Why Keir Starmer's new mission is vitally important to Scotland
Labour’s new mission of ‘national renewal’ needs to deliver tangible results quickly or the SNP and Reform UK will do well at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections
Addressing his new-look Cabinet, Keir Starmer did not quite claim that Labour had “fixed the foundations” as they set out to do on winning last year’s election, but he almost did. Instead, the Prime Minister sensibly avoided declaring ‘mission accomplished’, which would have been a highly contentious claim, but still said they were moving on to a different task – one of “national renewal”.
The new message underlines the growing sense of urgency to demonstrate tangible benefits of a Labour government. Should the failure to do this to any significant extent continue, it risks cementing the impression in voters’ minds that they are incompetent or uncaring or worse.
Echoing the current nationalist zeitgeist, Starmer told his Cabinet ministers: "You are the right people to heed the patriotic call to lift up our country and take it forward to national renewal for millions of working people.”
However, he also took a well-aimed swipe at nationalistic populists, saying: “We're up against those that feed off the politics of grievance, those that do not want problems to be fixed, because if the problems are fixed, their reason to exist, their politics, ceases to have any role in our society."
Bread and butter issues
Starmer almost certainly had Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party in mind, but he could easily have been talking about the SNP as well. Both use nationalism as a means to win popular support, and a substitute for credible and effective policies on ‘bread and butter’ issues like the NHS, education and the economy.
The problem for Labour in Scotland is that while Starmer and co may think they have four years to turn things around, next year’s Scottish Parliament election will likely hinge on their track record. If they continue in their current vein, both the SNP and Reform will benefit, almost regardless of how well Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and his colleagues perform in the campaign.
Labour currently represents the best hope for non-populist voters who want their leaders to focus on improving their quality of life, not which flags to wave. However, unless things improve quickly, that flickering flame will sputter and die.
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