There are some truly strange tactics that Labour MPs are choosing to deploy.
Keir Starmer failed to convince anyone they were a serious party (Image: Getty)
Labour’s 2025 party conference has wrapped up and if there’s one clear winner from the past week, it’s not Keir Starmer. It’s Reform UK. Labour was supposed to convince us they’re still a serious outfit – not a bunch of amateurs steering the country off a cliff – and they failed spectacularly.
Instead of projecting confidence and competence, the party tied itself in knots, bleating on about Nigel Farage and trying to scare the public on the supposed horrors of a Reform government. This is from a party now failing on virtually every public policy metric. Starmer’s keynote speech was meant to be a defining moment. Instead, it was a curious mix of empty Blairite posturing and self-contradiction.
He tried to cast himself as the reasonable centre, flanked by “extremists” on both sides – and a diehard patriot, too. What a curious change. A year ago, he claimed to have inherited a “broken Britain” from the Conservatives. Now he insists it isn’t.
It’s a strange tactic to tell people their problems don’t exist when they’re confronted by them daily. The overall tone was less statesmanlike and more sixth-form debating society.
David Lammy accused Farage of having “flirted with the Hitler Youth” (a smear he later retracted), while Labour MPs dismissed Reform’s complaints as “snowflake” behaviour.
Starmer himself branded Reform’s proposal to scrap ILR [Indefinite Leave to Remain] “racist,” as though administrative immigration rules had suddenly become sacred doctrine.
Rather than grappling with serious issues, Labour spent the week sneering at Reform and, by extension, millions of voters who are genuinely angry about the state of Britain.
Trying to win over sceptics by insulting them is as baffling as it is counter-productive. Labour wants to paint Reform as an existential threat. Yet they keep handing them opportunities to grow.
Starmer even went as far as to blame Brexit for the Channel crisis, coining the term “Farage boats” in a desperate attempt to shift responsibility.
Meanwhile, Reform continues to gain traction simply by taking clear positions on issues Labour mishandles or avoids. ILR is a prime example. Most voters don’t spend their evenings poring over immigration law, but they can recognise when a system doesn’t make sense.
ILR gives non-citizens almost all the benefits of citizenship – access to welfare, public housing, legal protections – without asking for much in return, not even allegiance to the country, civic obligations like jury service, or naturalisation fees.
It’s effectively citizenship on the cheap, and plenty of people are content to stop there rather than formalise their status. Farage has rightly zeroed in on that loophole.
He’s not wrong to sense the mood: one in six Universal Credit recipients are non-citizens. This costs taxpayers a fortune. He’s simply saying aloud what many voters have been thinking for years.
Labour’s response has been a predictable mess. On one hand, they’re floating common-sense tweaks, such as tighter English requirements, proof of stable employment and no benefit claims. Yet on the other, they’re smearing anyone who questions the system as racist. It’s the same tired political dance: acknowledge the system isn’t working, refuse to make meaningful changes then vilify those who try.
And the Tories? Even on ILR, which is behind Farage’s latest rallying cry, I’ve no idea where they stand. In concert with the rest of the country, I don’t care either.
Starmer’s handling of this week’s conference exposed a leader struggling to control the narrative. He tried to sound tough on migration, then retreated within days.
He rolled out an attack plan against Reform, then softened his language under pressure. It’s the hallmark of a politician who doesn’t fully believe his own lines.
While the PM’s ministers delivered competent performances, the overall impression was one of moral preening and economic fantasy.
Rachel Reeves talked up her “fully costed” plans as if they were a magic wand to fix crippling debt, sky-high inflation and a crumbling state. Britain is angry and for good reason.
Energy costs, the small boats crisis, Pakistani rape gangs, free speech battles, spiralling debt, public disorder – the list goes on. Against that backdrop, Labour’s conference felt detached from reality.
And that’s why Reform is rising. For Labour, they’re the real opposition. As long as Labour keeps talking a big game while failing on every policy, Reform will only go from strength to strength.
