Patriotism for many of us is a twist in the complex cocktail of identity, not the main measure of it. We will need to get used to stronger brews however, as Reform’s whopping poll lead produces a Labour fightback on the grounds of who really represents the nation’s best interests and Starmer seeks a language to reconnect his government to many dissatisfied voters.
As its conference begins in Liverpool, Starmer finds himself locked in a brawl for his own future, tacitly acknowledging that the weapons he has brought to the fight so far have been blunt or downright ineffectual. A part of the remedy is seen as the need to define himself against Reform’s patriotism-based surge – and also combat more alarming manifestations in the form of Tommy Robinson’s ugly ethno-nationalism.
This is not only an anti-Reform message. It is, according to one of a quartet of senior ministers Starmer has specifically asked how to combat right-wing ideas on Britishness, a moment when the PM can get “off the defensive and into a fight about the future of the country”.
Starmer-speak can be woolly. This time, there was no mistaking the cutting edge of his attack on Nigel Farage’s party as “racist” and “immoral” and its risk of “tearing this country apart”. It’s easy to say why this is hard yards for a centrist leader whose avowal of keeping flags at home landed oddly with his recent past as an urbane professional Londoner with an earnest interest in international human rights laws.
This segue of patriotism into something more threatening is a dividing line Starmer has identified and thinks might play to his advantage. For one thing, the patriotism channelled by Farage also has its own challengers among the more raucous flag-wavers attracted to Tommy Robinson. Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London a few weeks ago showcased a mix of noisy resentments on immigration, working class alienation from politics, “Britain First” tributes to outright anti-globalisation Maga philosophy and what-have-you-got grievance.
The opportunity here for Labour is that many of its voters in 2024, now attracted to Reform on the grounds that they want a tougher immigration and asylum system, are not necessarily hostile to incomers getting settled status if they are law abiding and contribute to society. Polling still shows a clear majority of people more sympathetic to this idea than the notion of testing incomers every five years for their suitability to live here.
Taken together, this explains a policy shift in the Government towards measures like the proposed “Brit-card” digital IDs, which as well as the promised boons in terms of a one-stop access to all state services, would act as a pretty clear sign of who passed this threshold or did not. Today, Shabana Mahmood also suggested another rise in deportation targets and a tightening of interpretations of human rights law.
What Starmer – echoed by Rachel Reeves – is now saying is that those days are gone, and that parties which do not accept a more intense voter focus on national preoccupations will end up outside power. To make this recipe work, Labour will seek to become more draconian on enforcing policy on asylum and immigration and be seen to be so, while condemning the harsher undertones of the new forces on the Right.
Anne McElvoy is executive editor at Politico and co-host of Politics at Sam and Anne’s podcast
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