'Starmer needs to say something people can get excited about ahead of election'

06 January 2024 , 21:27

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Labour Party leader Keir Starmer (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

I know this is not supposed to be a column about sport, but… the darts, the darts. Best bit of Christmas/New Year by a mile. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever switched football over to watch anything else, let alone darts. But there we are.

Some great games, great drama – and, of course, the teenager who almost won the whole thing. I was a bit worried how the lad would cope with coming so close and then falling short. But then he got a rousing ovation, decent trophy and, you know, £200,000. Not a bad couple of weeks’ work.

There is, I suppose, something to be written about available choices for young people, how they should be encouraged to pursue more vocational study. But I really can’t summon the energy. Darts fever.

Politics, then, if we have to. First up to the oche was Keir “No Drama” Starmer, with a New Year speech billed as a big one. It wasn’t.

Win or bust?

Solid arrows but nothing to set the board alight. There was the odd interesting bit – for example, he admitted to a concern that voter apathy could be a problem at the next election and it’s what “keeps me up at night”.

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Fair enough but it would be great if he could tackle that apathy by saying something interesting – something people can get excited by and hang on to. Mr Starmer laid out a vision for a different kind of politics to the one we’ve been used to. Less soap opera, much more hands-off in a way.

My worry is that more laissez-faire isn’t what’s needed. We need a reformed politics but not by backing off from people’s lives. We can all see we’re in a mess. We know how we got there and we need someone who’s going to get us out of it. That means practical solutions that are tangible for people. It’s great that Mr Starmer wants the highest growth in the G7 but what does that mean for food prices, for the NHS, for mortgages?

Just tell us. There was a flick of this last week, with some leaked stuff round childcare – very much a bullseye – but nothing in this speech really hit the mark.

Mr Sunak was next to throw (it’s all darts now, back to normal next week, I swear) and kind of took the gloss off – grabbing the headlines by revealing the election will be in the second half of the year. No surprise, really. He needs a bit more time for mortgages to get back to a decent rate, tax cuts to kick in, the economy to stir again. Tory strategists reckon that in the run-up to the election – and with a fair wind – the Labour lead will fall significantly.

Mr Sunak would still have a lot of work to do to get any sort of win (equivalent would be a 170 checkout) but a slim chance, after all, is better than no chance.

Keir Mudie