Keir Starmer has chosen the Tony Blair path – and his party will be rewarded

The Labour Party leader has concluded he cannot both deliver the unity he promised when he ran for the leadership and win power, writes Andrew Grice

The Labour leader gives his speech at conference on Wednesday (Getty)

On the eve of his big speech, Keir Starmer showed his frustration at being constantly compared with two of his predecessors – Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Blair – and declined to say to which of them he was closer. “My job is not to replicate what some past leader has done, my job is to take our Labour Party and change it,” he said.

Yet his 90-minute address to the Labour conference made clear he has chosen the Blair path. He has concluded he cannot both deliver the unity he promised when he ran for the leadership – in other words, keep the Corbyn left happy – and win power. As he told delegates, to “remake this nation” requires Labour to win – for him, “the object of the exercise”.

Repeated heckling from left-wing critics in his audience showed that, despite claiming he had “put our house in order” in Brighton this week, the left is not dead yet; many battles still lie ahead. Starmer came armed with some good put-downs for his enemy within, asking his party whether it wanted “slogans or changing lives”.