At Sunday’s annual conference of Britain’s ruling Labour party, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was trying to reassure apprehensive legislators that he could lead the “fight of our lives” against the rebellious hard-right.
Despite leading Labour back to power in July of last year after 14 years in opposition, the former lawyer’s future has already come under scrutiny due to scandals, poor policy choices, and declining polling.
The four-day meeting in Liverpool, northwest England, follows two recent high-profile exits from government following humiliating revelations, and it coincides with rumors of a potential leadership challenge.
The convention, which concludes on Wednesday, comes as national polls show Labour trailing far behind the new anti-immigrant Reform UK party, which is led by anti-EU firebrand Nigel Farage.
The party has “got the fight of our lives ahead of us, because we’ve got to take on Reform,” Starmer stated on Sunday. We must defeat them.
“The effects will be there for generations,” he expressed to the BBC.
Additionally, he referred to Reform’s proposal to require migrants to reapply for new visas with stricter requirements as “racist” and that it would “tear our country apart.”
