IIn just five days Keir Starmer could walk through the famous black doors of Number 10 as the country’s new Prime Minister. But despite opinion polls suggesting this is likely, Starmer is taking nothing for granted.
“We’re trying not to get ahead of ourselves, as we usually do,” he gently insisted when asked if he had ever been inside the posh and cosy apartments above Downing Street (the record shows he has never been).
“People talk about an inevitable outcome. It’s not inevitable. I think there’s a desire for change. But as we always say, if you want change, you have to vote for it.”
Starmer is sitting with his shirtsleeves rolled up and a steaming mug of black coffee in front of him in a conference room at the Royal Horticultural Hall in central London, ahead of a rally to mark the final weekend of the election campaign.
Celebrity publicity is promised. He’s remained tight-lipped, but laughed when asked if it could be Taylor Swift after being photographed at Swift’s Eraser Tour show at Wembley last week. It turned out to be Elton John.
The polished wooden table is piled high with cake plates and teacups and saucers that rattle slightly when he bangs his fist for emphasis, and in front of him is a lined notepad, on which he scribbles when he wants to explain a detail.
Starmer is a stickler for detail – whether it’s because he’s a former lawyer or a senior civil servant – but he’s been careful to explain what he wants to do in government. He joined politics a decade ago, but is skeptical of some of the conventions he encountered at Westminster.
“For four and a half years, people have been telling me to go faster, go slower, look over there, deal with this. The reason we’re in the position we are now is because I knew where I needed to be, and that’s my guiding principle.”
When Starmer became leader of the Labour Party in early 2020, the party had just suffered a historic election defeat to Boris Johnson’s Conservatives. He began his term with a plan to reform the party, take on the Conservatives and win the election.
It seemed impossible then, and many times since, but Labour is again on the brink of power and Mr Starmer recognises there is widespread disillusionment with British politics and that it must be overcome.
“Many people’s hopes have been dashed. We were promised so much that never materialized, which has led to disillusionment. Almost everything is broken and there is an almost universal view that we are going backwards as a country. This is very demoralizing.”
“They have also had to witness a politics of self-aggrandizement and self-reinforcement coming from Westminster… It is no surprise that people are frustrated with politics, but we must restore it.”
He blames the Conservative party and its years of chaos – Partygate, the Covid deal, Chancellor Liz Truss’s mini-budget – for the disillusionment many feel, but acknowledges Labour has failed to act.
“The Labour party has gotten to the point where it appears as if they know better than workers and are telling people what to think and do, almost condescendingly,” he said.
“We’ve lost four elections for a much deeper reason than what happened in 2019. In my view, it’s because the Labour party has strayed too far from its core purpose of serving working people.”
He believes Starmer has acted ruthlessly to return the party to its purpose, angering many on the left in the process, but he argues a Labour government must put country before party and focus on making a real difference to people’s lives.
This will start with immediate “first steps” in the first weeks of government, followed by changes to economic growth across the UK, fundamental reform of the NHS and a green transition.
He tells a story about one of his predecessors in a north London constituency: “She was campaigning in Camden, she got in the lift to a top-floor apartment and started a conversation on the doorstep about the need to reduce conflict around the world,” he begins.
“And this woman asked, ‘Did you take the elevator up?’ My predecessor said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘Did you smell piss in the elevator? So what are you going to do about it?’ You can come to me and talk to me about big changes, but you need to take the first steps right away.”
Mr Starmer has been accused of not being honest with the public about the scale of cuts that might be needed if he sticks to his plan of no tax rises or extra borrowing, but he believes he has another lever to pull.
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“If we transform the economy so that the economy grows and living standards rise across the country, then that will be transformative,” he said. Labour is due to make announcements on housing, planning and infrastructure within days of taking power.
Despite the party scaling back another source of growth, the £28 billion Green Prosperity Fund, Starmer insists he understands the scale of the climate emergency: “That’s why we must not delay our targets. That’s why we must not keep putting off the things that need to be done.”
“People are rambling on about the £28 billion but the one thing I will never budge is the 2030 date for the clean energy transition. I will not take away anything that gets us there.”
There is one caveat, though: “One of the things we have to do is make sure that those who don’t have the money aren’t unfairly affected. But it’s not about getting there, it’s about how do we get there?”
Starmer wants the UK to “return” to a leadership role on climate change and has accused Sunak of “undermining the debate” on the issue.
But if Trump wins on Thursday, his agenda will also include other major decisions on world affairs, the first of which is whether to stick to plans to spend at least £3bn a year on military aid to Ukraine.
“Yes,” he said, “and that’s because we have aligned ourselves with the government on this, and rightly so.” He plans to use next week’s NATO summit in Washington to urge allies, including the United States, to do the same.
Mr Starmer, who has faced criticism from the left over his handling of the Gaza conflict, denied reports that Labour would not recognise a Palestinian state before the end of the peace process as “unfounded”.
But at home, it remains far from clear how Labour will tackle persistent problems such as homelessness, higher education funding, adult social care, local government finances and pensions.
Starmer, perhaps optimistically, wants to unite and engage the nation after years of division on issues from Brexit and net zero to trans rights, and he argues that the public is “sick of” the culture war being driven by the Conservatives.
“Politics has become about how to divide people, how to find differences, not how to find common ground,” he said. “It’s divisive and harmful, but it’s also the opposite of who Britain is. We’re good at coming together.”
He admits that if he makes it all the way to No 10, his biggest worry will be the impact on his family – his wife Victoria, who works in the NHS, and their teenage son and daughter.
“Vic obviously does her job and is with me in key moments, but she doesn’t want to be in the limelight or be a talk-all-or-nothing politician. And that needs to be protected. It’s her preference and her right.”
“But more than anything, it’s our children. We have always been fiercely protective of our children and we will continue to do so. People will wonder whether I am a warm, caring and engaging enough person.
“I deprived them of the opportunity to see me with my children, in the hope that it would impress them in a certain way. But we have no intention of breaking that promise. I know they will be happier and more confident if they find their own path and their lives are not unnecessarily shaped by the choices I make in my life.”
