AFPParty members at the convention center in Liverpool
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 19:28
Fleur Launspach
UK and Ireland correspondent
Fleur Launspach
UK and Ireland correspondent
It is busy at the Labor conference in Liverpool, which started today. The British business community anticipates that a Labor government is on the way and has already started to oppose the new power.
Left-wing parliamentarians are suddenly bombarded with business calling cards. In the bars around the conference location, lobbyists are chatting loudly. Labor leaders are seen on the conference floor as celebrities chased. And even the ultra-conservative Spectator Magazine is holding its famous VIP party at this year’s Labor conference.
Within the Labor Party there is already talk about the time when they will soon be in power – no longer whether they will get there. Poll after poll, the opposition party inspires confidence: Labor has been about 20 percentage points ahead of the Conservative Party of incumbent Prime Minister Sunak for months.
Conservatives have lost it
Unlike the high where Labor is in, the Conservatives held a dejected annual conference last week. After thirteen years in power in an extremely turbulent period – from Brexit to Covid and last year’s political chaos – the ideas have dried up and the time seems to have run out. The voter feels this: almost 9 in 10 British people think that the country needs new leadership.
Although his party has provided the Prime Minister for thirteen years, Prime Minister Sunak is trying to position himself as the “candidate for change”. Yet, even after midnight in the pub, there is no one who thinks that the Conservatives can win the elections again next year.
No content yet
You could say: Labor leader Keir Starmer is an open target. But you can also slip there. Until now, the party has mainly sat back and watched the Conservatives blow themselves up: from ‘Partygate’ under Boris Johnson to the economic chaos under the shortest-serving Prime Minister ever, Liz Truss.
But the plans with which Keir Starmer is planning the country well will lead to better times, are not yet taking shape for the voter. How will he control the skyrocketing cost of living? How will the party eliminate a waiting list of 7 million patients in healthcare? Although Labor has the wind behind it – there are no real plans for the future.
Until recently, Keir Starmer remained tight-lipped about Brexit, for fear of antagonizing voters in Northern England. However, he recently stated that he would like “a better relationship and more cooperation” with the European Union. But whether he has an investment plan for the poorer north, where abandoned villages, boarded-up shop windows and bankrupt cities were often the basis for the Brexit vote, remains unclear.
AFPLabor leader Keir Starmer at the conference in Liverpool
It is not only the demise of the Conservative Party that paves the way for Labour: the implosion of the Scottish party SNP also helps. The Scottish National Party, which dominated in Scotland for a long time, has lost its figurehead after the resignation of ‘Queen of Scots’ Nicola Sturgeon. And that offers electoral opportunities for Labour, as was evident last week during a by-election in a constituency south of Glasgow. Labor easily beat the SNP there.
Starmer has spoken openly about his three-phase plan to return Labor to power after 13 years in opposition. One: eliminate the extreme left party flank and pull Labor towards the center. Two: point out to the voter the failure of the Conservative government. Three: offer compelling alternative policies.
And as for the latter: the voter has seen very little of it.
2023-10-08 17:28:50
#Labor #celebrating #real #substance
