Have Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng done the Labour Party a favour with their tax giveaways that put cash in the pockets of millionaires and City bankers?
That’s certainly the view of many MPs and delegates here at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, where the mood is more buoyant and upbeat than for several years.
At first, it appeared the chancellor’s bigger-than-expected tax handouts had presented Labour with a challenge and even a dilemma. There was talk of the chancellor setting Labour a tax trap.
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But in a TV interview on Sunday morning, after dodging questions on Labour’s response when he arrived at the conference on Saturday afternoon, Sir Keir Starmer sought to clear up any confusion.
Yes, he said, Labour would reverse the cut in the 45p top rate of tax introduced by Alistair Darling, the Labour chancellor, in 2009 and not scrapped by George Osborne or any of the four other Tory chancellors who preceded Mr Kwarteng.
But no, Sir Keir confirmed, his party would not oppose the cut in the basic rate from 20p to 19p.
Mostly happy….
It’s a position that most in his party are happy with.
But not everyone. Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester mayor and Labour’s king over the water, who admitted on Sophy Ridge on Sunday he hasn’t ruled out returning to Westminster, said the party should oppose both tax cuts.
To be fair, though, he was speaking before Sir Keir’s TV interview and was pretty loyal in the rest of his interview.
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And that’s the point. The mood at this conference, compared to the last few years, has moved on from outright civil war to hope and now a growing belief that Labour can with the next election.
God save the King
Labour handed out sheets of paper with the lyrics to the national anthem
“When I’m deputy prime minister, a Labour government will be on your side,” Angela Rayner declared with confidence in her speech after the singing of the national anthem.
Yes, the national anthem, not the Red Flag or Jerusalem, though they’ll no doubt come at the end of the conference. Labour, the party of the Royal Family. Whatever next?
Labour’s belief that victory is possible is partly due, of course, to the Tories’ self-inflicted wounds of the past year: the three Ps – Paterson, partygate and Pincher, that led to Boris Johnson’s demise, the election of Ms Truss and the tax policy announced on Friday – nicknamed “Kami-Kwasi” by critics – that many here in Liverpool believe is a gift to Labour.
In ‘the Corbyn years’
Sir Keir won’t have it all his own way here, of course. The left haven’t gone away. After all, they’re staging their own The World Transformed festival once again. And striking unions are on the march, literally.
But after the gloom of most Labour MPs during the Jeremy Corbyn years, the conference mood has changed. There’s lots of talk of 1997 – not least from Ms Rayner during her speech – and repeating that triumph.
Hope, yes. But a growing belief, too.