Labour MPs Are Openly Pitching For A Decade In Downing Street
Keir Starmer with wife Victoria at Labour party conference (Alamy)
3 min read
Senior Labour figures including Keir Starmer have begun talking publicly about the prospect of being in power for at least a decade, in a sign of the party’s increasing confidence ahead of the next general election.
In his speech to Labour party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, Starmer said that if he were elected as Prime Minister he would deliver a “decade of national renewal”. This would require two consecutive election victories for the opposition party, as a parliamentary term lasts five years.
Labour has been consistently ahead of the Tories in the polls since this time last year and is widely expected to win the next general election, which is due to be called before the end of 2024. The Labour leader has however repeatedly urged his party to not become complacent that defeat of Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives is a certainty.
"This isn't over. In fact, it's barely begun," Starmer told the packed conference hall on Tuesday.
The Labour leader wasn’t only the senior party figure to discuss the prospect of the party staying in power for a long time.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, told PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown that Labour would need more than one term in office to achieve its aims.
“A lot of the things that we want to do we are not going to do in the first year, the second year or the fifth year,” Thornberry said.
“They are signposts, this is where we are going. This is why we want to get there, and we may well take two terms to get there.
"The Tories have not just squandered 13 years, they have been managing a decline. If we want to turn that around, it's not going to happen immediately.”
She was echoed by Lord Peter Mandelson, who said there was “no question” that Starmer’s plans to grow the economy would need more than one term to materialise.
While speaking to PoliticsHome in a personal capacity, the Tony Blair-era former Cabinet minister has become an increasingly vocal proponent of the Starmer regime in recent weeks, and was seated among members of the current Shadow Cabinet in the ACC conference hall.
“Some of the changes we need to make are structural and deep seated and will take longer,” he said.
“Of course, to fulfil the growth mission of the size Starmer has described will take more than one term – no question about that. And that second term will have to be earned and it will be judged by the quality of what we do with the first one.”
Lisa Nandy, the shadow international development secretary, has set sights even higher. She told a fringe event in Liverpool that the party was “going for more than two terms”.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
