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With no cheering crowds of members, no karaoke, no conspiracies in hotel bars, and no late-night songwriting – Keir Starmer’s first party conference as Labor leader, starting this weekend, will be unlike any other.
Instead of the spacious ACC Liverpool Convention Center, it is held online, with the motto: New Leadership.
The Labor Party has certainly advanced in opinion polls since Starmer won the leadership contest, but many challenges remain. Here are some of them:
What is Starmerism?
The new Labor leader praised Britain’s veterans, condemned the protesters who toppled Colston’s statue in Bristol and criticized the prime minister for his failures in fighting the pandemic.
But Starmer has said less about his views on Labor and Britain.
He is expected to use his speech on Tuesday to talk about his personal values and politics. But you will remain cautious when setting detailed policies, on taxes and expenses, for example.
Starmer supporters view this precaution as sensible policy. But skeptics say it means he lacks Corbyn’s ideological clarity.
Brexi
During the recent debates, Starmer could not have been clearer: Brexit is concluded as an argument, Labor lost, and Boris Johnson must go ahead with finalizing a deal.
While this attacks Starmer as a remaining attorney out of touch, there are difficulties ahead.
The Labor Party opposes the internal market bill not because it sets the legislative framework for Brexit, but because it details how the government could unilaterally rewrite the withdrawal agreement with the EU, thereby violating international law.
But every time Labor votes against the measure, or others like it, Johnson and his team will loudly proclaim that Starmer seeks to “thwart Brexit.”
Government waiting?
Labor’s strategy is to insist that Johnson and his cabinet are “incompetent.”
But voters, including those in “red wall” seats, must trust Starmer’s team to do better. Yet many of them, including shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds and shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, remain low-key.
One of the goals of this week’s virtual conference is to try to put them in the spotlight, along with Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner.
Party tensions
Tensions between Labor’s left and right were rekindled by the firing of Rebecca Long-Bailey and the leak of an internal report detailing a “hyper-factional” atmosphere at party headquarters.
When Starmer organized a review, chaired by Martin Forde QC, to examine the claims in the explosive report, Jeremy Corbyn was among those who urged her to investigate allegations that employees had deliberately attempted to sabotage the 2017 election by funneling funds to constituencies. selected.
The review has yet to be reported, but is likely to provoke a new outbreak of hostilities. Many on the left are holding the trial until more details emerge of the politics of Starmer and his team: He signed up to 10 “commitments” during his leadership campaign, which included the widespread adoption of much of Corbyn’s leftist prospect.
Antisemitism
Starmer won praise from Jewish leaders for his immediate promise to assume leadership to control cases of anti-Semitism within the party, and the issue has since lost importance in the media.
However, this could change with the imminent release of a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on allegations of institutional anti-Semitism within the Labor Party.
While Starmer will respond to the findings by emphasizing a different approach under his leadership, it is likely that he will reignite the party’s internal arguments from the Corbyn era. Meanwhile, conservatives will no doubt try to remind voters that Starmer was a key member of the shadow cabinet under Corbyn.
