The Prime Minister knows he needs t

After Keir Starmer’s rose garden speech last month, which some inside government believe overdid the gloom, I wrote that the Prime Minister would soon need to offer voters more hope. That’s the pivot Starmer will make in his conference address today. While warning of further “tough decisions”, he will assure the public that there is “light at the end of this tunnel”.

What is that light? Starmer has been aided by Rachel Reeves who used her conference speech to signal that she may revise her fiscal rules to allow for greater public investment (another pivot ministers have yearned for). As I have reported, Starmer will use his speech to revive the theme of a “societal black hole” as well as an economic one (“our decimated public services leaving communities held together by little more than good will”).

o avoid his administration appearing joyless.

After Keir Starmer’s rose garden speech last month, which some inside government believe overdid the gloom, I wrote that the Prime Minister would soon need to offer voters more hope. That’s the pivot Starmer will make in his conference address today. While warning of further “tough decisions”, he will assure the public that there is “light at the end of this tunnel”.

What is that light? Starmer has been aided by Rachel Reeves who used her conference speech to signal that she may revise her fiscal rules to allow for greater public investment (another pivot ministers have yearned for). As I have reported, Starmer will use his speech to revive the theme of a “societal black hole” as well as an economic one (“our decimated public services leaving communities held together by little more than good will”).