The flaw in Starmer’s ‘patriotic’ pitch for power

If campaign messaging is too subtle then the chances are that the electorate won’t even notice it, so in his first speech of 2022 Keir Starmer kept things very simple. Standing in front of not one Union flag, but two, an immaculately turned-out Labour leader in notably perky form told an audience in Birmingham today: ‘We are patriotic.’

‘The Labour party is a deeply patriotic party rooted in the everyday concerns of working people,’ he added. And he sought to embody this alleged spirit of patriotism in a ‘Contract with Britain’ which he said would be both ‘solemn’ and ‘binding’ and based on three core principles of security, prosperity and respect.

Though he specifically name-checked Birmingham as ‘the birthplace of the industrial revolution’, Starmer’s real regional audience was surely in the adjacent Black Country in which Labour lost a slew of seats to the Tories in 2019, including Dudley North, West Bromwich East, West Bromwich West, Wolverhampton North East and Wolverhampton South West.

As recently as last spring, these Tory gains seemed secure as Andy Street was re-elected West Midlands Metro Mayor on the back of culturally conservative Black Country votes.