The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday October 10 2023 #Labour #KeirStarmer
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello, welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Tuesday. I'm Alan Young, I'm the Deputy
00:11 Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today from Liverpool by our Westminster correspondent,
00:16 Alex Brown. Hi Alex.
00:17 Good morning.
00:18 We will speak to you in just a minute, but first let's have a look at the front page.
00:26 And no surprise, the story that's leading today is leading every newspaper across the
00:31 country and that is the unfolding horror in Israel and Gaza. We meet today on the warning
00:40 last night from Israel that the retaliation for the attack by Hamas has only just begun.
00:48 We also have confirmation of at least one Scot who has died over the weekend and Hamza
00:55 Yusuf spoke yesterday of his fears for his parents-in-law who were visiting Gaza at the
01:01 time. Lots more coverage in today's paper led by our World Editor, Jane Bradley, and
01:07 online at scotsman.com. But also in today's paper we look ahead to Keir Starmer's big
01:14 moment as he speaks to the Labour Party conference. Alex, you've been taking the temperature of
01:21 Labour MPs ahead of this. What are we expecting Keir to say?
01:27 Well actually I think the mood of what MPs had hoped him to say I think is actually going
01:31 to be delivered. I spoke to several MPs yesterday who wanted to hear about housing and they
01:35 wanted to hear not just about why the Tories are terrible, not just to hear about what
01:40 Labour have done to detoxify its brand after the Corbyn years, but they want to know why
01:44 Labour, the recurring theme among MPs, is they want to know how they can convince people
01:48 not just to not vote for other parties, but why Labour. And that's going to be the central
01:52 theme of the speech. We're going to hear Keir talk about his values, his principles, and
01:56 a bit more of an idea of what his vision for Britain is with policies such as housing.
02:00 There's going to be a Georgian-style houses bill, which I'm personally delighted about
02:05 because aesthetically that's very lovely. That's going to be done on low-level green
02:09 belts area, something the Labour is now trying to rebrand as simply the grey belt. There's
02:13 going to be praise for Scotland, there's going to be talk about how Scotland, after the glorious
02:18 by-election win that I think surprised lots of people in the party, how that could be
02:23 the reference point, how they could win in Scotland and that means they could win across
02:26 the UK and form a government. So, what I'm wondering, the Starmer aide told me, it's
02:31 not necessarily going to be really policy-heavy, it's not just having one policy here and one
02:36 policy there, it's a broader intellectual argument about what Keir Starmer believes
02:40 and what a Labour party and a Labour government will deliver for the country.
02:48 Alex, I think we might just have lost you. Oh no, you're back.
02:54 I was speaking for a very long time.
02:56 You mentioned Scotland there and obviously the huge by-election result in Rullagan last
03:05 week, which was beyond all expectations I would think for the Labour party. That presumably
03:12 has really buoyed the whole conference.
03:16 Yeah, the party thought they would win the seat, there was no doubt really that they
03:20 would win the seat, but the 20% swing has really surprised people. That's been a game
03:25 changer. The deputy leader of Scottish Labour, Jackie Bailey, said, just was saying during
03:30 here that actually, originally, they had six target seats, that number's now up to 28 and
03:34 they're not putting a limit on it. There's constant references, somewhat knowingly and
03:39 sarcastically, to John Curtis, a polling guru, saying the party could get up to 42 seats
03:44 in Scotland, which nobody's really expecting, but they're very excited it's in play. And
03:49 it's been remarkable. I've been coming to these events for many, many years and you'd
03:52 go to Scottish Labour events and there would be very downbeat, very sad, and Ian Murray
03:56 would have to basically be the panel and also the people attending. Whereas this year, it's
04:01 euphoric, it's buoyant. People who do not care about Scotland are here to celebrate.
04:06 Every event I go to, seemingly, Michael Shanks walks into a room and people just cheer and
04:10 celebrate wildly. There's a sense of throwing off the shackles and now people are beginning
04:13 to wonder what's possible.
04:16 Indeed, Labour, however, have been in this position before, looking very, very good ahead
04:22 of a general election and it's all gone wrong. It's memorably gone wrong with conference
04:27 speeches before as well. Do you think there's a risk of complacency?
04:34 I don't think so. I mean, everyone I've spoken to in Labour is very, very trying to keep
04:39 their feet on the ground and stress just how hard the party has to work to move forward.
04:43 They're saying they're not taking anything for granted. And you expect that stuff, but
04:47 you can see quite a difference between how the Labour party are behaving and how...
04:56 And on one hand, you had Labour saying, "I don't want to get carried away. We're going
05:00 to keep working really hard and we're going to be very careful. We're not taking any seat
05:04 for granted because it's so important to win." Scottish Labour are going, "We've won one
05:08 seat. We might win 28. We're going to go and, you know, no SNP MP is safe. We're going to
05:13 win everywhere." The mood has fundamentally changed Scottish Labour. And I think given
05:17 how the past few years have gone, they're allowed celebration as a treat. But we're
05:20 not expecting any slip ups from Keir Starmer. He's not, I dare say, he's not necessarily
05:25 interesting enough to kind of have some controversy that maybe he'd hit, you know, his predecessor,
05:32 Jeremy Corbyn. So there is, I would say, cautious optimism. Even if people keep playing, things
05:38 can only get better.
05:39 Indeed. I will let you go soon because the line is slightly patchy to you in Liverpool
05:47 there. But just remind us when he's on his feet.
05:51 So the Labour leader will be speaking at two o'clock. I will be in the conference hall
05:55 to hear it. And you can stay tuned to all of that at thescotsman.com, of course.
06:00 Excellent. Thanks very much for that, Alex. Yeah, as Alex says, keep an eye on scotsman.com
06:05 throughout the day. Please do subscribe if you can, then you won't miss a thing. And
06:10 if you're out and about as ever, I'd love to hear from you and from Alex. Bye for now.
06:15 [MUSIC]
06:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]