I’ve known Keir Starmer for over 30 years. As a colleague, and as a friend. I’m not alone in that – the Prime Minister is known for his enduring friendships with those he met before he got into politics, and his determination to remain deeply rooted in the real world. But it means I’ve seen first-hand, many times, his decency, his talent and tireless drive. Those attributes shine through not just when things are easy, but when times are tough.
There have been times this year that have been really challenging for this government, and Keir would be the first to admit it. But this budget has reminded many why Labour governments matter. Because we make fundamentally different choices to our opponents. We choose the hard work of helping with the cost of living and investing in our NHS, while reducing our national debt. We choose reducing energy bills, freezing rail fares and reforming property taxes.And we choose lifting nearly half a million children in this country out of poverty.
I know I wasn’t the only one who felt deeply proud watching the Chancellor announce this government will deliver the biggest decrease of child poverty in a single parliamentary term since records began. A budget that shows we are building a stronger and more secure economy, underpinned by fairness.
That’s what a Labour government can deliver.
Populists only offer uncosted ideas, or alternative realities where their actions don’t have consequences. They have the luxury of doing so. Because they know when things go wrong, they won’t be impacted – it’ll be working class people who suffer. Like the family Keir grew up in. His background is well understood in the Westminster bubble but that shouldn’t stop us reflecting on what a remarkable journey it was for the son of a nurse and toolmaker to become Prime Minister. Keir is the most working-class Prime Minister we’ve had in decades.
That matters to the millions of comprehensive school kids, who get to look at the Prime Minister as one of their own, but it matters more because of how it informs his values, and shapes this government. Because it’s completely clear to me – and to anyone who speaks to the PM – about what drives him. It’s ensuring that working people in this country are given dignity and opportunity. That’s obvious when you hear him speak about his dad, and the lack of respect he felt for his job. But it also comes through when Keir talks about children in his constituency, in some of the most deprived areas in London.
They are growing up in the shadow of the amazing Kings Cross development – a huge and welcome investment in the area. But when he speaks to them, they say they look at the new office complexes emerging from the ground, and do not think that they could ever work there. The sad truth is that after 14 years of decline and underfunding by the Conservatives, the deep structural inequalities in our country have widened. Austerity and a botched Brexit deal have created lasting damage. But worse, the Tories created a sense of despair.
In families who struggled to feed their children, or heat their homes. The millions who stopped trusting politicians, or any institutions, to help address their concerns – from failing public services to irregular immigration. Reform and the Greens, while different, want to build on this feeling. That nothing works, or ever could. Populists believe the only acceptable approach is destruction. Ban things you don’t like, leave Conventions you find inconvenient – burn the whole lot down.
Keir rejects that. As does this Labour government.
This is a project of renewal, informed by Keir’s life and values, and based on the idea that the state can make things better. That you can work with partners and allies to improve things, rather than simply turn in on yourself, or give up. As he said recently, any moment we spend as a government not talking about tackling the cost of living or improving lives, is a moment wasted. Because we do have a genuinely brilliant story to tell.
An Employment Rights Bill, that delivers protections for everyone in work; a Renter’s Rights Act that that offers security for millions of renters; a Hillsborough Law, that fundamentally changes the relationship between the state and working people; breakfast clubs at 750 primary schools and free school meals to half a million more children; real wages rising more in our first 10 months than in 10 years under the previous government. The list goes on and on.
Clearly some of these haven’t landed with the public, I know the Prime Minister is determined to learn from the past, but we shouldn’t lose sight that there is a reason this Labour government is laser focused on the cost of living.
It’s because it’s personal to the Prime Minister. He understands the challenges facing millions of people in the country. More than that, he’s lived them. And he’s determined to fix them.
[Further reading: The cruelty of Kemi Badenoch’s “Benefits Street” politics]
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