UK leader Starmer aims to shed his gloomy image with a key speech

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will try to shake off his image as a gloom-monger on Tuesday, telling voters exhausted with politics that better times are on the way — if they swallow his recipe of short-term pain for long-term gain.

Starmer will cap Labour’s first annual conference since winning a landslide election victory with a speech assuring members and supporters that there is “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Some members of the center-left party say Starmer has made that dark tunnel longer by delivering downbeat messages about the economy since becoming the first Labour prime minister for 14 years in July. That and a distracting row about freebies have overshadowed what should be a celebratory gathering for thousands of party members in the northwest England port city of Liverpool.

“I know this country is exhausted by and with politics,” Starmer plans to say, according to advance extracts released by the party. “I know that the cost-of-living crisis drew a veil over the joy and wonder in our lives and that people want respite and relief.”

He’ll say the government will deliver positive change, but won’t offer “false hope.”

“Just because we all want low taxes and good public services, does not mean that the iron law of properly funding policies can be ignored,” Starmer plans to say. He’ll pledge to take “tough” decisions – code for spending restraint and likely tax increases – to achieve economic growth to fund schools, hospitals, road, railways and more.

The government is gambling that voters will hear out Starmer’s argument and give the government time to show results. But anxiety about missteps has clouded the mood among Labour members, supporters, politicians and officials gathered in a rain-drenched Liverpool for the four-day conference.

Polls suggest Starmer’s approval ratings have plummeted and public optimism in the government has shriveled since it ousted the Conservatives from office.

Starmer won the election on a promise to banish years of turmoil and scandal under the Conservatives, get Britain’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.

Since then, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservative government, and warning that “things will get worse” before they get better. That has many party members worried that tax increases and spending cuts loom in the Oct. 30 budget.

Treasury chief Rachel Reeves tried to allay some of that concern on Monday, promising there would be “no return to austerity.” But the government is facing opposition over its decision to strip millions of retirees of a payment intended to help heat their homes in winter.

The party’s mood has also been dampened by a tempest over Starmer’s acceptance of freebies at a time when millions of people are struggling with the cost of living.

Starmer insists he followed the rules when he took thousands of pounds worth of clothes and designer eyeglasses from Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur and Labour donor. But after days of bad press, the party says Starmer and other ministers won’t accept any more free outfits.

The clothes episode, and another over the salary of Starmer’s top aide, are unwelcome distractions for a government taking office as tensions spiral in the Middle East and the 2 1/2-year-old war in Ukraine.

Starmer’s government has maintained Britain’s strong military, humanitarian and diplomatic support for Kyiv, and has been involved in discussions with the U.S. over whether Ukraine should be allowed to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey told a meeting at the conference that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to the United States this week with what Ukraine’s leader has called a victory plan will be “defining” for the conflict.

Starmer is likely to stress the dangerous international landscape, and will also emphasize the changes the government has already made at home, including settling long-running doctors’ strikes, lifting a ban on onshore wind farms, preparing to nationalize the railways and strengthening protections for renters.

He’ll urge people to join the government in “a shared struggle” for national renewal that will be “tough in the short term, but in the long term – it’s the right thing to do for our country. And we all benefit from that.”

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press