The Socialist in a Suit: Keir Starmer’s Plan to get Labour Back into Power
Friday the 13th 2019 was a dark day for Labour party supporters. Overnight, the Conservatives had decimated Labour’s red-wall stronghold and taken an 80-seat majority.
The post-mortem back at Labour party headquarters was full of recriminations. Corbyn’s personal unpopularity, with a disapproval rating of 71% according to YouGov, was an easy scapegoat. But a rambling manifesto and a Brexit strategy which seemed both confusing and London-centric were equally important causes of defeat. Labour had misjudged the public mood, badly, whereas the Tories had nailed it.
To resuscitate Labour’s public image and regain the lost Labour heartlands, the new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has moved the party to the centre – a move which could be considered surprising for Keir Hardie’s namesake. Starmer’s parents, a toolmaker and a nurse, perhaps destined their son for politics by naming him after the first leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
From a young age, Starmer expressed an interest in standing up against injustice. He joined the East Surrey Young Socialists as a teenager and later worked as a barrister primarily on human rights issues. Though his parliamentary career is short, becoming the MP for Holborn and Pancreas in 2015, Starmer has consistently voted in support of nationalisation, equal rights and expanding the welfare state.
A New Way
His background and distinguished career suggest that this shift to the right seems to be based on political expedience rather than ideology. An attempt to regain trust among an electorate who feel like the Labour party has become out of touch. Nonetheless, many of these changes are working to write the wrongs of the last leadership.
In the new regime, Starmer has reasserted control from the centre. To reduce the amount of influence trade unions and left wing think tanks have over Labour policies and rein in shadow cabinet spending plans, Starmer appointed his ally, Bridgette Phillipson, as shadow secretary to the treasury. Phillipson shares Starmer’s disapproval of Labour’s policy-packed 2019 manifesto. From free care for the elderly, free university tuition fees, free broadband and pay-outs for WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality), most policies in the 2019 manifesto were independently popular, but cumulatively they reduced confidence in the party’s ability to enact them.
By requiring shadow ministers to get approval for any policy with tax or spending commitments, Labour will be able to avoid the age-old Etonian slur that Labour is the party of overspending and instead present a realistic agenda that can be delivered.
Bridgette Phillipson is not the only ally Starmer has close by. Within days of his election, Starmer immediately limited the sway of socialism in the shadow cabinet. Corbynite grandees; Richard Burgeon, Diane Abbott and Ian Lavery were demoted, and Blairites were brought in. Surrounding himself with soft-left supporters, Starmer hopes, will cut ties with the past and present a middle ground between Corbynism and New Labour.
In addition to a centrist shift in cabinet, Starmer has taken control of the party machine. The recent election of David Evans as General Secretary - a long-time critic of the left, advocate of fiscal prudence and “small-c conservativism’ - represents another win for Starmer in delivering his vision for Labour.
A New Leader
Whilst many of these changes have been beneath the surface, one visible difference is Starmer’s novel style of leadership. From the start, Starmer styled himself as the candidate of compromise. This stance earned him 56% of the popular vote whilst setting him apart from Corbyn’s heir-apparent Rebecca Long-Baily, and the 2016 coup d’état conspirator Lisa Nandy.
Since 4 April, he has taken steps to distance Labour from the anti-Semitism claims that ran riot during Corbyn’s tenure. In a video conference with Jewish leaders, Starmer set out his plan to stamp out anti-Semitism in the Labour party. A move which was embraced by Jewish leaders and marked the start of a more conscientious leadership.
Starmer’s ‘Call Keir’ sessions, in which he hosts Zoom calls with lost Labour constituencies, are emblematic of an attempt to reconnect with ex-Labour voters who lent their vote to the Tories in 2019. During a call with Bury, Starmer assured an ex-voter that he and the Labour party were ‘proud to be patriotic’.
In parliament, Starmer has avoided the criticism that plagued his predecessor by keeping politics and his opinions consistently separated. As leader he is trying to strike a pragmatic balance between scrutiny and consensus by asking difficult questions yet emphasing Labour’s ‘shared purpose’ to overcome the pandemic.
Not only is he objective, but also a highly-skilled litigator. In PMQs, he masterfully cross-examines government guidance with expert testimony and asks questions from the public in Poirot-like prose. Indeed, these days Johnson seems more like a man on trial than the PM.
So far, the former QC has the jury on side. Labour averaged 34% in the polls in May, the party’s highest poll average since February 2019. As reported on 27 May, Johnson’s approval rating has plunged 20-points since the 22nd.
A Chance to Change Track
Whilst the Starmer Surge is definitely real, the most recent scandal in the Conservative government comedy of errors has given Starmer the chance to change tactics. Johnson’s reticence to sack Dominic Cummings, the senior aide who broke lockdown rules, presents an opportunity for Starmer to give vent to the public outrage towards the government and drop the tentative ‘shared purpose’ strategy.
Though they have a majority in the commons, public support for the Tories is palpably waning. A J.L Partners poll reported that 66% of voters feel that Johnson should sack Cummings, with 55% of Tory voters sharing the view that Cummings needs to go. Johnson’s failure to act has demonstrated to those in formerly Labour constituencies that their vote was misplaced. Now, 72% of working class 'C1/C2' voters are more likely to think the government is behaving as though 'it is one rule for them and another rule for everyone else' than all voters in the UK.
With the culture of corruption in Johnson’s cabal exposed and national support for the government in doubt, Starmer should not be afraid to be adversarial. Doubtless, his move to the centre ground and pragmatic style of leadership has regained credibility, but the case for a radical Labour government is stronger than ever.
