'Labour's Keir Starmer has never looked more like the leader of this country'

10 October 2023 , 17:14

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Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria after he delivered his keynote speech (Image: PA)

In the end the protester at Keir Starmer’s speech did him a favour.

He had never looked more like the leader of the country than dusting glitter from his suit jacket, and facing the crowd with a smile. "If he thinks that bothers me, he doesn't know me," he said. "Protest or power, that's why we've changed."

The unforgivable lapse in security, was horrifying for all of us in the audience on whom our friend Jo Cox's murder still weighs so heavily. But it must have been shocking for his wife in the front row. And his next words – “at least it wasn’t my wife, because her dress is beautiful” – must have been designed to reassure her.

But what came next, a properly crafted, great big speech, not seen since the Gordon Brown era, was made immeasurably better by the dangerous start. With jacket off, and sleeves rolled up, Sir Keir looked so ready for the job of rebuilding Britain, that no-one would have been surprised if he brought out a trowel.

And a passage near the end had new resonance. “I’m working class,” he said. “I’ve fought all my life. And I’ll fight for you.”

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This was a speech about giving back respect to working people. The end to “trickledown nonsense”, and “populism and conspiracy”. “Those ideas are finished,” he said.

This was as close to barn-storming – or barn-starming – as Starmer gets. And his deliberate contrast with Sunak’s “shallow men of politics” could not have been greater. MPs, he said, “should only have one job – service”.

Starmer spoke of “the hope of the hard road” – a road he had already travelled from that pebble-dashed semi with a disabled mum he cared for. “Because long-term solutions are not oven-ready”.

Finally, he addressed Tory voters directly. “If you feel uncomfortable with a party floating in the murky waters of populism and conspiracy, if you want solutions. Vote Labour.” Labour, he said, would be Britain’s “shelter from the storm”.

Ros Wynne Jones