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Corbyn: Starmer just delivered the ‘longest resignation speech in history’

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has slammed current Labour leader Keir Starmer over his conference keynote – calling it the ‘longest resignation speech in history’.

Starmer speech: from guff to more guff

Starmer took to the podium on Tuesday 30 September. As BBC News reported, the PM and Labour leader made most of his speech about taking aim at Nigel Farage’s Reform Party:

Throughout the conference, Labour ministers and MPs have attacked Reform and framed its fight with the party in existential terms.

In his speech, the prime minister reinforced that message, telling the party faithful the country faced a stark choice between “renewal or decline”.

“It is a test,” Sir Keir said. “A fight for the soul of our country, every bit as big as rebuilding Britain after the war, and we must all rise to this challenge.”

Calling out the Reform UK leader by name, Sir Keir asked: “When was the last time you heard Nigel Farage say anything positive about Britain’s future?

“He can’t. He doesn’t like Britain. Doesn’t believe in Britain.”

In these spiky comments, Sir Keir was pointedly naming Farage as the principal opponent in the “fight”, rather than Labour’s traditional competitor for power, the Conservatives.

The Tories were barely mentioned, and there was a chorus of laughter when Sir Keir quipped: “The Tories – remember them?”

He also hit back at left wingers who want a wealth tax – a subject which has seen countless protests at the conference. Starmer said that “It is a tempting prize… tax cuts that magically pay for themselves, a wealth tax that solves every problem… we can all see these snake oil merchants on the right and the left”. The latter was a clear dig at Andy Burnham.

However, it was more about what was absent from Starmer’s speech than what it contained.

What was missing is telling

As the Trussell Trust pointed out, Labour will STILL be maintaining the two-child benefit cap – despite all the evidence that it is damning millions of kids to poverty and causing economic harm in the process:

Meanwhile, the racist PM also failed to acknowledge the fact that his racist party has contributed to racists feeling emboldened to be even more openly racist:

Plus, Starmer kept pushing the line military spending is good for growth in hi speech – when it’s not:

Overall, though, and the PM showed that he has nothing to offer but a) racist dogwhistling – and open racism – b) more of the same right-wing economics that have sent us all to ruin, and c) more shitting on poor and disabled people.

Resign man, for God’s sake

So, as Corbyn summed up in an email to Your Party supporters:

The prime minister could have announced he was finally scrapping the two-child-benefit cap, bringing in rent controls, and taking our public services back into public ownership. Instead, he doubled down on the same tired formula of buzzwords and catchphrases.

He couldn’t even bring himself to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza. We know why: if he acknowledged the truth, he would be admitting his government’s complicity in the greatest crime of our time.

At nearly an hour, this was the longest resignation speech in party-conference history. And it was an urgent reminder to us all: we need a real alternative, now.

Given the chaos in Your Party, it is unclear how soon that particular alternative will come. Oh, hang on – there is one already:

https://x.com/ZackPolanski/status/1973025912720658785

Starmer is on the ropes – and it’s surely now a case of when, not if, he goes. Who will replace him is kind-of irrelevant as well. Because the Labour Party is dead in the water. Who people will go to to replace it, however, is open season.

Featured image via the Canary

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on Canary.