An abridged version of this article appeared in City A.M.
Whether it’s Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, the Conservative’s risible record of government means it’s in Keir Starmer’s interests not to have a vision.
This should be Starmer’s moment. The Conservatives are pummelling the self-destruct button as skyrocketing inflation and crumbling public services make a mockery of the claim they are the party of stability.
And yet, there’s something missing. Starmer doesn’t have a vision, and people have cottoned on. What’s his big picture plan for where he wants to take the country? It’s impossible to say.
Many think this is a problem. People vote for ideas, symbols and visions, not gritty policy detail. How can Starmer expect to win an election if people can’t get excited about voting for him? But Starmer needn’t worry. Instead, he should recognise his lack of vision is a strength.
Not that the Conservatives will give him credit for doing so, as they point to the apparent vacuum on the opposite benches with relish. In The Daily Telegraph, Conservative campaigner Ben Obese-Jecty said Starmer’s position was “untenable” as he has “resolutely failed to define a vision for the country,” while Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges agreed Starmer has “no clear vision for tackling the cost-of-living crisis.” Even neutral arbiters such as the BBC and the Financial Times have concluded Starmer’s lack of vision is an electoral weakness.
Let down by their jockey, the Left have turned on Starmer with a mercilessness only Conservatives were thought capable of. Guardian columnist and left-wing campaigner Owen Jones posted a heated video on Twitter with the caption “You, @Keir_Starmer, are a liar, a conman, and a joke.”
Feeling exposed, Starmer has made a series of unedifying attempts to articulate his vision. In his campaign to become Labour leader, he made 10 pledges with a markedly socialist flavour. Not long into the job, he wrote a bland 12,000-word essay titled ‘The Road Ahead’. This year alone, he’s given two speeches setting out his vision, one in January and the other in July. It’s hard to escape the conclusion Starmer is reaching for something that isn’t there.
But Starmer shouldn’t debase himself with half-baked visions. Rather, he should be confident that his lack of vision is a strength. The Right are only using this attack line out of the frustration they can’t pin anything meaningful on him. Jeremy Corbyn’s 1970s style socialism made it simple to cast him as a loon. Starmer should take comfort that he can’t be tarred so easily. By casting the far-Left aside, he’s made Labour electable again. The fact campaign groups such as Enough is Enough have emerged to the left of the party is further evidence to voters that Labour is ready for government.
This isn’t a risk-free strategy. By not developing a vision of his own, Starmer could allow the next Prime Minister to set the terms of debate in their favour. Truss will cast herself as a radical ‘boosterist’ believer in Britain, and Starmer as a ‘doomster’ who is content managing the country’s decline. There’s a chance Starmer gets outmanoeuvred.
But as Britons choose between heating and eating this winter, as they spend hours waiting for an ambulance in moments when every second counts, as they see crime go unpunished and strikes bring the country to a standstill, they will tire of hearing another bold vision for sunlit uplands which never arrive. From the Big Society to Northern Powerhouse and Levelling Up, the Conservatives have won election after election selling dreams that didn’t come true. In Broken Britain, people want actions — not ideas.
In 2024, the Conservatives will be seeking a fifth consecutive term after 14 years in office, a tall order in the best of times. Starmer will win the next general election if he lets the Conservative’s risible record speak for itself. He cannot let the public’s economic misery become “Putin’s cost-of-living crisis”. He must blame the Conservatives for selling off Britain’s energy storage and failing to invest in domestic supply. Likewise, he cannot let NHS breakdown become “the long effects of the global pandemic”. He must blame the Conservatives for failing to adequately invest and modernise the country’s health and social care.
At the same time, Starmer should propose moderate policy solutions to the big problems. His plan to freeze energy bills was case in point. Starmer didn’t scare voters with a plot to renationalise energy, he simply showed Labour have solutions where the Conservatives offer none.
In politics, you only have to beat what’s in front of you. So long as Starmer resists rocking the boat by magicking up a meaningless vision, he will be the first Labour leader, apart from Tony Blair, to win a general election for 50 years. In 1997, Blair won a landslide saying, “Britain deserves better”. That message would serve Starmer well today.
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