“Reform casts his shadow over the entire congress,” says the discussion leader of one of the countless sessions that will take place on Tuesday at the LaFour congress in Liverpool. She refers to Reform UK, the right-wing populist party of Nigel Farage. That is indeed the entire time and leaves Labor far behind.
This also applies to this session, the title of which is: “One year on: is Labor’s approach on asylum working?” No, is the answer. The discussion leader is sitting with a few experts at a long table in front of a full room. Professor of Political Science Rob Ford mentions Labor’s main problem: the party has to do with a “migration-skeptic” supporters and a left wing that is “pro-migration”. “Labor needs policy in which both groups can agree. It is clear that it has not really fulfilled anything for any of the two groups in the past year.”
That’s right: in Starmer’s first year as prime minister, a record number of more than 111,000 people applied for asylum in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the left flank is angry that the Prime Minister did not spend bright enough last summer against the extreme right-wing elements in the antimigration protests.
Where Labor is struggling with the theme, Farage profiles itself. He always invests press conferences in which he promises stricter migration rules. That is why Jo White, a lower house member on behalf of Labor, says that her party must first stop illegal immigration, or the migrants who cross the canal with rubber boats from France. “If we do not arrange this, the next government will be formed by Reform. Then we can no longer even have this entire debate. Then people will just be deported who have the right to stay here.”
Professor Rob Ford believes that Labor should not always have this debate on the ‘site of Reform’, but on its ‘own site’. “Otherwise you will never win.”
No story
That was also the criticism of Keir Starmer: he always responded to Reform, but had no his own story for Labor or where it should go with the country. Last week, just before the congress, he did it again. In an interview with the BBC, he mentioned Farage’s proposal to abolish unlimited residence permits “racist” and “immoral”. That same week, starmer himself announced stricter rules to tackle (illegal) migration: he wants to make a digital proof of identity mandatory to be allowed to work in the UK.
The theme of the congress suggests that the Prime Minister intends to listen to his critics: “Renew Britain” is on many banners in the conference center. At the congress it is going as always. Men in suits complain that too little healthy food is being sold and there are more than a hundred stands of the most diverse interest groups. This way you can get a totebag from the cerebral infarction association and you can play a virtual reality game from the Premier League.
Labor is the patriotic party!
Messiah
The (new) story of Starmer will have to be apparent from his speech Tuesday afternoon, one of the most important moments of the four -day congress. Against a room full of Labor members who wave British and English flags, his argument indeed looks more like a story. He says that the UK is at an intersection and that the British can choose between decency and renewal or for division and decline. “It is a test, a struggle for the soul of our country, just as big as the reconstruction of Great Britain after the war. And we all have to get up,” he says with a sense of drama.
He also says that “the path of innovation is long and difficult” that decisions are not always “comfortable” for “our party.” With that he seems to be referring to a number of unexpected, painful decisions that he has had to implement recently and had difficulty explaining, such as tax increases and shortening the energy supplement for the elderly. That while he had promised when he took office that British would get financially better.
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But hey, there is Nigel Farage again. “When was the last time you heard Nigel Farage say something positive about the future of the UK?” Says Starmer Fel. “He can’t do it. He doesn’t like Great Britain. He doesn’t believe in Great Britain. He wants you to doubt it as much as he himself.” He mentions the Reform leader later in his speech a few more times.
Yet something seems to have changed into Starmer’s attitude, which is usually seen as a boring man without a charisma. He speaks with more fire. “Labor is the patriotic party!” he shouts. And while he talks harder and harder what Labor stands for according to him – “We build our streets, we train our people, we are the voice of the workers!” – The audience claps and shouts harder. For a moment he seems like a kind of Messiah, as if Reform has given him color again.
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