Starmer is right to be buoyed after conference – but he has a very long road ahead

Published

2 months ago

October 1, 2025

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As we sat down to begin our annual conference interview shortly after the prime minister had delivered his speech to party members, I asked Sir Keir Starmer how he was feeling? “Good,” he said, “it was a speech I needed to give”.

He was right to feel buoyed. After 15 months of being battered about in government, with ever-worsening polls, open challenges to his leadership and endless private grumbling from within his own government, the PM answered his critics in a speech that showed both his emotion and intent as he pitted his vision of Britain against that of Nigel Farage.

It was a dividing line that united his party behind him as he set up the battle at the next election between Labour and Reform, between, in his words, “decency or division, renewal or decline”.

He also marched directly into societal wars with a rallying cry that was met with rapturous applause in the hall as he savaged racists who graffitied a Chinese takeaway and criticised people seeking to sow “fear and discord across our country”.

This was a PM that found his voice and identified his enemy in Farage as he sharpened his attacks and asked the public to pick a side.

In our interview, he continued the argument, describing Farage’s plan to deport people who currently have indefinite leave to remain in the UK as “racist”.

“I think that’s a very dangerous place for us to go as a country, and it goes against everything that I believe in,” he told me.

But Starmer was keen to play the ball, not the man, as he told me he didn’t think Farage was a racist and stressed that he didn’t think Reform voters were racist either.

“They’re concerned about things like our borders,” he said.

“They’re frustrated about the pace of change. So I’m not for a moment suggesting that they are racist.”

His careful delineation reflects some nervousness at the top of his party that his attacks on Farage’s racist immigration policy is risky if those millions of Britons thinking of voting for Reform feel they are being judged as racist themselves.

One cabinet minister, acknowledging the risk, said they thought it was “net positive” because it gives the party a purpose and an argument to take the fight to Reform, not around competence – Labour have hardly proved themselves on that front yet – but around values.

But this is where the prime minister also got a bit stuck in our sit-down.

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Happily calling out Farage’s plan to deport people with indefinite leave to remain if they hit stringent income and language requirements, as a racist policy, he wouldn’t tackle Donald Trump over his overtly racist attack on Sir Sadiq Khan when he suggested the London mayor, who is a Muslim, was driving London to Sharia law.

He called it nonsense, but when pressed about whether it was racist – which Khan has explicitly said it is – the prime minister told me he was “not going to start down the road of discussing whether things said by others are racist or not” – having moments earlier overtly criticised Farage for having a “racist policy”.

When I pointed this out to him, he didn’t really have anywhere left to go in what was an awkward exchange.

That he wouldn’t call out Trump speaks to the bigger challenge he faces than taking on Farage – delivering the “renewal” he says Britain so badly needs.

What Starmer did powerfully in one of the strongest speeches I’ve ever seen him deliver was offer clear analysis of the journey that brought Britain to the place it is now, and the alternative directions the country could go next.

But what is far, far harder than the diagnosis is the treatment. He won’t call out Trump because he needs the US president to go easy on tariffs, to work with Europe on Ukraine, to support the recently announced tech partnership, which Number 10 said could deliver £150bn of investment into the UK economy in the coming decade.

He might feel unable to criticise Trump, but the PM is borrowing the battle lines from the US, mirroring here what Joe Biden tried to do in the US ahead of the 2022 mid-term elections.

The then US president delivered a speech called the “battle for the soul of the nation” as he cast Trump and his allies as a threat to the country and to democracy, and the Democrats as the defenders of America’s core values.

Of course, it turned out that President Biden wasn’t the man to take on Trump, and paved the way to his victory by leaving it too late for another leader to take up the fight. Starmer’s team feels more confident after this week that the PM has seen off similar fears around him – for the time being at least.

But the fundamentals are still so difficult, with a challenging budget ahead and then a crucial set of elections in England, Scotland and Wales next May which could prove – to quote one Starmer detractor – “a massive moment of change”.

For now, a PM and a party pointing towards a common enemy, but Starmer’s battle is only just beginning. And, as for the journey, it’s a very, very long road ahead.

Politics

Jeremy Corbyn declines to call Zarah Sultana a friend as Your Party holds first conference

Published

1 hour ago

November 29, 2025

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Jeremy Corbyn declines to call Zarah Sultana a friend as Your Party holds first conference

Jeremy Corbyn has declined to say his Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana is a friend as supporters of the new grouping gather in Liverpool.

Speaking to Sky News on the eve of the conference, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “stresses and strains” in the set-up of the party but said it had become “a lot better in the last few days and weeks and we’re going to get through this weekend”.

The former Labour leader has publicly clashed with Ms Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, over the launch and structure of the new party.

Asked if they were friends, Mr Corbyn said they were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.

The pair appeared at separate events on the eve of the party’s inaugural gathering.

Ms Sultana had previously claimed she was being “sidelined” by a “sexist boys’ club” within the fledgling party.

Mr Corbyn said her comments were an “unfortunate choice of words” but added that he had been more involved in the organisation of the conference than she had.

The Islington North MP also said that Your Party was still waiting for Ms Sultana to transfer all of the funds she had raised from supporters.

“Obviously having money up front for a conference is a big help,” he said.

Ms Sultana has insisted she is transferring the donations in stages.

The weekend gathering in Liverpool will see supporters choose between four options for a permanent party name: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance, For the Many.

The preferred choice of Ms Sultana – The Left – did not make the ballot.

Similarly, the Coventry MP had said she favoured a co-leader approach, but members will only be able to pick between single leadership or collective leadership models.

Speaking at her own pre-conference rally, Ms Sultana blamed a “nameless, faceless bureaucrat” for restricting the choices.

The meeting also risked being disrupted by a series of member expulsions. One of those ejected, Lewis Nielsen, accused a “clique” of trying to “take over”.

Your Party sources said expulsions related to members of the Socialist Workers Party and that holding another national party membership was not allowed.

Ms Sultana blamed a “culture of paranoia at the top” and said she believed the same people who had been briefing against her were now also expelling members.

Mr Corbyn will open the conference on Saturday, while the results of the main decision-making votes will be announced on Sunday.

Politics

Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana refuses to enter group’s conference hall

Published

2 hours ago

November 29, 2025

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Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana refuses to enter group's conference hall

Zarah Sultana has boycotted day one of the Your Party Conference over the expulsion of members of left-wing groups.

Ms Sultana co-founded Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn in July, but the new movement has been marred with infighting from the outset.

There was a row on the eve of conference after it emerged members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) had been expelled from Your Party, as its rules do not permit dual membership.

But a spokesperson for Ms Sultana branded this a “witch hunt” and said she won’t be returning until her speech tomorrow.

She said: “Zarah met members outside the conference and condemned the recent expulsions. This witch hunt is indefensible. We must build a party that welcomes all socialists. She will not be entering the conference hall today.”

Members of the SWP argue dual membership should be allowed as the SWP doesn’t field election candidates.

Lewis Nieslon, SWP’s national secretary, was expelled on Friday as he was on his way to Liverpool.

He told Sky News: “With far right Reform UK topping the polls and Starmer paving the way for them, we urgently need a new party that unites the whole left.

“It’s wrong for those at the top of Your Party to turn fire on socialists like us who have been key to building Your Party on the ground, and are determined to make it the insurgent, inspiring force it can be.”

Members of the left-wing organisation Counterfire have also been banned from conference, Sky News has learned.

Cllr Michael Lavalette, who helped set up Your Party’s Preston branch, told Sky News earlier this morning that he was not allowed to enter the venue today.

He said he was told there is intelligence Counterfire was going to be disruptive, which he said is “simply not true”.

“Counterfire is a very pro-Your Party organisation so I am not sure where that has come from”, he said.

He said he has been told the intelligence will be shared with him which “will be interesting to see because I’ve never said anything disruptive, I’ve been encouraging people to come”.

Ms Sultana has been advocating for what she calls “maximum member democracy” and believes anyone who is a socialist should be allowed in Your Party.

Her allies see the expulsions as an attempt to purge those supportive of her. There are many grassroots left wing groups who want Your Party to be led by members rather than a single MP, a position Ms Sultana supports.

However a Your Party spokesperson said claims of a purge are “false”.

They said: “Members of another national political party signed up to Your Party in contravention of clearly-stated membership rules – and these rules were enforced.

They added: “We’re focused on hosting a democratic founding conference with thousands of members coming together to debate and decide the big issues. This is politics outside the Westminster mold: from the ground up, not the top down.”

Ms Sultana was not due to address the conference today with her speech coming on Sunday afternoon. A source close to her said she was “very much looking forward to it”.

They added that it was an “interesting” choice of programming, giving voting on the party’s key issues – including whether dual membership should be allowed – will be closed by the time she gives her keynote address, unlike Mr Corbyn who spoke this morning.

Ms Sultana was not involved in organising the conference and claims she was frozen out of the process.

But those in Mr Corbyn’s camp claim she froze herself out when she quit the independent alliance (IA), the group of independent MPs and volunteers close to the former Labour leader, who have been stewarding the party’s founding process leading up to the conference this weekend.

Ms Sultana previously accused that group of being a “sexist boys club”, in a major row in September that saw her launch an unauthorised membership portal.

Your Party has also faced clashes over its name, its finances, its policy positions – with this conference aimed at turning over a new page and convincing voters it can get fighting fit by the local elections in May.

But deep tensions remain between the two camps – those close to Mr Corbyn and those close to Ms Sultana.

On Friday, Mr Corbyn declined to say Ms Sultana is a friend.

Speaking to Sky News on the eve of the conference, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “stresses and strains” in the set-up of the party but said it had become “a lot better in the last few days and weeks and we’re going to get through this weekend”.

Asked if they were friends, Mr Corbyn said they were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.

The pair appeared at separate events on the eve of the party’s inaugural gathering.

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Politics

Jeremy Corbyn declines to call Zarah Sultana a friend as Your Party holds first conference

Published

4 hours ago