After a lengthy fight to convince voters that Labour has changed since the Jeremy Corbyn years, Sir Keir Starmer has told The Independent that he wants to use 2022 to position Labour as a government in waiting, ready to “build a new Britain” after the pandemic.
Starmer set himself three challenges when he took over from Corbyn in 2019 – first, to transform the party, and to expose the failings of Boris Johnson’s administration, and then to show voters that Labour is ready to govern.
Having completed internal changes to the party rulebook to break the hold of the left, drawn a firm line under the Corbyn era with his conference speech in Brighton, and appointed an unapologetically centrist shadow cabinet, he feels voters are once again ready to contemplate the prospect of Labour in power.
“I think that one thing the public know very well is that the Labour Party is now led by Keir Starmer, not Jeremy Corbyn, and we’re a changed party,” he said.
Looking back over the 18 months since he took over following Labour’s worst election defeat since 1935, Sir Keir said: “We’ve made real progress. We’re confident but we’re not complacent.”
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His choice of the phrase “new Britain” to describe his election offer will raise hackles among the Labour left, as it closely echoes the “New Labour, New Britain” slogan used by Tony Blair when he became the party’s last leader to go from opposition into power in 1997.
One veteran of past elections told The Independent: “It’s clear the direction he’s taking. He stood for the leadership as Jeremy Corbyn’s successor, and he is going to win the next election as Tony Blair’s successor.”
Despite the 10 pledges he made during his leadership election to preserve elements of his predecessor’s agenda, Starmer has made it increasingly clear that he is determined to shift Labour’s direction.
Justifying his strategy, he said: “If you lose that badly you don’t look at the electorate and say, ‘What on earth were you doing?’ You look at your own party and say, ‘What on earth are we doing, and how do we need to change?’”
November’s shadow cabinet reshuffle completed the clearout of Corbynites from his top team, and brought centrist figures like Yvette Cooper and Wes Streeting into key posts.
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UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip
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UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London
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UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester
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UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge.
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UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year
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UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton
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UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux
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UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent
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UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election
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UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire
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UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster
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UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds
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UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds,
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UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judge’s decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
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UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service
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UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine
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UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow
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UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra
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UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother
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UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum
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UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar
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UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week
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UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana
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UK news in pictures 28 November 2021 Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow
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UK news in pictures 27 November 2021 Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as “Storm Arwen” triggered a rare “red weather” warning
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 An aerial picture shows a worker using a quad bike and trailer to transport freshly harvested trees at Pimms Christmas Tree farm in Matfield, southeast England
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UK news in pictures 26 November 2021 A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London
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UK news in pictures 25 November 2021 A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel.
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UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London
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UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead
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UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services
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UK news in pictures 20 November 2021 Police officers monitor as climate change activists sit down and block traffic during a protest action in solidarity with activists from the Insulate Britain group who received prison terms for blocking roads, on Lambeth Bridge in central London
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UK news in pictures 19 November 2021 A giant installation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson made from recycled clothing goes on display at Manchester Central, as part of Manchester Art Fair, in a 'wake-up call for the Prime Minister to tackle textile waste'
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UK news in pictures 18 November 2021 The scene at a recycling centre in Stert, near Devizes in Wiltshire after a large blaze was brought under control. The fire broke out on Wednesday night the fire service has said and local residents were advised to keep windows and doors shut due to large amounts of smoke
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UK news in pictures 17 November 2021 The sun rises over South Shields Lighthouse, on the North East coast of England
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UK news in pictures 16 November 2021 ancer Maithili Vijayakumar at the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh
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UK news in pictures 15 November 2021 Forensic officers work outside Liverpool Women's Hospital, following a car blast, in Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 14 November 2021 Wreaths by the Cenotaph after the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall, London
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UK news in pictures 13 November 2021 Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is ending his hunger strike in central London after almost three weeks. Ratcliffe has spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London without food. He began his demonstration on 24 October after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was “caught in a dispute between two states”
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UK news in pictures 12 November 2021 Peter Green protesting outside the Cop26 gates during the official final day of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
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UK news in pictures 11 November 2021 Seagulls fly around the statue entitled 'Tommy', a first World War soldier by artist Ray Lonsdale at dawn in Seaham, Britain
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UK news in pictures 10 November 2021 Climate activists dressed as characters inspired by the Netflix series “Squid Game” protest as they ask Samsung to go 100% renewable energy, outside the venue for COP26 in Glasgow
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UK news in pictures 9 November 2021 A deer statue silhouetted at Loch Faskally in Pitlochry, Scotland
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UK news in pictures 8 November 2021 Sunrise over St Mary's Lighthouse at Whitley Bay on the North East coast of England
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Sir Keir told The Independent that the current shadow cabinet is the one he wants to fight the next election, and he has told the party to prepare for it to come in May 2023. Though Corbyn remains suspended from the parliamentary party, Starmer accepted that the work of demonstrating how Labour has moved on cannot be declared complete.
The phase of reforming party management, as well as putting in place new structures to deal with the problem of antisemitism, may have largely been concluded, but the job continues of persuading voters to look again at the party they turned away from at the last election.
“We have to constantly show that we’ve changed,” said Starmer. “We have to constantly show that we have recognised the scale of defeat in 2019.” But he added: “That on its own isn’t enough. Exposing the government on its own isn’t enough.
“We also have to show we’re a government in waiting. I think already people are beginning to see that. We have better answers, clearer answers, and more confidence than the government going forward.”
Public confidence in the Conservative government is “draining away” in the wake of the series of blunders, scandals and broken promises in recent weeks, he claimed.
Voters are no longer willing to give Boris Johnson “the benefit of the doubt” in the way that has allowed him to sail through previous setbacks unscathed, making victory for Labour – buoyed by growing leads in a string of recent polls – an “achievable” prospect, he said.
If I could snap my fingers and force him to resign, then of course, we’d force him to resign. But in the end, it’s for the Tory party to decide what they want to do about Boris Johnson
“We know what seats we have got to retain. We know what seats we’ve got to win. And we’re utterly focused on that,” said Starmer. “And do I think it’s achievable? Yes, I do think it’s achievable.”
Meeting The Independent as the UK prepared for a Christmas overshadowed by Omicron, the Labour leader said that the “partygate” scandal and the Tory rebellion over Covid restrictions, along with a “litany of broken promises” on rail, social care and tax, had exposed the prime minister’s weakness to voters just as the country enters a cost-of-living crisis caused in part by his policies.
“I think he is now being seen for what he is, which is a leader who over-promises and under-delivers; a leader without a real plan for government or strategy for government; an unserious leader rather than a serious leader,” said Sir Keir.
“He has enjoyed the benefit of the doubt for two years now during the pandemic. But I think that over the last few weeks or months, more and more people are now saying that they’re removing the benefit of the doubt from him. Once that is gone, I think he then is seen for what he is.”
Regaining the trust of voters who abandoned Labour in 2019 – including in the so-called red wall seats of the Midlands and north of England that fell to the Tories – is “absolutely crucial” to any prospect of success, he said.
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And he said he was relying on the new fiscal rules set out by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, along with new policies on affordable homes, green jobs, and “the strongest position the Labour Party has ever had on employment rights and security for people at work”, to help build that trust.
New policies will come in the coming months on “levelling up” – a battleground chosen by Johnson, where Sir Keir believes Labour can win – along with the climate crisis and “making Brexit work”.
“By the conference, we want to be putting forward a forward-looking agenda, an agenda for change for the country – a new Britain coming out of the pandemic,” he said. This agenda will be built on the experience of the pandemic, harnessing “the sense of community togetherness and the support communities have given each other”.
Here we are with the variant on the increase, and people really concerned about what’s going to happen … and we’ve got a prime minister who is so weak and his party so divided
“It’s the complete opposite of what Margaret Thatcher said about there being no such thing as society,” he explained. “This is proof that there is such a thing as society, and it comes together at times like this.”
Sir Keir dismissed suggestions that he is holding back on calling for Johnson’s resignation because he now views the PM as an electoral liability for the Tories and would like to avoid his replacement with a more formidable adversary.
“If I could snap my fingers and force him to resign, then of course, we’d force him to resign,” he said. “But in the end, it’s for the Tory party to decide what they want to do about Boris Johnson. “They’re in the middle of absolute infighting in their party, as he hides from public scrutiny and those around him circle to see whether they can be his successor.
“In the middle of the pandemic that is the worst of all situations, because here we are with the variant on the increase, and people really concerned about what’s going to happen … and we’ve got a prime minister who is so weak and his party so divided.”
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He refused to say whether he would rather face chancellor Rishi Sunak, foreign secretary Liz Truss, or other possible contenders like Michael Gove or Jeremy Hunt if Johnson was removed. The next election will be about the record of the whole Conservative party, not just the character of its leader, he said.
“I don’t care who they put up,” said Starmer. “We will take on whoever is the Tory leader. Whoever the leader is, whether it’s Johnson or his successor… it is clear that we’ve already had 11, going on 12, years of Tory government, and it’s been a complete failure on any terms.
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“The economy hasn’t grown, inequality has grown, and there’s no plan for the future. That is a failure of the Tory party. So I don’t mind who’s the leader of the Conservative party to go into the next election. We’ll gladly take them on.”
Speaking over a coffee at a small local café near his north London home, Starmer said he had not been forced by Omicron to scale back his Christmas plans. “We always have a small family Christmas anyway,” he said. “So we will be with our children. And it’ll be as you’d expect, full of presents, left, right and centre. A lot of fun.”
Sir Keir said that he, rather than wife Victoria, will do the bulk of the cooking. But there won’t be turkey on the table: “We’re all vegetarian. I’m up for nut roast, but the kids are telling me that they want something else. So we’ll see how we get on.”
Starmer has so far been rigorous about maintaining the privacy of his 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, to the extent that he has not revealed their first names publicly. And he said he intends to stick to this principle even as he gets closer to the day when he asks the country to elect him as its leader.
“I have no issue talking about myself as a father, but I’m going to protect my children,” he said. “They’re still young, and I will do everything within my power to protect them and protect their privacy.”