British Labour Party members are still in that state of intoxication that historic victories produce. Any mistake of their own is played down: it is simply an exaggeration of the enemy. For example, the more than 120,000 euros that Keir Starmer has received in just four years from millionaire donors, destined for suits, designer glasses or football tickets. “The whole business of giftsIt is nothing more than a smokescreen, something that happens in many political parties. It is not something that worries me too much, because it smells more like a strategy of the Daily Mail“We are very excited about the party,” says Christopher Holden, a party member who travelled from Preston to Liverpool to attend the party’s conference.
He Daily Mail It is the conservatives’ favourite populist tabloid. The Labour Party’s brown beast. It is practically impossible to see a copy of it along the ACC Liverpool, the city’s convention centre on the banks of the River Mersey, where dozens of members and supporters of the left-wing party have been wandering since Sunday through all the booths set up across thousands of square metres, taking part in the various debates organised by think tanks and progressive organisations or listening to the plenary speeches. The motto of the congress: Change Begins (The Change Begins).
The British Party Congresses (conferencesin political jargon) are the starting shot of every new political year. They are a mix of a battle to establish official doctrine, a festival of ideas and a fair of opportunities. As in other European formations, motions are debated, amendments are presented, and the party leadership sweats to prevent any radical proposals from sneaking into the final conclusions.
And dozens of organisations and companies come to promote their vision of reality to all the political fauna gathered at the event. The Gibraltar stand shares space with the Google stand, the Hindu Friends of Labour stand with the Farmers and Ranchers of Great Britain stand.
Defining a vision for the country
Just over two months after coming to power, the Liverpool meeting should have been a glorious walk, a celebration for Starmer. However, the Prime Minister and his team have managed to get themselves into an embarrassing situation from which they will only be able to escape if they manage to get a clear message for the future out of the conference.
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The suits and gifts scandal – which was enjoyed not only by Starmer and his wife, Victoria, but also by the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and the finance minister, Rachel Reeves – has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many members of the party. But, above all, it has set off alarm bells for Labour strategists, who sense the discontent among the middle classes who never enthusiastically voted for the change of government.
The message conveyed so far by Starmer and his finance minister has been a promise of austerity, cuts and new taxes to solve the economic disaster inherited from the Conservatives. And among the proposed recipes is that of removing from 10 million pensioners the indiscriminate and universal subsidies that they received until now to pay their gas and electricity bills.
“The Labour Party remains the best vehicle we know of to date for driving social change,” but “our job as socialists is to make sure it never forgets where it came from and who it is committed to,” demanded Barry Gardiner, one of the strongmen of the previous leadership, led by Jeremy Corbyn and further to the left than Starmer’s current team, in the first hours of the congress.
“The conference is the ideal place for the leadership to finally put on the table and explain to the citizens what their vision for the future is for the country. And Starmer must do it,” says member Holden, who joins the voices of those who believe that the prime minister has become entangled in minutiae and management tasks that have immediately clouded the electoral victory.
A ceasefire in the Middle East
The three party members who serve at the booth Labor Friends of IsraelThey listen attentively to the speech in the plenary session by David Lammy, the Foreign Minister, who is demanding an immediate ceasefire to prevent the current conflict in the Middle East from spreading to Lebanon. Lammy was very much behind the decision to suspend up to 30 arms export licences to Israel for alleged violations of international humanitarian law. In his speech, he calls for a “two-state solution” so that Palestine can also live under its own sovereignty and security.
“We are a united party, with different internal currents of thought. We did not like the government’s decision, because it upset the British Jewish community and did not convince many of the most pro-Palestinian members of the party,” says the most talkative of the three members, who has no problem talking, although he prefers not to give his name. “But I think everything will calm down when this conflict is over,” he says.
Starmer will close the Labour conference in Liverpool on Tuesday with his speech. Many of those gathered hope that he will succeed in putting out with his words the numerous unnecessary fires that his government has started, and also in reviving an enthusiasm among his own people and among the voters that threatens to die out too soon.
