing’ – a line which landed rather better than other attacks in recent days.
At a time when the leader is weak, Streeting was far too astute to use his moment for any outright jockeying. But his speech drew heavily on the tone and emphasis of great progressives of the past. There was a nice nod to Tony Blair with a jibe at the ‘forces of conservatism’; an echo of John F. Kennedy when Streeting spoke of doing things ‘not because they are easy’. His peroration was met with a standing ovation and murmurs of approval from the watching hacks. As one put it afterwards ‘Can Keir top that?’
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