Labor Party: Starmer aims to build trust with ‘new leadership’ slogan

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On the eve of its first “virtual” party conference, Labor has unveiled its new slogan: “New Leadership.”

It replaces “Under new administration,” a phrase that Sir Keir Starmer has been using since July, initially in the Prime Minister’s Questions, to distance himself from the previous leadership position on Russia and national security.

Sir Keir’s strategists feel this was a bit too retrospective, defining it simply as Not Jeremy Corbyn, and that the new form of words will have wider appeal.

It will put a lot of weight on the shoulders of the short slogan.

Nice to meet you, I hope you guessed my name …

First, it is designed to contrast favorably with Boris Johnson’s leadership and build on Sir Keir’s sustained attempt to portray the current government as lacking in competition.

Second, it fits with Labor’s plan to “introduce” Sir Keir to the country.

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Labor Party

This anticipated phase of his leadership is believed to have not been fully realized due to the coronavirus crisis.

And insiders emphasize that his “new” approach will not be just different from Corbyn’s, but also from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

You can be helped in this when an internal investigation, under the chairmanship of attorney Martin Forde and independent of the party hierarchy, reports later this year.

He is likely to call for a change in the party’s “culture,” with criticism from both staunch opponents and Corbyn-era supporters.

This will allow Sir Keir to affirm that he is starting over.

You have to accentuate the positive

Third, it will be displayed to try and remove a negative.

While he may not have been fully presented to the electorate, the good news for Sir Keir Starmer is that his personal ratings are positive.

For example, earlier this month, the YouGov poll suggested that 42% of voters felt he was doing a good job as a Labor leader, while far fewer (26%) felt he was doing it wrong.

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That said, for 32% of voters, the jury is out, hence the need for Sir Keir to reintroduce himself to voters.

The bad news for Starmer is that while he has made a relatively positive impression since he became Labor leader in March, the party has lagged behind the Conservatives in most polls.

As one Labor insider put it: “The brand has been destroyed.”

The goal now is to bring the party’s position closer to Starmer’s.

Around me are familiar faces …

Therefore, the new branding, to be used on party platforms and online content, aims to convey a sense of collective leadership.

The Labor Connected event, the party’s virtual conference, begins on Saturday and will aim to provide a platform to some of the shadow cabinet members who are seen as potentially strong actors, including Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy and Nick Thomas- Symonds.

There will be an important speech from the shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds.

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Jessica Taylor / Parliament of the United Kingdom

The new team is expected to become more familiar faces to voters in the coming months.

Too much for the staff. The late Tony Benn used to say “it’s about politics, not personalities.”

They told me there will be announcements in the next few days.

But the main goal of the event will be to establish a vision rather than being drawn into the details four years into an election.

Systems fall, walls collapse

Although it is a virtual conference, the party leader will come out and will be about to deliver his speech on Tuesday.

It will be in Yorkshire, possibly in a seat that survived the Conservative attack on the Red Wall, but quite close to the rubble.

It will make it clear that the task of rebuilding Labor will begin in this territory.

But while regaining the trust of those who, until recently, supported the party is an essential precondition for gaining power, Starmer knows that alone will not be enough.

So the seats held by the Conservatives in previous Labor electoral defeats, such as those in south-east England, will also be their focus.

Recovery hopes also hinge on him doing at least a little better in Scotland, which he visited for the first time since he became leader this week.

But the most immediate priority is to contain more losses in next year’s Holyrood election.

A vision?

Although Starmer strategists are emphasizing fresh, future-oriented leadership, it seems clear that when he delivers his speech, the biggest contrast will be from the Corbyn era.

He will lay out his vision for the UK: the kind of country he wants to see, the kind of country it can be.

It won’t wave the Red Flag as much as the Union Jack.

He will try to convince those who have left the party that their values ​​and theirs have much in common.

Then there will be an emphasis on patriotism.

And the content is likely influenced by the Labor leader’s policy director, Claire Ainsley, former chair of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation think tank and author of New Working Class.

She has said that the values ​​upheld by “working class” voters span the Stay / Leave divide and can be summed up like this: “Family, justice, hard work and decency”, or as one commenter put it, “flag, forces, family “.

But he also argues that the nature of “the working class” has changed as the economy has changed, as identity politics, rather than social class, have become more prominent.

The new working class, he says, is more diverse and responds to signals that a political party is “on their side,” rather than appealing to old class labels.

So expect to witness Starmer, the signalman, in his conference address.

No direction home?

Some on the party’s left, however, fear Starmer is on the wrong track.

They see the sweat, working hard to build credibility against the conservatives, but worry about a lack of inspiration.

Others simply want to see more evidence that his “values” speech is not a precursor to ditching some of the radical policies that both he and the party previously championed.

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Membership of the Socialist Campaign Group includes Jeremy Corbyn, former shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and former shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.

A “virtual demonstration” of around 2,500 Labor members will be held during the conference.

The group’s secretary, former leader Richard Burgon, told the BBC: “It is important that the party use the conference to go beyond criticizing the incompetence of the government, and now establish policies to defend people affected by it. unprecedented labor and public health crisis. ” . “

Starmer’s supporters say he has a “relentless” focus on winning.

That will mean not only putting the party under new leadership, but also how that leadership is exercised.

So far he has been radical in shaking up his shadow cabinet and making changes to the party’s secret operation.

The biggest challenge, in due course, will be selecting a small number of token policies to signal voters where they stand and abandon others.

Their support among the members appears to be wide, but this process will reveal how deep it is.

Keir Starmer’s conservative opponents have already made up their minds about his leadership.

A spokesman said he “offered the same tired and disconnected policy as Jeremy Corbyn.”

Starmer’s team hopes that his target voters will give him an audience and come to a different conclusion in due course.