For a brief moment, the Tories‘ dilapidated attack machine sputtered back into life. ‘The King’s Speech was the most Left-wing in years,’ the briefing declared. ‘Nationalisation, new powers for the unions, abolition of heredity peers.’
The Financial Times followed its lead. Sir Keir Starmer was portrayed sporting a Che Guevara beret, above an article heralding ‘Starmer’s never-ending insurgency’. The Prime Minister was set to embrace his ‘inner radical’, it claimed.
Well if he is, that radicalism is set to be revealed via his political audacity, rather than the channelling of any great socialist ideology.
Because the truth is that the new Prime Minister’s first programme for government is one of the most conservative – and Conservative – ever unveiled by a Labour administration.
‘Our strategy is simple,’ one senior Starmer adviser explained to me. ‘We are going to spend the next 12 months parking our tanks slap bang in the middle of the Tories’ lawn.’
If you want to know what the initial landing-wave of Starmerism really consists of, focus on what he and his ministers are actually saying and doing
That slightly desperate ‘most Left-wing in years’ jibe can be quickly dismissed.
The Government’s Great British Railways idea is basically a formalisation of the de facto policy of creeping renationalisation adopted by Boris Johnson. The radical package of workers’ rights being pushed by Angela Rayner and her allies has been significantly watered down by Rachel Reeves. And the planned reforms of the Lords – once including abolition and replacement by an elected second chamber – have been similarly neutered.
If you want to know what the initial landing-wave of Starmerism really consists of, it’s best to ignore the spin and the hype. Instead, focus on what he and his ministers are actually saying and doing.
This first substantive policy announcement in the King’s Speech made no reference to people’s flags or the blood of the Labour movement’s martyrs.
It simply said: ‘Stability will be the cornerstone of my Government’s economic policy and every decision will be consistent with its fiscal rules.
‘It will legislate to ensure that all significant tax and spending changes are subject to independent assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).’
Fiscal responsibility, the guiding principle of every successful Conservative administration since the war, is now Labour’s watchword.
And the appropriation doesn’t end there. A Crime Bill. Another to strengthen the nation’s borders. New anti-terror measures. A programme of radical reform of the NHS. A new Armed Forces champion. An iron-clad commitment to Nato. A specific recommitment to Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent.
Che Guevara? All of this would have had Margaret Thatcher purring her approval.
In fact, if you look at Starmer’s strategy, it doesn’t so much involve parking his tanks on the Tories’ lawn as sending drones round to former Conservative ministers’ houses and pointing a camera through their windows.
As one Starmer aide remarked: ‘We’re going to take their good ideas and show that we’re the Government that can actually deliver them. For example, our policy on planning reform was Michael Gove’s big plan but he couldn’t force it through. We will.’
Labour’s legislative programme would have had Mrs Thatcher purring her approval
An expansion of the OBR, George Osborne’s brainchild. An extension of the powers of elected regional and city mayors, introduced by David Cameron. An Industrial Strategy Council, tasked with finally delivering on Boris’s levelling up pledge.
Rishi Sunak used his first and last party conference speech to completely trash his party’s record in government. Starmer intends to pick through the detritus, find those elements he thinks will work, and recycle them.
For two reasons. First, he believes he learned from his time reforming the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions that gradual transformation, rather than all-out revolution, is the most practical way of delivering change.
He also thinks the optics of Britain being served by a calm, pragmatic Prime Minister, rather than an ideologue, will help cement his premiership.
But there is also an element of opportunism underpinning Starmer’s plan.
He is preparing to occupy swathes of political real estate previously owned by the Tories because he thinks it won’t involve having to fight for it.
As one Labour minister told me: ‘The Tories will have to lurch to the Right now. They’ll need to try to deal with Reform, rather than spend time focusing on us. And that gives us a huge opportunity.’
Labour strategists believe the impending celebrity death match between the next Tory leader and Nigel Farage will benefit them in several ways. It will allow them to drive deeper into the centre, where they believe all elections are won. And, crucially, it will enable them to do so without unduly upsetting their liberal base.
Consider, for example, Labour’s stance on cross-Channel migrants. In Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s final Queen’s Speech, there was no mention of immigration.
The issue was taboo, one that was only broken by his disastrous encounter with voter Gillian Duffy, whom he was later overheard calling ‘bigoted’.
Some sections of the media tried to portray Starmer as a Che Guevara-type radical
Yet, last week Starmer put a commitment to strengthening Britain’s borders and establishing a new Border Security Task Force at the heart of his agenda.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper then announced the first ever direct small boats return of asylum-seekers to France by UK Border Force. At which point, liberal opinion actually cheered, welcoming ministers’ more ‘compassionate’ approach.
This is how Starmer intends to proceed. He will sport the occasional bit of progressive bling to keep his metropolitan base happy. A wind farm here. A bit of bus regulation there. But his early agenda will be guided by circumspection, rather than radicalism.
The reality is, those people – on the Left and Right – who were hoping Starmer would start Day One by gleefully shouting from the steps of No 10 ‘Fooled, you suckers! We are the masters now!!!!!’ are set to be disappointed.
In 1997 Tony Blair said: ‘We were elected as New Labour and will govern as New Labour.’ In his first fortnight in office, Starmer, in effect, made a similar promise. ‘We were elected as Cautious, Incremental Labour and we will govern as Cautious, Incremental Labour.’
Over the past year, it has been common to hear Tory supporters and even MPs bemoaning Sunak’s lack of vision and direction. ‘Why can’t we have a proper Conservative Prime Minister,’ they wailed.
They can relax. Britain has one now.