Everything's coming up roses

As England basks in an Indian Summer Labour's annual conference in Liverpool is bringing the party in from the cold.

This is not entirely down to Sir Keir Starmer's doggedly centrist leadership; the utter incompetence of the Tory government and widespread disenchanted with Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister has played a large part in the revival of Labour's electoral prospects. Sunak's announcement last week at his own party conference in Manchester of the scrapping of the western leg of the HS2 rail project from Birmingham to Manchester has also played badly. Even amongst those many in the north who thought the scheme was misguided, its cancellation has been seen as further proof of government muddle and mismanagement, and the Tories' arrogant contempt for the north.

Sunak's promise that "every penny" of the alleged £36billion saving would be ploughed back into transport projects throughout the nations and regions rang hollow and started to unravel almost as soon as he'd made it. Clearly, against this backdrop of abject failure, half Labour's work has been done for it by Sunak. The success of its gathering in Liverpool can only be the icing on the cake for Labour - and it has started well. Rachel Reeves, Labour's Shadow Chancellor, gave a barnstorming speech earlier today which gained several standing ovations. 

She alluded to her time working for the Bank of England, which will strengthen the image she seeks to project of herself as the safe pair of hands with the nation's finances and a friend of business. Her pledge to appoint a Covid Corruption Commissioner to claw back the estimated £7.2billions of public money squandered on dodgy PPE contracts and furlough fraud during the pandemic went down particularly well. You won't hear a peep out of the man who presided over this outrage when he was Chancellor, of course. That would be...oh, Rishi Sunak!

Previous big donors are flooding back to Labour after the Corbyn hiatus, with the likes of Lords David Sainsbury and Waheed Alli back in the frame. Just Stop Oil backer, David Vince, announcing he will no longer fund the protest group but put his money instead towards ensuring a Labour victory, also played very well and will deny the rightwing Tory-supporting press and media that stick to beat Labour with. For Vince, the most effective way to ensure the demise of the fossil fuel industry is to get rid of this Tory government. After Sunak's awarding of further North Sea oil and gas extraction contracts, such as the Rosebank field, Vince's logic is inescapable.

Everything hinges now on Starmer's keynote address to the assembled faithful, and sceptics, tomorrow. He will need to give the performance of his political life. I don't expect him to make any particularly bold commitments - he's seen how headline-catching promises can come unstuck under the harsh light of events - but even without specifics his speech must be resolutely upbeat and positive. 

With talk of Sunak going to the country possibly as early as next May Starmer potentially has only six months or so left to set the tone - and set out his stall - before the British people vote in a General Election.

It must now be Labour's to lose.

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