It has been another difficult week for Keir Starmer. He has lost his director of communications, and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, is under constant fire. The economy is stagnant and he faces near-constant manoeuvring from Andy Burnham. So today’s speech at the ‘Global Progress Action Summit’ in London took on an added weight. With Labour conference beginning on Sunday, many of Starmer’s MPs and members are looking for a lead after another summer of drift.
The Prime Minister sought to do that in a 20-minute address. His speech sought to explain the loss of confidence which has seen the party’s poll rating slump to less than 20 per cent. Standing alongside Australia’s Anthony Albanese and Canada’s Mark Carney, he argued that global election results refuted media claims that centre-left politics were ‘dying out’. But progressives can only succeed by being ‘resolutely opposed to status quo’, which ‘hasn’t worked for working people’.
Today‘s announcement had two audiences
To deliver the good jobs, public services and healthcare that voters crave, governments must take care not to over-regulate. The private sector must thrive to create the wealth necessary to fund such schemes. Referring to a concept popular in American politics, Starmer said that some people call this ‘abundance’ but that ‘I have a different phrase for it. Social democracy.’ This philosophy, he suggested, is the best way to counteract the rise of Reform.
Predictably, Starmer sought to frame the contest as a ‘battle for the soul of this country’. On the one side, there is Nigel Farage and those who champion ‘grievance politics’ – ‘relying on the problem existing in order for their politics to persist.’ On the other are those who actually want to fix the problem: those, like Starmer, who want the politics of ‘patriotic renewal’. The PM here cited two new policy solutions: a £3 billion ‘Pride in Places’ scheme, and plans to introduce digital ID cards.
The latter announcement is what will dominate the media debate over the coming days. Starmer promised that that ‘a new, free of charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work’ will be mandatory ‘by the end of this parliament’. ‘You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID’ he told his audience. ‘It’s as simple as that.’ These plans will make the country’s borders ‘more secure’ and will be supported by ‘decent, pragmatic, fair minded people.’
Today’s announcement had two audiences: Starmer’s party and the public. The former will take heart from his much stronger condemnation of the recent ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march in London – including those who depict London as a ‘wasteland of anarchy’. The latter will dissect and discuss the merits of national ID cards. The measure enjoys majority support in polls but is opposed by a vocal minority – including the leaders of every rival political party.
After a long week of discussion about Starmer’s future, there will be relief in No. 10 that something other than the Prime Minister and his Chief of Staff are being debated in the weekend press.
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