The message behind Starmer’s Labour conference speech

As market volatility in response to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s Budget on Friday continues to dominate the news, Keir Starmer will try to use his conference leader’s speech to pitch his party as the safe choice on the economy. When Starmer takes to the conference hall stage this afternoon, he will say it is now the Labour party that stands for ‘sound money’ – as he attempts to capitalise on the fallout of Friday’s fiscal event.

The Labour leader will accuse the Tories of having ‘lost control of the British economy’ and for bringing in ‘tax cuts for the richest one per cent in the country’. Much of the thrust of the speech was in the works long before Kwarteng announced mass tax cuts through borrowing and spooked the markets. Yet recent events play into the main themes. The thinking is that voters are fed up of the multiple crises under the Tories and want a change to a calmer government. Starmer wants to position Labour as the ‘party of the centre-ground’ – pointing to the fact conference began with ‘God save the King’ as evidence that Labour share voters’ values.

When Boris Johnson was ousted, there was some nervousness in Labour circles that the party would no longer be able to make its opposition to the Tories about character. But the fact that Truss has re-established ideological fault lines on the economy means there is little need to. There is now a much bigger difference between the Tory and Labour pitch which Starmer hopes to capitalise on. He will try to contrast the Labour approach of a growth plan focussed on working people with the Tory plan of tax cuts for the highest earners.

Yet for all of Starmer’s talk of Labour as the safer option on the economy, the party faces questions of its own on spending and borrowing. The Labour leader has committed to reversing the top 45 per cent rate of tax for high earners – but they’ve already announced that they plan to spend that money on more nurses. Only that money is at present being used for other things. Starmer’s team also won’t get into how they plan to fund the NHS and social care while axing the health and social care levy. On this question, Starmer has pointed to how Kwarteng has said this will be funded through general taxation. The shock in the markets mean that the Tories have given Labour a boost in their bid to establish the party as the more trustworthy. But the state of the economy and the scale of Starmer’s plans means that they would also face questions as to the sustainability of their plans.