Inside Politics: Starmer speech pulls Labour back to centre ground

Keir Starmer’s political stock is high this morning following a well-received speech on the final day of the Labour Party conference in Brighton, where he set out his vision for the country with a number of pledges aimed at presenting his party as a credible alternative to Boris Johnson’s Tories. The Labour leader is out on this airwaves this morning and will be questioned on trust in the police after details emerged yesterday about the horrific kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Elsewhere, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is facing fresh calls to extend furlough in some sectors of the economy and a French politician has warned fishermen could block British ports or disrupt traffic in the Channel Tunnel.

Parliament is in recess until 18 October

Coming up:

– Tory MP Ian Duncan Smith on Times Radio Breakfast at 8.05am

– Starmer on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

STORMING STARMER: After some 18 months in office as Leader of the Opposition, Starmer finally got to deliver his first in-person speech at Labour Party conference yesterday. He left Brighton on a high following what was a well-received address, although there has been some criticism of the volume of policy announcements set out in the 90-minute long speech. Starmer was heckled by a small minority on the floor opposed to his stance on the minimum wage, one of whom it has since emerged was a Big Brother contestant who once stood for George Galloway’s Respect Party and contributes to the far-left Socialist Worker. “Shouting slogans or changing lives?” Starmer told the hecklers.

MOVING ON: In his address Starmer distanced himself from the Corbyn era, listed some of the achievements of the last Labour government and presented himself as the serious leader needed for the crises Britain faces, as he criticised Boris Johnson for being a “trivial man” without a plan for the country other than to “get Brexit done.” The speech won repeated standing ovations on the conference floor and has generally gone down well with the Parliamentary Labour Party.

FURLOUGH FEARS: With furlough drawing to a close, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is facing last-minute calls to extend the Covid-related scheme in certain sectors of the economy amid dire warnings of mass jobs losses and renters being evicted from their homes. The flagship economic policy – introduced at the onset of the pandemic – has supported millions of jobs during the pandemic, originally paying 80 per cent of workers’ wages to a monthly limit of £2,500. But the closure of the scheme on Thursday has prompted warnings of a “tidal wave” of job losses and the country facing a “coronavirus Black Thursday”. The Liberal Democrats have demanded in a letter to Sunak that the scheme, introduced in March 2020, be extended to the 10 sectors hardest hit by the disruption caused by Covid-19, including passenger air transport, travel agencies, musical instrument manufacturers and retail sale via stalls and markets.

SACRE BLEU!: It’s been some five years now since the UK voted to leave the EU but rows over Brexit are still never far from the surface. Following the news earlier this week that Jersey granted the French just 12 fishing licences for small boats to operate in UK waters out of 47 applications, fishermen across the water could block British ports or disrupt the flow of trucks into the Channel Tunnel, a politician has warned. Jean-Pierre Pont, who represents the Pas-de-Calais department for Emmanuel Macron’s party, La République En Marche, said French fishermen would be within their rights - “after nine months of useless patience” - to retaliate.“For example, by blocking ports or the entry of lorries towards the UK through the Channel Tunnel,” he said.

GREEN SKY THINKING: Ministers should transform the UK’s towns and cities by turning flat roofs into wildlife havens and creating “green” walls, say conservationists. Experts are urging the government to launch a raft of climate measures, including writing into national planning policy that all flat roofs in new developments be made nature-friendly or solar roofs. Their report also calls on ministers to support tree-planting in cities and to set targets to retrofit buildings with green roofs.

“It’s easy to comfort yourself that your opponents are bad people. But I don’t think Boris Johnson is a bad man. I think he is a trivial man. I think he’s a showman with nothing left to show. I think he’s a trickster who has performed his one trick.”

Starmer on Johnson during conference speech.

“Not sure I buy the consensus that the Starmer heckling is wholly positive. Yes, deeply weird and objectionable behaviour. He handled it well enough and looked normal doing so. But still suggestive of a divided party? What does it say to public that these people are still in it?”

Times Red Box editor Patrick Maguire on heckling of labour leader during his address.

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