Several doses of reality put the mockers on Keir Starmer’s celebration party
The reality has been different at Labour’s first conference in power for 15 years. Behind the scenes cabinet ministers are seething about Starmer’s decision to let a donor spend more than £18,000 on his suits and glasses and the bitter infighting that has taken over No 10. Starmer’s judgment - and Downing Street’s broader grip on the agenda - is being called into question.
It has not been helped by the fact that, perhaps more than any other in recent years, this conference has been largely performative. The big event, the one that really matters, is the budget on October 30. That will be the fiscal moment that defines much of what Labour does for the rest of this parliament, with tax rises and spending cuts on the horizon.
It means that conference has been at times a surreal affair, with new policies few and far between. Some cabinet ministers say they deliberately steered clear of anything beyond rhetoric and narrative in their speeches because there was no point.
Both Starmer and Rachel Reeves’s speeches were cases in point. Both attempted to point to the future, to leaven the messages of doom and gloom with a more optimistic vision of Britain. The chancellor spoke of Britain’s “immense” potential, while Starmer talked of bringing “joy” back into people’s lives.
The challenge is that such optimism is likely to be negated by what all sides acknowledge will be a difficult budget. Starmer used his speech to appeal to voters to join in the “shared struggle” on the path to a brighter future. But encouraging people to accept short-term pain for long-term gain is a difficult sell.
The view of Starmer and those around him is that Labour’s early difficulties are a function of the transition from opposition to Downing Street. One minister pointed out that Tony Blair’s early days were dominated by scandals over donors and infighting between No 10 and No 11 but those early difficulties were largely forgotten in the fullness of time. “There aren’t many people who remember what it was really like back then,” the minister said.
Starmer’s response to the furore over donations for his and his wife’s clothes provides a microcosm of the challenges facing his nascent administration. When the stories first emerged, Starmer’s instinct was to go on the defensive. He insisted that he had sought to comply with the rules and that the donations were above board. This approach made the story run and run. It wasn’t until last Friday, on the eve of conference, that he finally conceded and said he would not accept any more donations. Allies acknowledged that there was a “perception” problem at a time when the government was taking the winter fuel payment from ten million pensioners.
Several cabinet ministers have privately made clear this week that they found it inexplicable Starmer took almost a week to shut down the row. “I think he was genuinely convinced that because he had followed the rules, it was OK,” one said. “I can see how it happened. He put on some weight; Waheed [Alli], the Labour donor, said: you need some new suits - I’ll help you out. But I can’t understand how nobody thought it would be an issue.”
Another said Starmer’s Downing Street operation had “no grip”, adding: “Someone should have made clear that the clothes row would go on and brought it to an end.”
In their meetings cabinet ministers have been keen to emphasise the thrift of their own clothing choices. One insisted they always bought the same suit from a mid-range high-street shop; others said they bought theirs from second-hand websites.
While there was a clear error of judgment over the clothing, there are deeper problems in No 10. Many senior figures are increasingly concerned that the position of Sue Gray, the prime minister’s chief of staff, is unsustainable; some speculate that she could be forced out by Christmas.
Gray has become a lightning rod for criticism of Starmer’s administration - some justified, some unjustified. Last year she was a prominent figure at conference, seen drinking with colleagues in her trademark leather jacket. This year she decided not to attend.
The revelation that she is paid £170,000 - more than the prime minister - had provoked unalloyed fury among government advisers, many of whom found themselves facing heavy pay cuts under new pay bands approved by Gray.
The prime minister’s allies say he accepts there are tensions in Downing Street but compares them to the problems he faced when he became Labour leader. Those problems were ultimately overcome as Starmer gripped the party machine, and they are adamant that he knows it is only he who can read the riot act to the feuding factions within his top team - and that Gray has his full support.
Part of it, they say, is that his new political team, with the exception of Gray, are unfamiliar with the way government works, and this has caused misunderstandings. Some ministers say Gray is good at unblocking things that would otherwise become stuck in the government machine. “You can just text [her] and things get done,” one said.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, mounted one of the more unusual defences of Gray at a drinks event. “I have seen tomorrow’s newspapers,” he said. “It is going to get worse. Sue Gray’s been hiding Lord Lucan, she’s shot JFK and I’m not even going to tell you what happened to Shergar.”
Even so, some ministers fear it may already be too late. “I think she’ll have to go,” one said. “It doesn’t feel sustainable. Starmer will stand by her, but it is clearly taking its toll.”
There is also an inherited problem. Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, has made clear that he is going to leave the job but has yet to announce a date for his departure. Cabinet ministers are surprised by the failure to usher out Case, who was originally appointed by Boris Johnson. He is expected to confirm his departure shortly after conference, but it had been assumed he would stay on until January. That timeline is now likely to be expedited: Starmer is said to be keen to have the situation resolved sooner than later.
Some Labour figures have been shocked by how hard they are finding government. One said: “Just before the election Tony Blair came into Labour HQ and told us, ‘The worst day in government is better than the best day in opposition.’ I know now that’s not true.”
Others fear that No 10 is underpowered and distracted, leaving the Treasury unchallenged in its command of government decision-making. “Because there isn’t a clear vision, everything just comes down to ‘Can the Treasury make it add up?’ - and the answer is usually no,” one source said.
But there are also those who insist the budget will show this is not the case, and that some public services will get funding that will give ministers something to point to when they talk of better times ahead.
While there has been much grumbling in conference bars, it is striking how energised those at the top of government are by being back in power after 14 years. “It is absolutely fantastic,” one cabinet minister said of the chance to put their plans into action.
Angela Rayner kick-started conference by reeling off a list of more than a dozen reforms the government had already made, from planning reform and ending no-fault evictions to nationalising rail and setting up GB Energy.
For all their early challenges, ministers are outwardly attempting to put on a show of confidence. While Starmer likes to talk about a ten-year project, Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, went several steps further in his conference speech. Labour could be in power, he suggested, for 25 years. “Not just for one or two terms, but three, four or five,” he said.
Privately others are far less confident. “It sounds crazy, but at conference there’s been a lot of whispered conversations about whether we are heading to a one-term government,” one senior Labour source said. “The fear is we’ll be paralysed by a fear of being too bold and not bold enough - and then end up in five years feeling like we’ve completely squandered this opportunity.”
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It was supposed to be a moment of celebration. After securing Labour’s biggest landslide in a generation, Sir Keir Starmer travelled to Liverpool with the expectation that the party would come together.