There is indeed a stand distributing anti-capitalist leaflets, a demonstration in favor of transgender people which calls out Keir Starmer, the leader of Labor, two Palestinian flags, but all were carefully confined outside the secure perimeter of the Labor Party conference, which opened on Sunday October 8 in Liverpool.
What is striking, for this great annual meeting of the British left, is the unprecedented density of well-tailored suits crowding the carpeted aisles of the immense ACC convention center. It feels like a giant economic fair: in fact, on Monday, a “business forum” was to be organized with hundreds of leaders eager to approach Mr. Starmer.
The optimism is palpable, the contrast is striking with the gloom that emerged a week earlier, in Manchester, from the Conservative conference. According to all the polls which for a year have given Labor between 15 and 20 points ahead of the Tories, the government should change sides in the 2024 general elections.
“It’s an earthquake”
The British are tired of thirteen years of conservative governments marked by austerity and Brexit. In Liverpool, the smiles are all the wider after the result, Friday October 6, of the by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, a constituency near Glasgow won back from the Scottish separatists of the Scottish National Party, the SNP. “It’s an earthquake,” judged Keir Starmer in an unusual burst of enthusiasm for a level-headed man, but one who is probably thinking more and more about Downing Street.
The transformation of Labour, under the leadership of this experienced 61-year-old jurist, former attorney general for England and Wales, is impressive. In three years, the leader, elected deputy late in life (in 2015), took total control of the party, brought it back to the center by marginalizing its left wing. With one goal: to transform this protest movement into a government party. In December 2019, Labor suffered its worst defeat since 1935. The working classes in the north of England turned away from Jeremy Corbyn, its leader, an anti-imperialist activist suspected of not fighting enough against anti-Semitism within the party. They preferred Boris Johnson, who promised them to “achieve Brexit” and all-out investments.
Labor then seemed set for a long journey through the desert. In April 2020, it was Corbyn’s Brexit minister, Keir Starmer, a remain (supporter of remaining in the European Union) convinced, who wins the votes of activists on a platform that is still very social: abolition of university fees, nationalizations… But very quickly, this Londoner with thick hair and piercing eyes will transform into a determined and sharp leader. First strong gesture: he wants to regain the confidence of the Jewish community.
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