And the flags will matter; Farage’s supporters carry the red-and-white St George’s Cross to protests outside hotels used to house asylum seekers. They want migrants to go home. And they are winning in the polls.
Starmer responded at the Labour gathering in Liverpool with a speech that labelled Farage a liar and called some of his activists racist. But he assured ordinary Britons that their demand for strong borders was not racism. In fact, he said, it was entirely reasonable.
Britain’s Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage.Credit: AP
In a key part of his address, he told the story of a woman who invited him into her home and told him how proud she was of her Asian neighbour – and then said she wasn’t happy with young men from Eastern Europe who sat on her front wall, spat on the ground and didn’t put their rubbish out.
“To her, that broke the little but important rules of her street. She didn’t like it,” he told the room, which fell quiet. He thought the woman was worried a Labour politician would think she was racist.
“Whatever our intentions, we had become a party that patronised working people,” he said.
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Starmer had to manage the speech carefully because many in the room wanted gentler policies on asylum seekers and migration. He told them they were wrong to dismiss the problem. He pledged to smash people smuggling gangs, crack down on illegal workers and remove people with no right to be in Britain.
He did not, however, vow to stop the boats. Given that 30,164 asylum seekers crossed the English Channel by small boat last year, Labour is clearly unsure it can get to zero. The previous Conservative government did not stop the boats, either, and it had 14 years to try.
This was difficult ground to cross in a speech that had to attack Farage without offending all his supporters. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese walked the same ground in early September when he appealed to the “good people” who joined a march against migration.
Starmer drew a moral line and appealed to the public to come to his side, hoping they would leave Farage stranded on the other.
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“So let us spell it out once and for all,” he said. “Controlling migration is a reasonable goal. But if you throw bricks and smash up private property, that’s not legitimate, that is thuggery.
“Free speech is a British value and we have guarded it for centuries, but if you incite racist violence and hatred, that is not expressing concern – it’s criminal.
“And this great party is proud of our flags. But if they are painted alongside graffiti telling a Chinese take-away owner to go home, that’s not pride – that’s racism.”
The crowd was silent when he suggested the left were wrong to be soft on migration, but it cheered now that he was targeting the protesters who back Farage. He worked up to a strident attack on anyone who said or implied that people could not be British because of the colour of their skin.
“If you say they should now be deported, then mark my words, we will fight you with everything we have, because you are the enemy of national renewal.”
That brought the room to its feet with applause and cheers. His concept of national renewal sounded positive and patriotic and included economic growth and better living standards. Anyone who was against this unifying vision could be branded an agent of division.
Important policies were part of the theme. Starmer abandoned the Labour ideal of getting half the nation’s school-leavers into university. “I don’t think that’s right for our times,” he said.
He spoke instead of the value of apprentices helping to build battleships. The new goal is to have two thirds of school-leavers in skills training or university. It comes with stricter welfare rules for those who are not in work or training.
The prime minister promised more housing, shorter waiting times at hospital, growth from trade deals and new jobs from tech investments in artificial intelligence. He urged Labour supporters to accept tight fiscal rules to improve the budget. All of this, along with border control, was national renewal.
“That’s why I just do not accept that Britain is broken,” he said.
Voters are unlikely to believe the promises. They are dealing with higher prices, slower growth, higher migration and lower real wages. Ultimately, they will judge the prime minister on whether he can lift incomes and cut boat arrivals.
Starmer showed that he heard their complaints and outlined a positive agenda with his grand theme of national renewal.
This may be the speech that revives Labour and saves Starmer. The answer that counts will not come in the opinion polls, but in the elections in May.
