There’s some great analysis in The Times today on Keir Starmer’s vacuous leadership, going so far as to splash with the quote from an anonymous Shadow Cabinet minister that he needs to stop “boring everyone to death”. Hear, hear…
“Is he exciting? No, of course not — that isn’t why we ended up with him. But there is a big difference between not being Mr Razzmatazz and boring everyone to death… to loads of my constituents he just doesn’t exist in their minds at all.”
A separate piece by Patrick Maguire and Matt Chorley, “Labour leader is a slogan peddler who only paints in primary colours”, turns the spotlight on Starmer’s myriad relaunches as leader – all accompanied by a different bland slogan. Given last week the media was joking about Boris’s 7th relaunch as PM – his hastily-cobbled together Blackpool housing speech – it’s only fair we take a look back at Starmer’s greatest flops…
- His leadership campaign: Another Future Is Possible
- July 2020: New Management
- Labour virtual conference 2020: A New Leadership
- February 2021 economic speech: Secure, Protect, Rebuild
- February 2021: A New Chapter for Britain
- June 2021 Manifesto policy review launch: Stronger Together
- September 2021 conference: Work, Care, Equality, Security
- January 2022 relaunch with ‘patriotic contract’: Security, Prosperity, Respect (Starmer managed to forget this one mid-speech)
- Local elections 2022: On Your Side
At this pace, Guido reckons Labour has time for up to 20 total slogan rebrands before the next election…
A rousing warm up act for Jeremy Corbyn’s election launch, with Corrie actress Julie Hesmondhalgh offering her own slogan for Labour’s campaign: “Give a toss about stuff”. What other insights does Julie have? Labour MPs and activists campaigning for the party across the country will be interested to know that just a few years ago she tweeted that she was “not really a Labour supporter”, because she was “more left than that”.
That used to be enough to get you kicked out of the party…
How much have the slogans cut through?
