#keir-starmer

#keir-starmer

Keir Starmer saved his best for the fragile circumstances of a difficult Labour conference. It may not yet be enough to save him. All the same, this was by some way Starmer's most effective and certainly his most interesting conference speech since becoming Labour leader five years ago. Not a particularly high bar, it must be admitted, since Starmer is no great orator but at least the bar is one that he cleared. In the dire situation now facing Labour, this mattered a lot.

My mum was very ill and she couldn't move around any more, he said. She, by the end of her life, had her leg amputated and she could barely communicate. She was very, very ill. She loved her donkeys and I wanted her to be able to see her donkeys. I bought a field for 20,000 at the back of their house. I said, here's your field. It's yours for as long as you may live.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Just what has Stephen Doughty done to upset Keir Starmer? Are there no limits to the prime minister's contempt and hatred? Not that Steve is a total nobody. He's not a run-of-the-mill backbencher. But he has risen as high as he is likely to go as a junior minister in the Foreign Office. Probably higher than Steve ever expected. Certainly higher than his mates expected. Put simply, Steve is a dependable plodder.