‘It will be painful’: In major speech, British PM paints gloomy picture

London: In his first major speech since becoming prime minister, Keir Starmer has told the British people their country is in a societal and economic “black hole” and that “things will get worse before they get better”.

The speech was remarkable for its woeful description of modern Britain. Starmer repeatedly deployed the word “rot” to describe the condition of the country he now leads, as in a house with a rotting foundation that needs more than a cosmetic coat of paint.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a press conference in the Rose Garden at 10 Downing Street, London, on Tuesday.Credit: AP

Afterwards, even supporters wondered aloud whether he was painting too gloomy a picture.

But Starmer maintained that he wanted to be honest – in contrast, he said, to his predecessors, whom he blamed for the current state of affairs and for selling the British people “the snake oil of populism”.

Starmer suggested that taxes would go up and that cuts would be made, even for those most reliant on public assistance, like the 10 million elderly who await help for their winter heating bills.

In a July 4 election, British voters chose Starmer and the centre-left Labour Party by a landslide, ending 14 years of Conservative rule and bucking a rightward trend on the Continent.

But there has been no honeymoon.

The nation was stunned by a July 29 stabbing attack that killed three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England. Online misinformation about the assailant – wrongly identifying him as an illegal immigrant with an Arabic name – spurred a week of riots across the country.

It took a heavy police presence, mass arrests and stiff prison sentences, along with public condemnation, to put an end to the violence.

British prosecutors have charged more than 600 people with violent disruption and attacking police and property with bricks and petrol bombs. Prosecutors have also pursued cases against what one judge called “keyboard warriors” alleged to have stirred up rage with social media posts, many of them false.

Starmer (left) and Conservative leader Rishi Sunak (right) before the opening of parliament in July. Starmer blames Sunak’s government and that of his predecessors for the rut Britian is in.Credit: Getty Images

One British woman, 53, was sentenced to 15 months for a Facebook post calling for a mosque to be blown up “with the adults inside”. An English man, 45, was sentenced to 20 months for telling his followers to set fire to a hotel that housed refugees.

Starmer has vowed that those instigating violence cannot hide behind social media anonymity. Some critics are worried that such arrests could undermine free speech.

On Tuesday, Starmer said the riots had exposed “a deeply unhealthy society” that had been “weakened by a decade of division and decline” and “infected by a spiral of populism”. The effort to respond to the riots also highlighted the failures of previous governments, he said.

He recounted that his team had to “check the precise number of prison places we had and where those places were, to make sure we could arrest, charge and prosecute people quickly”.

“Not having enough prison places is about as fundamental a failure as you can get,” said Starmer, a former top prosecutor.

He went further, saying that the rioters had been “gaming” the system.

“They didn’t just know the system was broken. They were betting on it,” he said. “They thought, ‘Oh, they’ll never arrest me. And if they do, I won’t be prosecuted. And if I am, I won’t get much of a sentence.’ They saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of failure – and they exploited it.”

Starmer invited 50 citizens to the speech: firefighters, nurses, teachers, police officers. Even as he delivered his glum news, he said his government was devoted to them.

He also pointedly chose to deliver his remarks in the 10 Downing Street rose garden, where during the pandemic, staffers for then-prime minister Boris Johnson held one of their gatherings that flew in the face of lockdown rules.

“Remember the pictures, just over there, of the wine and the food?” Starmer said. “Well, this garden, and this building, are now back in your service.”

He blamed the current state of “rubble and ruin” on 14 years of Conservative Party rule, saying that the previous government had racked up £22 billion ($39 billion) in debt, and had hidden it from the Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent and authoritative overseer of public finances, funded by the Treasury.

Starmer offered some hope for a brighter future, but warned that tough times were ahead.

“There’s a budget coming in October, and it’s going to be painful,” he said.

Britain’s Labour Party is closely allied with Britain’s labour unions. But after Starmer’s speech, Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said that “a bleak vision of Britain is not what we need now”.

The Green Party issued a statement saying that “more economic pain and hardship isn’t what people voted for”.

Starmer’s predecessor, Rishi Sunak, posting on X, said Tuesday’s speech revealed a hidden agenda, “what Labour has been planning to do all along – raise your taxes”.

The Washington Post