Liverpool: So much for cultural cringe, the idea of Australians showing undue deference to the mother country. At the British Labour conference in Liverpool on Sunday, it was Anthony Albanese being held aloft as an exemplar: a Tory-slaying, centre-left leader from the Antipodes who managed to come from behind to achieve a resounding re-election victory.
Though he would never say so, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer clearly hoped some of the Albo glow would rub off on his embattled government. For Albanese, the inevitability that he would be attacked at home as self-indulgent, hubristic and overly partisan for appearing at such an event was a risk worth taking.
Anthony Albanese addresses the UK Labour Conference on Sunday night.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
As a smiling Albanese sat on the conference stage beside him, Starmer heaped praise upon his counterpart. Introducing the guest of honour as a “true friend of Britain”, Starmer hailed Albanese as “a real inspiration to those of us on the left, someone who is leading his country in the politics of renewal and, of course, winning a landslide victory earlier this summer”. The Labour loyalists in the audience burst into cheers, delighted to be reminded that a progressive government can face struggles in its first term and still emerge victorious, as Albanese’s team did after the Voice referendum failure.
When Albanese rose to speak, they gave him a standing ovation. Sitting in the crowd was Julia Gillard, who also received hearty applause as a pioneering female progressive leader.
A little over a year after achieving a crushing victory over the UK conservatives, Starmer is floundering in the polls and facing increasingly pointed questions about how long he can survive in the job. Four long years remain until the next British election is scheduled, but patience is clearly in short supply in the UK. Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform party is on the march, triggering alarm among British Labour loyalists about Starmer’s failure to resonate with voters. They needed a pick-me-up and Albanese was there to provide it.
Being in the birthplace of the Beatles, Albanese joked that he had to get his musical references out of the way early as he described his journey from Sydney to Liverpool as a “long and winding road”. It would have been impolite but accurate for Albanese to reference Help! to explain why Starmer had called him in to give a pep talk to the troops. “Help me if you can, I’m feeling down/And I do appreciate your being ’round,” Lennon and McCartney wrote. “Help me get my feet back on the ground/Won’t you please, please, help me?”
Albanese returned the favour to Starmer, saying he and “this man, this leader, this prime minister, my friend” shared an “absolute resolve to stand together and defend democracy itself”. As he stood at a lectern emblazoned with UK Labour’s slogan, Renew Britain, it sounded like an endorsement that Starmer should be allowed to keep doing his job.
Albanese pointed out some had predicted his government would be defeated or forced into minority at the May election, punished for high inflation like incumbents around the world.
