LONDON – Britain’s ruling Labour party gathers for its annual meeting on Sunday, with under-fire Prime Minister Keir Starmer battling to convince nervous lawmakers that he is the right leader to fend off soaring support for the hard right.
It was only in July last year that the ex-lawyer led Labour back to power after 14 years in opposition, but scandals, policy missteps and plummeting poll ratings are already raising doubts about his future.
The four-day gathering in Liverpool, northwest England, comes amid chatter about a possible leadership challenge and follows two recent high-profile departures from government following embarrassing revelations.
The conference, which ends on Wednesday, takes place with Labor lagging well behind the upstart anti-immigrant Reform UK party, led by anti-EU firebrand Nigel Farage, in national surveys.
Starmer referred to Reform as an “enemy” that “goes against the grain of our history”, in an interview with the Guardian on Saturday.
“It’s not make or break for Starmer since he still has a large majority in parliament and it’s difficult for Labor MPs to remove their leader,” said Patrick Diamond, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.
“But the conference is a pivotal moment because it’s an opportunity for him to lay out a clear vision of where he is taking the country,” he told AFP.
Ahead of the conference, finance minister Rachel Reeves said she was pushing for a post-Brexit youth migration deal with the European Union.
She told the Times newspaper that an exchange scheme for young workers would be “good for the economy, good for growth and good for business”.
Despite enjoying some success on the international stage for his handling of US President Donald Trump and helping co-ordinate European support for Ukraine, Starmer has endured a largely miserable first 14 months domestically as prime minister.
