Keir and Loathing: Proudly Unpopular Starmer Gives Labour Supporters Little to Cheer About
"I understand many of the decisions we must take will be unpopular", Keir Starmer told his party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday.
"If they were popular - they'd be easy."
Keir Starmer's commitment to avoiding popularity at all costs has certainly been effective over the past couple of months.
His decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners, alongside weeks of warnings about further "tough choices" to come, have contributed to a growing sense of unease and disappointment among many Labour voters.
One poll published on the morning of his big speech showed that public opinion of the new Labour Prime Minister has "nosedived" since the general election, particularly among those who voted for his party.
This sense of gloom was more than noticeable inside the conference secure zone too. In bars and meeting rooms, Labour MPs and activists grumbled quietly under their breaths about the missteps of the new administration.
Related reading: Yvette Cooper's Plan to 'Smash the Small Boat Gangs' is Doomed to Fail, Warn Border Force Whistleblowers
At the front of their minds was a series of stories which drew a contrast between the Prime Minister's campaign pledges to restore "service" to Government and his own "self service" in accepting large gifts and hospitality from party donors.
And while Starmer has made much of his reputation as a competent technocrat, constant reports of bitter internal infighting and leaks by senior Downing Street advisers, have all contributed to the sense that this new Government may not be as different from the one it replaced as we were led to expect.
Today's speech was briefed as his chance to turn all of these damaging perceptions around and show that there is "light at the end of the tunnel" for the country.
Yet for most of his address, very few chinks of that light crept into the conference hall.
Promising his party members a new "patient, calm, determined era", Starmer instead sought to make a virtue of his own unwillingness to bring cheer to the room, insisting that while "the easy answers may well move a crowd [they] do not move a nation forward.
Related reading: 'Keir Starmer Must Rid Himself of his Brexit Blind Spot'
"You can call it populism - many people do" Starmer said.
"But I prefer to call it the politics of easy answers."
Yet for all of his disdain for what he described as the populist "loudmouths on social media" who criticise him, there was little in the Prime Minister's speech which told a compelling alternative story.
The strongest section of his address came when he hit out at the "vile" racism of those who took part in the riots this summer, while defending the right of refugees to seek asylum.
It has been a long time since a British prime minister proudly stood up for these principles and it was a welcome, if brief sign, of the sort of administration he has the potential to lead.
It also, drew a series of sustained standing ovations as a result.
Yet for all the talk of "national renewal" after fourteen years of austerity, there was little in the Prime Minister's speech about exactly how that renewal will be achieved and who will have to pay for it.
And by the time he finally got around to promising the room that we "we do need joy… in our lives" it sounded more like a concession to his fun-loving critics, than it did an assertion of his own core beliefs.
The problem for the Labour leader is that amid all the downbeat mood, his Government does already have a somewhat promising story to tell.
His decisions to nationalise the railways, approve a new wave of onshore wind projects, and relax housebuilding rules are all positive and potentially popular policies. Meanwhile his decision to scrap the Rwanda scheme shows a core of principle and integrity severely lacking in the last Government.
Yet for all his attacks on populism, Starmer needs to find a way to tell this story that actually carries
"If they were popular - they'd be easy."
Keir Starmer's commitment to avoiding popularity at all costs has certainly been effective over the past couple of months.
His decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners, alongside weeks of warnings about further "tough choices" to come, have contributed to a growing sense of unease and disappointment among many Labour voters.
One poll published on the morning of his big speech showed that public opinion of the new Labour Prime Minister has "nosedived" since the general election, particularly among those who voted for his party.
This sense of gloom was more than noticeable inside the conference secure zone too. In bars and meeting rooms, Labour MPs and activists grumbled quietly under their breaths about the missteps of the new administration.
Related reading: Yvette Cooper's Plan to 'Smash the Small Boat Gangs' is Doomed to Fail, Warn Border Force Whistleblowers
At the front of their minds was a series of stories which drew a contrast between the Prime Minister's campaign pledges to restore "service" to Government and his own "self service" in accepting large gifts and hospitality from party donors.
And while Starmer has made much of his reputation as a competent technocrat, constant reports of bitter internal infighting and leaks by senior Downing Street advisers, have all contributed to the sense that this new Government may not be as different from the one it replaced as we were led to expect.
Today's speech was briefed as his chance to turn all of these damaging perceptions around and show that there is "light at the end of the tunnel" for the country.
Yet for most of his address, very few chinks of that light crept into the conference hall.
Promising his party members a new "patient, calm, determined era", Starmer instead sought to make a virtue of his own unwillingness to bring cheer to the room, insisting that while "the easy answers may well move a crowd [they] do not move a nation forward.
Related reading: 'Keir Starmer Must Rid Himself of his Brexit Blind Spot'
"You can call it populism - many people do" Starmer said.
"But I prefer to call it the politics of easy answers."
Yet for all of his disdain for what he described as the populist "loudmouths on social media" who criticise him, there was little in the Prime Minister's speech which told a compelling alternative story.
The strongest section of his address came when he hit out at the "vile" racism of those who took part in the riots this summer, while defending the right of refugees to seek asylum.
It has been a long time since a British prime minister proudly stood up for these principles and it was a welcome, if brief sign, of the sort of administration he has the potential to lead.
It also, drew a series of sustained standing ovations as a result.
Yet for all the talk of "national renewal" after fourteen years of austerity, there was little in the Prime Minister's speech about exactly how that renewal will be achieved and who will have to pay for it.
And by the time he finally got around to promising the room that we "we do need joy… in our lives" it sounded more like a concession to his fun-loving critics, than it did an assertion of his own core beliefs.
The problem for the Labour leader is that amid all the downbeat mood, his Government does already have a somewhat promising story to tell.
His decisions to nationalise the railways, approve a new wave of onshore wind projects, and relax housebuilding rules are all positive and potentially popular policies. Meanwhile his decision to scrap the Rwanda scheme shows a core of principle and integrity severely lacking in the last Government.
Yet for all his attacks on populism, Starmer needs to find a way to tell this story that actually carries
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