LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer pledged to “make Brexit work” during his conference speech today – but his spokesperson downplayed suggestions that this would involve looking again at the current agreement with Brussels.
In a lengthy 90-minute speech in Brighton – which saw him address continuing heckles from left-wing members of the party – Starmer referenced Boris Johnson’s snappy “get Brexit done” slogan from the 2019 General Election.
One of the several hecklers this afternoon took aim at Starmer’s previous Brexit position. As the former Brexit secretary in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, he had been a keen proponent of holding another referendum on the matter.
When Starmer mentioned Labour’s poor 2019 election result, the delegate in the audience shouted that it was his Brexit deal that was to blame.
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While Starmer did not discuss Brexit consequences in depth, it was mentioned six times throughout the speech – referring to current supply problems like the petrol shortages caused by a lack of HGV drivers.
Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, said Starmer was welcome to complain about Brexit but added he can’t get away from the fact he ordered his MPs to back the Tory deal.
Later this afternoon, a Labour spokesperson was asked if Starmer would be reopening the Brexit agreement if he became prime minister at the next General Election.
He said that was not likely. “People can see at the moment that there are elements of the deal that are not working,” they told reporters. “So of course we want to be in a situation where we deal with the issues that are outstanding.”
Meanwhile family, health and Britain were among the recurring themes of the text of Starmer’s first in-person conference speech.
Starmer mentioned his mother 12 times and his father 10 times, and there was one reference to his own children.
Not surprisingly, coronavirus appeared several times, with eight mentions of “Covid” and nine of “pandemic”.
The environment was another theme, with 10 references to the climate and four mentions of “green” issues.
READ MORE: Heckling of Keir Starmer's Labour conference speech splits opinion
The National Health Service is always a familiar subject in Labour conference speeches, and Starmer mentioned the NHS 13 times, besides referring eight times to nurses and three times to doctors.
Social care got just three mentions, however.
There was no direct mention of his predecessor as leader Jeremy Corbyn, or of former Labour prime minister Tony Blair.
Another former leader, Ed Miliband, was not namechecked either – though Gordon Brown, the most recent Labour prime minister, had three mentions.
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