The Labour conference of 2021 was the moment Keir Starmer faced down the Corbynite left and put his authority as leader beyond doubt, but could have ended in disaster – putting the entire party in jeopardy.
Just three years later, Keir Starmer is preparing for another Labour conference, this time as Prime Minister, on the back of a landslide election victory. Jeremy Corbyn is an independent MP.
Starmer’s election victory can partially be ascribed to an unlikely source – the Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby, known as the “Wizard of Oz” who had helped David Cameron sweep to power in 2015.
Trusted aide Morgan McSweeney and director of strategy Deborah Mattinson had been studying the methods used by Crosby to deliver David Cameron’s victory in 2015.
Using the Crosby playbook of relentless message discipline, resilience and targeting, McSweeney delivered the most efficient campaign in Labour’s history, winning more than 60 per cent of the seats in Westminster with just 34 per cent of the vote.
Before all this, Starmer felt he had to deal ruthlessly with the Corbynite left. McSweeney, had barely slept for the week leading up to that pivotal conference in 2021.
The team was braced for the outbreak of war between the party’s right, Starmer’s praetorian guard, and its left, whose loyalties still lay with Jeremy Corbyn. It was crucial the new leader emerged from the battle strengthened and able to show a sceptical public he could marshal both forces.
Delegates were preparing to vote on controversial party reforms sprang on them at the last minute by Starmer. Attempting to disguise their purpose was futile. Their aim was to lock the socialist left out of power for a generation and bomb-proof the party, regardless of whether Starmer survived.
Corbyn was propelled to party leader in 2015 on a greased path. He required a mere 10 per cent of Labour’s MPs to get on the ballot. Many who did not share his far left politics threw their weight behind his bid to ‘broaden the debate’, less because they saw him as a serious contender for Prime Minister.
After clearing the MP threshold, a flood of members and supporters grasped an opportunity, presented to them by reforms Ed Miliband had introduced, to pay the small fee it cost to join and vote for him.
In any other leadership contest, Corbyn would have been an outsider. As it was, to the alarm of his rivals Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham, he was unbeatable.
Starmer and McSweeney were determined to squash the risk of an encore. They proposed raising the MP threshold to 20 percent and delaying new members’ voting rights for six months, alongside other rule tweaks that empowered MPs over the grassroots.
It was a high-risk play. Should it backfire, Starmer would be seen as weak by voters and beatable by his opponents.
Trade unions blindsided by the dilemma had banded together to water down a more radical proposal to dilute members’ votes further.
Their reluctance to back him was not an obstacle Starmer could not ignore. The bosses of affiliated unions were able to order their delegates to reject the proposal on the conference floor, vastly reducing his chances of success.
Left-wing unions who had been close to Corbyn, such as Unite and the Communication Workers’ Union, were digging in. They felt ambushed.
Securing the backing of equally-powerful unions, such as Unison and Usdaw, was vital if Starmer was to get over the line and it was not clear until the final hours their vote was in the bag.
The rule changes vote went down to the wire, but passed by 53.67 percent to 46.33 per cent.
Luke Akehurst, scourge of the socialist left, had drawn up the proposal with McSweeney and Labour peer Roy Kennedy earlier that year. All were instrumental in organising delegates for the knife-edge vote.
That evening, he could not resist the opportunity to gloat, posting on social media: “Nice glass of pinot grigio at the Regency Cafe, with a chaser of salty Trot tears.”
McSweeney, who had delivered a significant boost to his boss’ authority at a critical juncture, reserved celebration for another time. Conference would close that week with a keynote speech from the leader. All signs pointed to the left staging a disruptive protest.
Privately, aides were content that Starmer became involved in a stand-off with the Corbynite left.
For them, the collision clarified to voters that he represented a sharp change in direction. Or as one Labour source put it: “The change needed to be real, and it needed conflict to ensure the country knew it was real. What the voters mean by unity is that the leader is in control and that the party is going to follow the leader into the lobby in voting.”
The architects of the leadership rules met for dinner weeks later. McSweeney had a surprise, a gift to mark their historic triumph and thank his allies for their loyalty: cufflinks, engraved with the winning percentage on one side and the loser’s the other.
Though none were yet certain the greater victory – that over the Conservatives – was certain, they felt it was closer.
Just two years later, McSweeney would be wearing his own pair of cufflinks as he walked through the door of No 10 Downing Street.
Landslide: The Inside Story of the 2024 Election, by Tim Ross and Rachel Wearmouth, will be published by Biteback in November.