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The conventional wisdom is that Keir Starmer is a second-rate politician who can only win a British general election if he gets the applause of the Conservative Party. Starmer’s weaknesses are clear. He is a charismaless control freak who constantly breaks promises. However, he has indescribable strengths. All good leaders are their message, and Starmer embodies two ideals that the right has traditionally possessed. The first is patriotism reorganized in the form of the center-left. The second is aspiration, the natural human desire to become a better person.
Starmer’s predecessor as Labor leader, Jeremy Corbyn, could never become prime minister, in part because he did not practice patriotism. Famously, he did not sing the national anthem at the Battle of Britain memorial service. If he wants to lead a country, he must show that he loves it. Under Starmer, Labour’s campaign material is plastered with the Union Jack, and the opening line of the party’s campaign video reads: “This is a time for change. “Britain is a great and proud country.”
But Labor cannot just imitate right-wing nationalism. It must express an inclusive patriotism that embraces all British people, from the dead of the World Wars to young people from Africa. Inclusive patriotism is best expressed by England football manager Gareth Southgate, but Labor is getting there. The first people to appear in the campaign video are three young black musicians. Here’s a photo of two ambulance workers. They symbolize another aspect of patriotism: admiration for public service. Former prosecutor-general Starmer can plausibly praise teachers, waste collectors and social workers as doing patriotic work.
Conservatives, by contrast, tend to treat public officials as leeches of taxpayers. The Conservatives’ austerity measures mean that average real wages in the public sector are lower today than they were when the party came to power in 2010. Many teachers and NHS staff use food banks. Conservative politicians have also repeatedly disparaged public officials. Liz Truss (Labour’s prized campaign asset) blames “transgender activists” within her civil service (aka the “deep state”) for ruining her own premiership. Now the Conservatives are trying to reclaim public service in a roundabout way by proposing compulsory national service for 18-year-olds.
Then there is the aspiration. The desire to better yourself can come in two forms. You can either stand up with the whole class or stand up alone. Left parties historically prefer the former concept. They existed to uplift the working class. Labor also wants to represent people it does not personally aspire to be. It’s okay to want to be a caregiver or a bus driver all your life, and those workers deserve a decent life, too. But since Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party has become more expressive of individual aspirations – the dream of earning a lot of money, buying a house, sending your children to private school and growing up with your family.
In Britain, aspirations often appear stronger among immigrants than among the native working class, who receive daily messages from the class system to limit their ambitions. This may explain why children of immigrants do better than native-born children in education in Britain than in other developed countries.
Conservative MP Suella Braverman has knocked down Labor’s plan to impose VAT on private schools as an “aspiration tax”. Tories said the bill would keep poor children out of private schools, despite private school students overwhelmingly coming from the top decile of household incomes, the top 1%.
Labor must argue that fee-paying schools thwart the aspirations of the 93% of children who do not attend school. Parents often say that it is ‘natural’ for their children to benefit from private education. However, in countries where the economy is sluggish and good jobs are not increasing, benefiting one child is tantamount to disadvantaging another child.
Labor must be seen to be promoting aspirations, not blocking them. Every British child should think like an Etonian, putting no limits to his ambitions and thinking he could one day become Prime Minister. Starmer embodies the aspirations of the common man. “My father was a toolmaker,” he repeats wearily. Despite all the debate about his family’s exact class status, he would certainly be Britain’s lowest-born Prime Minister since John Major.
Labor, with all its patriotism and aspiration, may sound too right-wing to some. But that is to misunderstand the voters. Voters tend to be conservative on patriotism and aspirations, and more radical on, for example, achieving “net zero” carbon emissions. Winning politicians understand the chaos.
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