Rather than seeking a punch-up with the left at this week’s Labour conference, Sir Keir Starmer intends to speak directly to voters about his aim to lead the “party of change” at an election which will be fought on cost-of-living issues such as unaffordable houses and spiralling energy prices, a close shadow cabinet ally has told The Independent.
Many expect a clash with the left at the Brighton gathering, after they branded this week’s pamphlet setting out Sir Keir’s vision as a breach of his promise to stick with key elements of the agenda of predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.
In a provocative move, Mr Corbyn himself on Friday accused the leadership of “failing to listen” to the Labour movement over calls for a wealth tax and rapid decarbonisation of the economy and warned that the leader has been trying to sideline members and unions and “shut down debate” with plans to give more power to MPs to pick future leaders.
But on the eve of the five-day conference, shadow housing secretary Lucy Powell insisted that the policy platform being developed is “radical” and will allow Labour to go into the election expected in 2023 or 2024 as the party of change after almost 15 years of Tory-led government.
She dismissed as “hackneyed” the idea that Sir Keir must follow the example of Neil Kinnock or Tony Blair in seeking confrontation with his own party to demonstrate he is in charge.
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“I don’t really buy into that argument that he has to create some kind of false internal row in order to show strength,” said Ms Powell.
“I don’t think that’s what Keir is about and I don’t think that’s what his intention is.
“What this conference needs to be about and will be about, more than anything, is speaking directly to the country and to voters about the issues that they care about.
“That means the cost-of-living crisis and the housing crisis. It means the huge catch-up in education and mental support and social interaction that our kids need and the massive backlog of pressure that the NHS is under, and that’s before you even get to the climate crisis. I’ve no doubt that will be the main focus of this conference.”
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UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London
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UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson
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UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London
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UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk
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UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral
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UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his “awesome” year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than ￡150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospital’s charity
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UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York
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UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queen’s Guard
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UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London
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UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled “Prairie” by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London
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UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic
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UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season.
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UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium
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UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London
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UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London
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UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire
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UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit
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UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London
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UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britain’s cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Women’s C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold
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UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London
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UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London
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UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest
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UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London
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UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families
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UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing
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UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week
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UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival
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UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident
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UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening
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UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair
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UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges
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UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London
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UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
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UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan
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UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow
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UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14
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Mr Corbyn will address a number of fringe events in Brighton, sparking fears that he could distract from efforts to show that Labour is under new leadership.
In an eve-of-conference challenge his successor, the former leader said: “Our movement has the answers to the big questions of the age – inequality, the climate crisis and the pandemic – but our leaders are failing to listen and put these solutions front and centre.
“At conference, I hope to hear how Labour will bring in a wealth tax to fund a National Care Service like the NHS, will take the radical action needed to decarbonise by 2030, stand against the drumbeat of a new cold war and will rein in the runaway wealth and power of a tiny elite.
“I know our trade unions and members have developed these policies. But the signs are that the party leadership wants to try to shut down debate, sideline the members and trade unions with the end result that Labour props up rather than challenges our broken political and economic system.”
Despite widespread calls for Sir Keir to offer an olive branch to the left by readmitting Mr Corbyn into the parliamentary party, Ms Powell said she expected a “warm” reception for the leader at his first in-person conference, after last year’s event was forced online by the Covid pandemic.
Annual conference gives the opposition a rare opportunity to command the attention of the media and TV audiences and the leader can be expected to use it to “open up” more to voters about his personality, background and formative experiences and his hopes for the country, she said.
With probably only two conference speeches ahead of him before the general election, many in Westminster expect Sir Keir will want to take the opportunity to shake off perceptions that his approach is over-cautious and his presentation wooden and uninspiring.
Ms Powell said he had been held back by the pandemic in seizing the agenda in the way he would have wanted.
Eighteen months after he won the leadership with a warning that Labour had “a mountain to climb” to regain power, she admitted that the party was still “at base camp” with a mountain ahead.
“We’ve been in a massive national crisis and, quite naturally, the opposition gets squeezed out because people want to hear what the government is doing,” she said.
“This is undoubtedly the biggest moment he has to project the party and himself as a leader and I’ve got no doubt that he’ll seize that opportunity with relish.”
While insisting that the next election remains “winnable” – in part because of the “volatility” of the modern electorate – Ms Powell said Sir Keir was also focused on longer-term change to the party and must not be sidetracked by concerns over its weak current performance in the polls.
“My advice to Keir and to any other leader at any other time is that you can’t slavishly follow the polls,” she said. “You’ve got to pick your strategic direction of travel and move towards it. Sometimes you get a short-term gain, sometimes you get a short-term hit. But the challenge is to keep the eye on the prize of the next election and the one after it and the one after that.
“It is like turning an oil tanker around. You can’t judge it on short-term changes in polls. You’ve got to have that long-term view in order to make the strategic headway and the big-change headway that we need to make.”
She pointed to her own portfolio of housing and levelling up as a key area where Labour can make inroads into Tory support in election battlegrounds ranging from young city dwellers unable to buy a home to traditional Labour voters in the former Red Wall of the Midlands and north who are watching bills spiral out of their reach.
Launching plans earlier this week to force developers to build more affordable homes and give first-time buyers priority on new properties, Ms Powell made the bold claim that Labour is now “the party of home ownership” after a decade of skyrocketing prices, falling property ownership and unaffordable rents under Tories.
The long-standing promise that hard work will be rewarded with the ability to enjoy a secure and affordable home has been shattered by Conservative governments constantly pandering to the needs of speculators and developers over those wanting to buy or rent property, she said.
This can be seen in new figures showing that rents are now ￡1,800 higher in England – and more than ￡4,200 in London – since 2011, she said.
And over the same period, the cost of buying a home has shot up nearly 50 per cent, outstripping wage growth by almost three times.
The impact has been hardest on the younger generation with 774,000 fewer home-owing households aged under 45 than there were when Labour left office.
Ms Powell – who will develop her proposals further in a keynote speech in Brighton on Sunday – said she was “relishing” the chance to take on Michael Gove on the issue at the despatch box, after prime minister Boris Johnson moved his cabinet consigliere to a new Department for Levelling Up.
The PM’s decision to put regeneration and housing at the centre of his policy agenda in the coming years could backfire on Tories, she suggested.
“I don’t think ‘levelling up’ means very much to the voters and I don’t think it means very much in reality,” she said. “Housing is a key part of levelling up. It sits well in the middle of those strategic issues that the rebalancing of our country should be about, including transport infrastructure, skills and access to good decent jobs.
“I’m sceptical about the government’s real appetite to take on some of these issues, because what we’ve seen over the last 10 years is they constantly come down on the side of a rigged market which puts all the power in the hands of developers and landowners and away from communities.
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“Unless you’re prepared to come forward with policies like those we are setting out this week, which are actually very radical, but sensible and necessary, then you’re not going to deliver on that so-called ‘levelling up’ agenda, because you’re not prepared to do what’s necessary.
“As a proud northerner and Mancunian, I’m more than happy to take on Michael Gove on tackling the root causes of regional inequality in this country and that deep-seated inequality that affects parts of the north.”