Starmer overcomes Gaza heckler and 'sausages' gaffe in conference speech

After weeks of seemingly self-inflicted bad publicity, new UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has attempted to reboot his leadership at his first Labour party conference since July's landslide election win.

Starmer has been under pressure over his decision to limit winter fuel payments to the elderly and his use of donations for clothing and hospitality, far from the start to his premiership he had hoped for.

The 62-year-old told party delegates in the northern English city of Liverpool in his keynote speech that the cost of fixing shortfalls in the public finances would be shared fairly and that all his government's policies would still be properly funded.

"I understand that many of the decisions we must take will be unpopular....but the cost of filling that black hole in our public finances, that will be shared fairly," he said. "Just because we all want low taxes and good public services this does not mean that the iron law of properly funding policies can be ignored, because it can't."

Having been criticized by pundits in recent weeks for an apparent lack of detailed plans, Starmer leaned into the contentious subject of migration, a topic that has dogged successive governments. 

'Taking back control'

Explaining that he did not view people concerned about immigration in the same way as those who rioted over the summer, Starmer said the last Conservative government had designed "an immigration system deliberately reformed to reduce control."

He said: "If you want a country with more control, if you want the great forces that affect your community to be better managed, whether that's migration, climate change, law and order or security at work, then that does mean more decisive government, and that is a Labour argument."

Starmer also signaled that ministers were prepared for a fight with so-called 'nimbies' over the need to build electricity pylons across the UK landscape in order to provide affordable electricity.

He announced that the new state-backed power company GB Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland's third largest city, with two additional sites in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

GB Energy is a flagship policy of the Labour government. It will not supply electricity directly to households but instead plans to develop, invest in and own renewable energy projects.

Starmer was interrupted by a protester shouting about Gaza during his speech but was cheered when he responded with what sounded like a well-rehearsed put down: "This guy's obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference. We've changed the party. While he's been protesting, we've been changing the party, that's why we've got a Labour government."

But it was on the subject of Gaza that the prime minister stumbled, mistakenly calling on militants Hamas to return the "sausages" rather than the hostages, before correcting himself.  

Starmer called for restraint and de-escalation on Israel's border with Lebanon, as well as a ceasefire in Gaza and a two-state solution. 

Internal criticism

Less than three months after winning a 174-seat majority, Starmer is already having to deal with criticism from within his own party.

On Monday, activists from the Unite union demonstrated outside the conference to demand more taxes on the wealthiest.

Since Starmer became Labour leader in April 2020 he has brought the party to the center and marginalized or purged left-wingers including his predecessor, socialist Jeremy Corbyn.

The Momentum movement, which supported Corbyn and calls for a socialist government, has lost its considerable influence over the party's board and currently holds little sway. 

Since winning power, Starmer has ruled with an iron fist over his 400-plus members of parliament in the House of Commons lower chamber.

He did not hesitate to suspend seven of them in July for voting against a controversial cap on child benefits.

On Monday the party leadership postponed until the last day of the conference, when many members will have already left, a vote tabled by two unions against the abolition of the fuel payments for retirees. 

Momentum denounced the decision to push back the vote as a "pathetic maneuver by a party elite running scared of its own affiliates".

Unions, traditionally big financial backers of Labour, have voiced criticism of the new government, particularly over the winter fuel payments, but they are not causing too much trouble yet.

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