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Keir Starmer Is Tony Blair, Minus the Optimism
Britain’s new government is copying the “New Labour” playbook, but the country’s atmosphere has changed in the meantime.
By John Kampfner, the author of Why the Germans Do It Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/03/starmer-labour-blair-election-britain-tories-optimism/
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JULY 3, 2024, 3:11 AM
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Every Briton of a certain age remembers where they were the night Tony Blair became prime minister. On the evening of May 1, 1997, drivers on the London Underground announced the exit polls to passengers. Revelers celebrated with bottles of sparkling wine on the streets. The party faithful assembled at the Southbank culture complex by the River Thames where the campaign anthem, D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better,” was blared out.
Now the band, whose song was synonymous with Blair’s victory, says it doesn’t want it played this time around. Its members blame the legacy of Iraq, but it’s not just that. The song feels out of place; the overall mood is sour.
The naive mood of optimism that followed Blair into office disappeared with that war; yet the “New Labour” project proved technically resilient. Blair won his third electoral victory in 2005, only to hand over power, reluctantly, to his erstwhile friend and archrival, Gordon Brown, in 2007. Brown hung on for three years, but the project was exhausted after 13 years.
Everything is relative. It is salutary to remember that the Conservatives have lasted one year longer, from 2010 to 2024—14 clownish, desultory, unproductive years. Five prime ministers, one Brexit nightmare, and endless corruption scandals, and yet they continue to plough on with their customary bluster.
The paradox of this moment is that Keir Starmer engenders almost none of the enthusiasm that accompanied Blair even though the present Labour leader has turned his party’s fortunes around and is on the cusp of sweeping the Tories out of power. According to opinion polls, Starmer could achieve a landslide even greater than Blair’s, consigning the Tories to the wilderness for a generation.