The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday October 10 2023 #Labour #KeirStarmer

The Scotsman

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00:00 Hello, welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Tuesday. I'm Alan Young, I'm the Deputy

00:11 Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today from Liverpool by our Westminster correspondent,

00:16 Alex Brown. Hi Alex.

00:17 Good morning.

00:18 We will speak to you in just a minute, but first let's have a look at the front page.

00:26 And no surprise, the story that's leading today is leading every newspaper across the

00:31 country and that is the unfolding horror in Israel and Gaza. We meet today on the warning

00:40 last night from Israel that the retaliation for the attack by Hamas has only just begun.

00:48 We also have confirmation of at least one Scot who has died over the weekend and Hamza

00:55 Yusuf spoke yesterday of his fears for his parents-in-law who were visiting Gaza at the

01:01 time. Lots more coverage in today's paper led by our World Editor, Jane Bradley, and

01:07 online at scotsman.com. But also in today's paper we look ahead to Keir Starmer's big

01:14 moment as he speaks to the Labour Party conference. Alex, you've been taking the temperature of

01:21 Labour MPs ahead of this. What are we expecting Keir to say?

01:27 Well actually I think the mood of what MPs had hoped him to say I think is actually going

01:31 to be delivered. I spoke to several MPs yesterday who wanted to hear about housing and they

01:35 wanted to hear not just about why the Tories are terrible, not just to hear about what

01:40 Labour have done to detoxify its brand after the Corbyn years, but they want to know why

01:44 Labour, the recurring theme among MPs, is they want to know how they can convince people

01:48 not just to not vote for other parties, but why Labour. And that's going to be the central

01:52 theme of the speech. We're going to hear Keir talk about his values, his principles, and

01:56 a bit more of an idea of what his vision for Britain is with policies such as housing.

02:00 There's going to be a Georgian-style houses bill, which I'm personally delighted about

02:05 because aesthetically that's very lovely. That's going to be done on low-level green

02:09 belts area, something the Labour is now trying to rebrand as simply the grey belt. There's

02:13 going to be praise for Scotland, there's going to be talk about how Scotland, after the glorious

02:18 by-election win that I think surprised lots of people in the party, how that could be

02:23 the reference point, how they could win in Scotland and that means they could win across

02:26 the UK and form a government. So, what I'm wondering, the Starmer aide told me, it's

02:31 not necessarily going to be really policy-heavy, it's not just having one policy here and one

02:36 policy there, it's a broader intellectual argument about what Keir Starmer believes

02:40 and what a Labour party and a Labour government will deliver for the country.

02:48 Alex, I think we might just have lost you. Oh no, you're back.

02:54 I was speaking for a very long time.

02:56 You mentioned Scotland there and obviously the huge by-election result in Rullagan last

03:05 week, which was beyond all expectations I would think for the Labour party. That presumably

03:12 has really buoyed the whole conference.

03:16 Yeah, the party thought they would win the seat, there was no doubt really that they

03:20 would win the seat, but the 20% swing has really surprised people. That's been a game

03:25 changer. The deputy leader of Scottish Labour, Jackie Bailey, said, just was saying during

03:30 here that actually, originally, they had six target seats, that number's now up to 28 and

03:34 they're not putting a limit on it. There's constant references, somewhat knowingly and

03:39 sarcastically, to John Curtis, a polling guru, saying the party could get up to 42 seats

03:44 in Scotland, which nobody's really expecting, but they're very excited it's in play. And

03:49 it's been remarkable. I've been coming to these events for many, many years and you'd

03:52 go to Scottish Labour events and there would be very downbeat, very sad, and Ian Murray

03:56 would have to basically be the panel and also the people attending. Whereas this year, it's

04:01 euphoric, it's buoyant. People who do not care about Scotland are here to celebrate.

04:06 Every event I go to, seemingly, Michael Shanks walks into a room and people just cheer and

04:10 celebrate wildly. There's a sense of throwing off the shackles and now people are beginning

04:13 to wonder what's possible.

04:16 Indeed, Labour, however, have been in this position before, looking very, very good ahead

04:22 of a general election and it's all gone wrong. It's memorably gone wrong with conference

04:27 speeches before as well. Do you think there's a risk of complacency?

04:34 I don't think so. I mean, everyone I've spoken to in Labour is very, very trying to keep

04:39 their feet on the ground and stress just how hard the party has to work to move forward.

04:43 They're saying they're not taking anything for granted. And you expect that stuff, but

04:47 you can see quite a difference between how the Labour party are behaving and how...

04:56 And on one hand, you had Labour saying, "I don't want to get carried away. We're going

05:00 to keep working really hard and we're going to be very careful. We're not taking any seat

05:04 for granted because it's so important to win." Scottish Labour are going, "We've won one

05:08 seat. We might win 28. We're going to go and, you know, no SNP MP is safe. We're going to

05:13 win everywhere." The mood has fundamentally changed Scottish Labour. And I think given

05:17 how the past few years have gone, they're allowed celebration as a treat. But we're

05:20 not expecting any slip ups from Keir Starmer. He's not, I dare say, he's not necessarily

05:25 interesting enough to kind of have some controversy that maybe he'd hit, you know, his predecessor,

05:32 Jeremy Corbyn. So there is, I would say, cautious optimism. Even if people keep playing, things

05:38 can only get better.

05:39 Indeed. I will let you go soon because the line is slightly patchy to you in Liverpool

05:47 there. But just remind us when he's on his feet.

05:51 So the Labour leader will be speaking at two o'clock. I will be in the conference hall

05:55 to hear it. And you can stay tuned to all of that at thescotsman.com, of course.

06:00 Excellent. Thanks very much for that, Alex. Yeah, as Alex says, keep an eye on scotsman.com

06:05 throughout the day. Please do subscribe if you can, then you won't miss a thing. And

06:10 if you're out and about as ever, I'd love to hear from you and from Alex. Bye for now.

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