40 Saturday December 4 2021 | the timesNewsSaturday Interview
and health respectively. Does he
consider Labour to be the party of
middle England?
“Yes, absolutely, it is and it must be.
I’m constantly conscious of the fact
that in addition to retaining the votes
that we’ve had in 2019, my job is to
regain the trust of those voters that
voted Labour in the past, not just in
2019, but actually in 2017, 2015 and
2010 and no longer vote Labour. And
persuade them not just to look at
Labour again but also to vote Labour
again. That is about building trust.
“Have we got to focus on winning
votes in the red wall? Yes, but we’ve
also got to focus on winning votes
across the whole United Kingdom.
Therefore, yes is the answer to middle
England. We absolutely need to win
those votes.”T
he Labour leader has written
to each member of his
shadow cabinet and told
them that they must hold
themselves to a “higher level
of performance and delivery”,
demonstrating five values — energy,
expertise, ethics, fiscal responsibility
and focusing relentlessly on the
electorate.
He says in the letter that Labour
must “take back our mantel as the
party of patriotism and progress” and
support British businesses, bring in a
new deal for working people and
deliver modern public services.
“A majority of the public recognise
the government is slow, incompetent,Sir Keir Starmer insists that he has the‘Johnson’s broken promises hit
‘Red shoots’ of progress are emerging, the Labour
leader tells Steven Swinford and Eleni Courea,
as the electorate grows tired of Peppa Pig jokes
L
ike Boris Johnson, Sir Keir
Starmer has been to Peppa
Pig World. Unlike the prime
minister, he did not enjoy the
experience. “I have been to
Peppa Pig World, of course I have,” he
said. “It’s dreadful. Peppa Pig is
hugely successful. Our daughter was
absolutely in love with Peppa Pig for avery long time. I’ve seen no end of
Peppa Pig programmes.”
Starmer said that Johnson’s lengthy
homage to Peppa Pig during a chaotic
speech to the Confederation of British
Industry group of business leaders
last month was further evidence that
the government was not serious.
“This comes back to our centraldivision between us and the Tories,”
he said. “You do need serious
government. You do need
government that has a respectful,
grown-up relationship with business.
That’s what we’ve put on the table.”
After nearly two years as Labour
leader, Starmer said that the “green
shoots” of his approach were
beginning to show. The public is tiring
of Johnson and his jokes, he argued.
In his first interview since he
demoted key allies in a brutal
reshuffle last week and installed high-
profile, centrist figures in their place,Starmer told The Times that his party
would begin to pull away in the polls
in the next 12 months.
Sitting in a café in his north
London constituency, he said that he
felt encouraged by the Old Bexley
and Sidcup by-election, in which
Labour won a 10 per cent swing
although the Tories retained a
significant majority.
“The contrast between ourselves
and the government will become
starker,” he said. “Obviously we’ve
made significant progress in the polls
since April of last year. The green
shoots — or red shoots — are there.”
But why is Labour failing to cut
through more? The past month has
seen a succession of Tory rebellions,
major government reversals, sleaze
allegations and new claims that No 10
broke lockdown rules. The polls,
however, still put the Tories
marginally ahead of Labour.
Starmer said that the pandemic
remained a factor, despite the easing
of lockdown restrictions. “It is
undeniable that in a pandemic the
incumbent gets the benefit of the
doubt,” he said. “We have seen that
across the UK, across Europe.
“Most people want the government
to succeed. In the past four to six
weeks that is now showing cracks.
The benefit of the doubt is not there
in the way that it was. The prime
minister’s broken promises are
catching up with him. What is
beginning to be apparent to people is
that this is hurting them.”
Starmer said that the next few
months would be a turning point as
more people faced a cost-of-living
crisis with rising inflation, increasing
energy prices and significant tax rises.
“The broken promises by the prime
minister are going to start hitting
people in their pocket,” Starmer said.
“The Achilles heel of this government
is that it is a high tax, high price, low
growth government. That is a toxic
combination.”
Starmer has significant concerns
about the Omicron variant of
coronavirus. Labour has gone further
than the Tories and called for masks
in pubs and restaurants and stricter
testing requirements for travellers.
Does he believe Christmas could be
cancelled this year? “I hope not,” he
said. “If there are further measures
this Christmas or restrictions, which I
hope there won’t be... the
responsibility is firmly on the door of
the prime minister.”
He said that the government’s
messaging was “all over the place”
after ministers suggested limits on the
numbers at parties and urged people
to avoid “snogging” strangers under
the mistletoe.
“Almost hourly there’s two different
rules about who you should kiss, how
you should kiss them and where you
should kiss them — which is just
bizarre,” Starmer said.
Labour, he said, had spent too long
talking to itself. Much of his
leadership has been dominated by
clashes with the left as he tried to
regain the centre-ground.
He said that he now had the
“strongest possible team” on the pitch.
“I was really pleased,” he added.
“Every single person that I wanted, I
got into the post I wanted them in.
Reshuffles are notoriously difficult.
But we’ve got a full house in terms of
every single person in the slot I
wanted them in.”
Lisa Nandy, Yvette Cooper, Bridget
Phillipson and Wes Streeting were
appointed because Starmer believed
that they could win in the “key
battlegrounds” at the next election —
levelling up, home affairs, education