Nation’s press mixed on Starmer’s conference speech

The Prime Minister gave his first Labour Party conference speech since taking office.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech during the Labour Party Conference (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Sir Keir Starmer’s speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool produced contrasting verdicts in Wednesday’s newspapers.

In his first conference speech as Prime Minister, Sir Keir warned of further tough decisions to turn the country around and set out plans to “clear out the Tory rot”, with a new era of political leadership creating a country “renewed by respect and service”.

The Daily Telegraph felt the Prime Minister produced a “more assured speech… than might have been expected given the noises off stage”.

It was less impressed by what it calls the return of “big government”, saying Sir Keir’s Labour administration “feels more like a return to the party of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan than that of Tony Blair”.

There was a little more light at the end of his rhetorical tunnel, more light and less tunnel than in previous speeches.

The Times

“There was also a class warrior retro feel to a speech that referred constantly to ‘working people’ though without defining who they are”, the paper said, arguing that government intervention does not always bring better outcomes.

“It is in the public sector, not the private, where productivity has fallen and where most people work from home,” it said.

“No one would suggest that the supermarkets or Amazon or Google would benefit from being in state hands.”

The Times was less impressed by the delivery, saying it was “marked by a now predictable diet of platitudes on service and national renewal, combined with dour, confidence-sapping prognostications of hardships to come”.

“There was, however, a little more light at the end of his rhetorical tunnel, more light and less tunnel than in previous speeches,” it said.

“When Sir Keir did address a future beyond the hard days to come it was in bland and sweeping terms.

“This is not the best of times but neither is it the worst. Sir Keir could help by discovering his inner Blair and, even as the nights draw in, talk up those blue skies.”

The Daily Mirror disagreed, arguing that Sir Keir had “calmed nerves in his party and our country” in what it labelled a landmark speech.

“Urging voters to keep the faith, the Prime Minister’s significantly more upbeat tone is welcome when people want to know there is light at the end of the tunnel,” the paper said.

Light at the end of the tunnel was also a theme picked up by the Daily Mail, although it felt “voters must pray it isn’t an oncoming train”.

“There will be a dollop of jam tomorrow, he claimed. But until then, it seems, we are to be force fed with vinegar and castor oil,” the Mail said.

“The Prime Minister might have believed he was being candid about the hard road ahead. However, he outlined no detectable strategy for rejuvenating the country.

“Nor did he say exactly what sacrifices we must make to reach his promised land – or the price we will all be forced to pay.”

The Sun found positives, agreeing with the Prime Minister that the country “needs fundamental change”.

Applauding the pledge to put veterans at the top of social housing lists, an acceptance that migration is too high, the need to get more people into jobs and a vow to cut the welfare, it questioned solutions including GB Energy, nationalised trains and “huge pay rises”.

“While we applaud the early part of his conference speech – that people have lost faith in politics’ power to improve their lives – and the conclusion, where he promised to make us happier and richer, some of the meat in the sandwich was more dubious,” the paper said.

Describing certain proposals as based on Labour ideology, it argued the country “needs genuine realism about the challenges of the future”.

The Daily Express concentrated on the winter fuel allowance, saying the speech will “not have pacified the fury of pensioners”.

“Mending fences with pensioners will take much more than warm words,” it said. “Sir Keir must take decisive action to ensure they have warm homes.”