Six key takeaways from Keir Starmer’s first conference speech as Prime Minister
It’s the final full day of Labour’s first party conference in power since 2009, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer has just had his moment in the spotlight.
He stood on the stage at the ACC in Liverpool for the third time as Labour leader, but this was his first key address to the conference as leader of the country.
Some things didn’t go quite to plan – there was a meat-related slip-up that has really got people talking, more on that later – but Starmer also used the opportunity to make a few key policy announcements.
Here are the big takeaways from perhaps the PM’s most significant speech since his party won the election on July 4.
Defending the winter fuel payment cuts
In recent days, there have been questions over whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves would reverse the hugely unpopular move to means-test the winter fuel payment following a £10 billion boost to the Treasury from the Bank of England.
But the government has taken every opportunity to say they will not change course on the decision, which will strip the allowance from millions of pensioners.
In his speech, Starmer acknowledged how strongly many people feel about the cuts but insisted ‘every pensioner will be better off with Labour’.
He said: ‘We will rebuild our public services, protect working people, and do this in a Labour way. That is a promise.
‘And if you can’t take that on faith, perhaps because you’re concerned about the winter fuel allowance, then I get that. As I say, if this path were popular or easy we would have walked it already.
‘But the risk of showing to the world – as the Tories did – that this country does not fund its policies properly, that is a risk we can never take again.’
Hillsborough Law
Starmer used the opening minutes of his speech to address an issue particularly pertinent to the people of Liverpool: the Hillsborough law.
This legislation would bring in a legal duty of candour for public bodies in the UK, meaning there could be criminal sanctions for officials or organisations who mislead or obstruct investigations.
It aims to avoid the same mistakes that led to delays in justice over the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster which led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool supporters.
The PM reminded the crowd that he had promised two years ago from the same stage that one of his first acts after getting into power would be to bring in the Hillsborough law.
He called it ‘a law for Liverpool, a law for the 97, a law that people should never have needed to fight so hard to get, but that will be delivered by this Labour government’.
Referencing more recent scandals, he said: ‘It’s also a law for the sub-postmasters in the Horizon scandal. The victims of infected blood. Windrush. Grenfell Tower.
‘And all the countless injustices over the years, suffered by working people at the hands of those who were supposed to serve them.’
For the first time, he committed to introducing the bill to Parliament before the next anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster next April.
Homes for veterans
Halfway through his speech, Starmer brought up ‘another injustice hiding in plain sight on our streets’.
He was talking about homeless veterans, who served the UK in the military but are struggling to find a place to live ‘in every town and city in this country.’
The PM continued: ‘We cannot stand by and let this happen anymore. And so today, I can announce that this government will respect that service.
‘We will repay those who served us and house all veterans in housing need. Homes will be there for heroes.’
He added that the government’s efforts to reform the planning system mean ‘we can make the very same promise to other people at risk of homelessness: young care leavers, victims of domestic abuse.’
De-escalation between Lebanon and Israel
There has been a lot of chat about the Middle East at this conference, and not all of it in an official capacity.
You may remember the hecklers who stood up during Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech yesterday and shouted pro-Palestine slogans.
Starmer confronted this during the speech, saying: ‘This is a time when great forces demand a decisive government prepared to face the future.
‘We can see that again in the Middle East today – so I call again for restraint and de-escalation at the border between Lebanon and Israel. I call again for all parties to step back from the brink.’
He went on to call for ‘an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of the hostages and a recommitment to the two-state solution’.
Well, he didn’t call for that exactly. On the first attempt, he said he wanted to see ‘the return of the sausages’ – a baffling mistake that has led to more than a few jokes on social media.
GB Energy in Aberdeen
We’ve known for a while that Labour’s new publicly-owned national energy company GB Energy will be headquartered in Scotland.
Since that first announcement was first made, the assumption was that it would be based in Aberdeen. Once the oil and gas capital of Europe, it’s still home to a massive amount of the UK’s energy expertise.
At long last, that assumption was confirmed in Starmer’s speech today.
He told the conference: ‘The truth is, it could only really be based in one place in Scotland.
‘So today I can confirm that the future of British energy will be powered, as it has been for decades, by the talent and skills of the working people in the Granite City, with GB Energy based in Aberdeen.’
I was sitting in a spillover theatre at the ACC, and one man – who I believe is a Labour councillor in Aberdeen – threw his hands in the air at this news before standing up to absorb the celebrations in the room.
Room for a cheeky anecdote or two
There was a lot of talk about the supposedly dire inheritance left by the Conservatives, the horror of the Southport riots, and the precarious state of the UK’s public services.
But Starmer’s speech also aimed to strike a lighter tone after criticism over the ‘doom and gloom’ approach he has taken in recent months.
He spoke about the ‘joy and wonder of our nation’, and even gave us a quick story about his past as a flute player in the Croydon Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.
However, the section that got the biggest laugh from the crowd was an anecdote about a visit to the Lake District he took with his family last year.
Starmer said he returned to the cottage where he had stayed as a child, and was invited upstairs by the couple who live there now.
After the husband revealed to his oblivious wife that they were hosting the leader of the opposition, she responded: ‘Oh, if I’d known that you were a politician, I’d have pushed you down the stairs when I had the chance!’
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