People in my home city of Liverpool still see Labour as a ‘hold your nose’ option. That should worry the leadership
If all the indications are correct, the next prime minister of the United Kingdom will be a working-class one. Or at least, that’s what Keir Starmer wants you to believe. “I grew up working class. I’ve been fighting all my life. And I won’t stop now.” So the Labour leader declared in his keynote address at the party conference in Liverpool six months ago.
Starmer, with glitter in his hair – courtesy of the prankster who evaded security and covered him in it – and steel in his eyes, was on a personal mission that week. Speaking a stone’s throw from the banks of the River Mersey, once the artery through which wealth and opportunity was delivered to the people of the conference’s host city, he aimed to underline his own working-class credentials. To show himself to be not just another posh lawyer with a red rosette – but someone steeped in the traditions of the movement, a son of toil. A politician working people could trust again.
Aaron Sharp is assistant national news editor at the Guardian
