Labour’s landslide promising “change” was less than three months ago, and the party goes into its first conference needing to show it has begun.
Meeting in celebratory mood, as a party in government for the first time in 14 years, the message will be that the things they’ve talked about can start to be put into action.
Ministers now acknowledge that the past few days have seen constant distraction, whether about free clothes, gifted football hospitality and how Downing Street itself is operating.
Criticism of Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to take £16,000 of clothes from a Labour donor, and donations for his wife’s wardrobe, has been raging in the newspapers.
After digging in for days to defend it, the leader’s team bowed to pressure, announcing that neither the prime minister, nor his deputy Angela Rayner or chancellor Rachel Reeves – both also revealed to have taken donations for clothes – will do so in future.
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Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, told Sky News “we certainly don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes, when we have a really positive agenda for this country”.
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Government of self-service?
Donations are “always difficult issues in British politics”, she said, given political leaders cannot charge the taxpayer for these items.
But as a voter in Liverpool told us today, “[Starmer] was always quick to slate the Tories over sleaze”.
Others praised him for being honest about it, but all had heard of the row.
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One reason why this matters emerges in a new report called How Labour Won, by researchers at Labour Together – a Starmer-supporting thinktank. Based on 10,000 interviews in polls and focus groups, it concluded that Labour’s victory is uniquely fragile.
It was based on winning the support of Middle Britain – the 12% of 2019 Conservative voters who were convinced to switch to Labour. Another 19% of Tory voters backed Reform, 18% other parties on the left, and 16% stayed at home. In other words, the centre deserted them.
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The researchers say: “In the past, winning 411 seats was the kind of victory from which a government might confidently expect 10 years in power. This Labour government has been cautiously hired, on a trial basis, liable to prompt dismissal if it deviates even slightly from its focus on voters’ priorities. Voters hope it will deliver, but they do not necessarily expect it.”
These switchers believed Labour had changed – tackled antisemitism, able to be trusted on the public finances, they say, Therefore, they were trusted to bring about change in areas they care about – the cost of living and the NHS. But the report calls it a “time-limited investment”.
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This conference will see Labour ministers hammering the gloomy message that they’ve inherited an economic black hole and tough decisions – spending cuts – are coming. The budget is looming at the end of October,
“You’ll hear about the inheritance time and time again, and why we have to fix the foundations”, an adviser said.
There will also be more of an attempt to frame in broad terms, the destination – building homes, more NHS and dentist appointments, reforming the railways.
The challenge will be finding measurable ways to show voters they are inching towards it and not getting blown off course.
