What was your favourite moment of the Labour conference? In the days beforehand – when Andy Burnham appeared to be mounting a Downing Street coup – Keir Starmer could have been forgiven for mostly looking forward to the train journey back.
But that was before the self-declared 'King of the North' saw his leadership ambitions immolate, and the prime minister received unexpectedly warm notices for a keynote speech that defenestrated his other so-called rival, Nigel Farage – "a man who doesn't like Britain", "a politician of grievance" and "a snake-oil salesman".
Simon Walters described Starmer's 52-minute address – with its central call to "never surrender the flag […] to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division" – as Churchillian. At very least, a "Churchill tribute act".
It was, said Walters, "one of the most remarkable the PM has delivered" – made all the more remarkable because Labour MPs had "queued up beforehand demanding that Starmer, who often sounds about as exciting as an actuary at a Milton Keynes accountants' seminar, display some passion. Time and again, there were distinct echoes of the rhetoric, if not the growly gravitas or charisma, of Winston Churchill." Time for blood, sweat and Keir.
The gathering in Liverpool ought to have been a wake. After just 15 months in office, Starmer's approval rating is below that of Liz Truss at her lowest ebb, and his party's polling pointing to a Reform UK victory at the next election – and that… is… a… disgrace.
Ever the optimist, John Rentoul had high expectations for what Labour might pull out of the bag. In his curtain-raising preview headlined "My predictions for Keir Starmer and the rest of the political landscape", he hinted at some rare good news for the government – that, thanks to the Reform leader's "unique ability to mess up, and his unique inability to work with others", we may be at "peak Farage".
And so it turned out. David Aaronovitch declared that Starmer was right to confront the Reform threat head on at this year's conference – for "there are three more years to concentrate on other things".
"Like his hero Donald Trump, Farage gets away with things because of his personality and his party's momentum that would trip up any other politician. So Starmer marked his card. The Brexit for which Farage was the second most famous advocate is now unpopular, and Starmer's labelling of the migrant channel crossings as 'Farage boats' was a reminder of that recent history."
If Labour could schedule next year's conference in the same seaside resort as Reform's, Starmer could fight them on the beaches.
Until next week.
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