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Labour’s leader is ahead on competence. Now he needs to make the case that he’s battling for Britain
A Zoom party conference is a miserable thing, with no packed hall for Keir Starmer’s first leader’s speech today: no standing ovation, no policy parades on the fringe, nor huddles of aficionados dissecting his every phrase.
The party members watching from home will be warmed by YouGov’s poll showing, for the first time under Starmer, Labour on level-pegging with the Tories. Starmer beats Boris Johnson as best for prime minister – though a walloping third of those surveyed haven’t made up their minds. That’s the purpose of the conference slogan: “A new leadership”. It takes time to introduce a new leader; even longer to expunge a dire party image. Continue reading...