The Labor congress ended with a skimpy victory for Keir Starmer. Here are ideas and proposals on the economy. Daniele Meloni’s analysis
In the end, Sir Keir Starmer could not resist the joke, and during his speech at the Labor conference in Brighton he began like this: “It was 4 difficult days, but then Sunday came the result we were hoping for: Arsenal 3 Tottenham 1 ”. In reality, the Labor leader was far less fortunate than his favorite team and the congress ended, at best, with a skimpy victory for Sir Keir. Let’s see in detail why. THE THREE REFORMS APPROVED BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Starmer wanted to radically change the way in which the party leader was elected, which was based on the “One member, one vote” (OMOV) principle. He proposed a reform that distributed a third to parliamentarians, a third to trade unions and a third to militants, but the National Executive Committee (NEC) invited him to withdraw it. In the end, thanks also to the support of the union of public service workers, Unison, he managed to pass a motion that foresees that 20% of the votes of the party’s parliamentarians are required to be candidates for the leadership of Labor, instead of 10. Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, took advantage of this rule to be elected leader in 2015, when his was supposed to be just a flag candidacy.
Furthermore, a step forward has been made in the fight against the anti-Semitism that struck Labor in the Corbyn era. At the proposal of Starmer, the NEC has established that from now on it will be an external and independent structure to deal with all cases and all formal complaints on the subject within the sections of the party. The conference welcomed Louise Ellman, the MP who had resigned from the party in controversy with Corbyn on anti-Semitism. Finally, Starmer has obtained more stringent procedures for the deselection of parliamentarians in office: in the past the Corbynians had taken advantage of the current regulations to eliminate internal reformist rivals. LITTLE CONVINCING STARMER ON THE ECONOMY
In his speech, Sir Keir did not rule out an increase in income taxes should Labor return to government. Prior to the conference, the party’s Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, had ruled out him. To pay should be the managers of equity funds and private schools, which in England have a facilitated taxation regime that equates them to charities. Although Starmer reiterated his support for renationalizing water, energy, railways and the insurance system in his investiture speech in 2019, he pulled back during the conference and was accused of not attacking the government enough to the expensive bills and, above all, the fuel chaos. The feeling is that the Labor leader knows the positions of the unions on the issue and does not want to risk jeopardizing his attempt to present himself as a centrist with misplaced statements or that evoke past eras. Sir Keir also recorded a setback on raising the minimum wage: the NEC passed a non-binding motion to bring it to £ 15 against his advice. Reeves also promised to invest another $ 28 billion in fighting climate change if Labor wins the election, but Starmer’s economic message appears to have been diluted by massive government spending: how can Johnson be accused of overspending if the opposition wants? spend more Sir Keir also recorded a setback on raising the minimum wage: the NEC passed a non-binding motion to bring it to £ 15 against his advice. Reeves also promised to invest another $ 28 billion in fighting climate change if Labor wins the election, but Starmer’s economic message appears to have been diluted by massive government spending: how can Johnson be accused of overspending if the opposition wants? spend more Sir Keir also recorded a setback on raising the minimum wage: the NEC passed a non-binding motion to bring it to £ 15 against his advice. Reeves also promised to invest another $ 28 billion in fighting climate change if Labor wins the election, but Starmer’s economic message appears to have been diluted by massive government spending: how can Johnson be accused of overspending if the opposition wants? spend more
How can the Tories be blamed for tax increases if Labor wants to tax more THE FIGHT BETWEEN SIR KEIR AND THE RADICAL LEFT
“I’d rather win the election than not have a united party,” Labor leader told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg. The two things are not in contrast, on the contrary: having a united party behind you is a prerequisite for winning. And right now, Labor is divided. Starmer’s intervention was continually sabotaged by the radical left Corbynians and the day before his speech, the Opposition leader faced the case of the resignation of Andy McDonald, the Minister for Employment of his Shadow Cabinet. McDonald’s acted to cause maximum harm to Starmer and to protest his stance on the minimum wage. Previously, the conference was stunned when, with a speech in the Financial Times, Sharon Graham, the new leader of Unite, the most powerful union affiliated to the party, had announced that it would not take part in the work of the congress to devote itself to the disputes of its clients. Instead, the Bakers Union, the bakers’ union, announced its withdrawal from membership during the 4 days in Brighton. Perhaps these upheavals will serve Starmer in his attempt to veer towards the “center ground”, and to show his distance from the unions, but the internal left will continue to try to “dismantle” his leadership day after day.THE LABOR AS A “PARTY OF PATRIOTS”
Another topic touched by Starmer since the day of his election as leader is that of patriotism. “Labor is the party of patriots” and is “the only one capable of being the party of the whole United Kingdom”. To do this, however, he must recover positions especially in Scotland, where the SNP government has been defined as “disastrous” for the UK by the leader in his speech. The relationship with the Tories and open competition to recapture the Red Wall, the red Labor wall of the north-east, which collapsed in the 2019 elections and crumbled on Boris Johnson’s lap. “He’s not a bad person,” Starmer said of the latter, “he’s just a superficial person, a showman whose show has nothing left to show.” RAYNER AND BURNHAM: TRAITS FOR LEADERSHIP
Starmer’s deputy, Angela Rayner, made headlines in the days leading up to her leader’s speech, with stolen audio in which she called the Conservatives “scum”. Sir Keir distanced himself: “I wouldn’t use those terms personally.” Naughty commentators, such as Christopher Hope of the Telegraph, have pointed out that Rayner’s activism may mean a potential takeover of the party. Already after the Hartlepool supplementary there is talk of his leadership bid, but now it seems that Red Angela wants to get serious and beat another ambitious competitor, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, whom many predict as a future leader.
