The Labor leader Keir Starmer has promised “a decade of national renewal” in its presentation as “premier waiting” in Liverpool, despite the doubts that persist among the British about their plans and their lack of popular support. 50% of voters recognize at this point that they do not know what the Labor leader’s ideology is and only 34% think that the opposition party “is ready to govern”, according to a recent Ipsos poll.
Starmer, 61 years old, has proposed to follow the path marked by Tony Blair in the 1997 elections with a calculated turn towards the centerkeeping the unions at bay and sending a message of “stability and growth” to companies, after the turbulent 13 years of the tories marked by government crises and Brexit.
“People are looking at us because they want to heal the wounds, and we are going to heal them,” Starmer said in his keynote speech at the National Conference on Labor Party. “People are looking at us because the challenges ahead require a modern state, and we are the modernizers. People are looking at us because they want to build a new Britain, and we are the builders.”
Starmer was interrupted at the beginning by a protester who threw glitter at him – which already remained on the politician’s shoulders throughout the speech – and proclaimed “We demand green justice” and “Democracy led by citizens.” The Labor leader reacted on the fly, saying simply: “If you think it bothers me, you don’t know me.” The protester was detained by police officers.
Starmer presented himself as the recognizable face of “a changed Labor Party that is no longer the party of protest.” “Those days are behind us and we will never return,” he said, referring to his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. “Now we are a party of service to the people, which puts the interests of the country first.”
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