The New Wave of Red Versus Blue: A Review of the Tory and Labour Party Conferences

A note from the author:

This article was written before October 20^th (Liz Truss’ resignation) which has caused a drastic shift in current affairs and Tory political strategy. However, many aspects of this article still remain relevant, not only as Labour’s political strategy will not change immediately, but also as Truss’ resignation is a realisation of my concluding points. The past 45 days have explicitly displayed the implications of relying on a Tory membership election rather than a general election, as well as the consequences of a radical economic strategy in a period of economic crises.

Introduction

In September this year, Westminster experienced somewhat of a political turmoil with the arrival of the ‘Liz Truss era’ in Conservative politics. This article will reflect on the subsequent party conferences of both Labour and the Conservatives following Liz Truss’s first month as PM: where Starmer and Truss have positioned their parties on the political spectrum, the new political policies they have both set out on, and the initial reaction of the general public to the repositioning of the Tories and Labour.

Blue

Prior to these conferences, Truss and Kwarteng had already set out their mini budget in September, demonstrating their path to dealing with Britain’s key issues today, namely the energy and cost of living crisis. To mitigate the effects of these crises, Truss has clearly set her sights on economic growth and low taxation.

The party conference on October 4th was much of the same – it saw Truss continuously backing her trickle-down economics. She claimed her strategy consisted of “growth, growth and growth,” but in comparison to her predecessor, she has also aggressively cut taxation, or attempted to at least, and has clearly set out on a neoliberal path causing many to liken her to the new age Thatcher.

During her speech, Truss explicitly demonstrated where she wanted to position the Tories under her leadership, using an analogy of a piece of pie to explain her trickle-down strategy. Rather than making the slice of pie bigger for everyone (for example, increasing spending) she aims to grow a bigger pie (economic growth), a distinctly poor analogy considering the impossibility of growing a pie. This is a clear shift further right in terms of economic strategy compared to Johnson’s approach, as she backed her cut in national insurance, income tax for the rich, controversially lifting bankers’ bonuses, and more. Whilst many have claimed this will isolate the centre of public support, we must remember she was voted in by Tory members. This repositioning further right of the spectrum is what many wanted to see a return of in comparison to the ‘socialist Sunak’.

Red

Now that we have established where the blue side of Parliament positions itself, let us turn to where the red side stands. Since the electoral defeat of Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer has aimed to position the Labour party similarly to Blair, in other words “the party of the centre,” as Starmer put it in his conference speech. During Johnson’s prime ministership there were many criticisms that Starmer offered little opposition to the Tories and was ‘captain hindsight’ as Johnson was much more of a moderate conservative, at least economically, than his successor. However, with the ascension of the Truss era and the return of neoliberal economics, Starmer’s centrist model seems to both oppose the Tories sufficiently and potentially galvanise electoral support.

On the other hand, with this repositioning of the Labour party comes the alienation of the further left side of the party. Controversially, Starmer opened the Labour conference with a rendition of God save the King, explicitly displaying his moderate nature compared to Corbyn. Whilst this may attract more central support, Starmer needs to be wary not to drift too centrally, with critics claiming he has transformed the Labour party to a ‘new shade of blue’.

One of the key policies Starmer announced was the proposal to establish the publicly owned company Great British Energy, which is a prime example of a moderate leftist policy. The company would not involve the nationalisation of energy companies, a policy the left of Labour and the Greens would support, but instead would resemble a publicly owned British energy company. The aim of this is to mitigate the effects of the numerous foreign energy companies in the UK and allow green investment in energy. Whilst this may not be popular amongst some businesses, the general public seem to support it and so it seems to be a successful policy for Starmer.

Concluding thoughts

It is key to note, however, that these conference speeches must be taken with a pinch of salt as they only determine the path each leader would wish to take, in the coming months and years, therefore lacking any real policy. The unprecedented crisis the Tories currently find themselves in is an archetype of this, with Kwarteng already sacked, and the new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, seeming to U-turn the complete foundation of Truss’s promises. All of this is taking place as Labour takes a 30-point lead in the polls. There is a real chance that Liz Truss will have the claim to one of the shortest terms in electoral history. The aforementioned strategies may take complete U-turns in the following weeks as Westminster prepares itself for a chaotic few months.

Header Image Credits: ITV.