LIVERPOOL, England -- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried to shake off his image as a gloom-monger on Tuesday, telling voters exhausted by years of political and economic turmoil that better times are on the way — if they swallow his recipe of short-term pain for long-term gain.Starmer capped the Labour Party's first annual conference since winning a landslide election victory in July with a speech arguing that things will be “tough in the short term" but there is light at the end of the tunnel.Some members of the center-left party say Starmer has made that dark tunnel longer by delivering downbeat messages about the economy since becoming Britain's first Labour prime minister for 14 years.That and a distracting row about freebies have overshadowed what should be a celebratory gathering for thousands of party members in the northwest England port city of Liverpool.“I know this country is exhausted by and with politics,” Starmer said.
He promised to deliver “national renewal” but said he wouldn't offer “false hope” about the cost and the difficult tradeoffs involved.“Just because we all want low taxes and good public services, does not mean that the iron law of properly funding policies can be ignored,” Starmer said.He pledged to take “tough” decisions — code for public spending restraint and tax increases — to achieve economic growth to fund schools, hospitals, roads, railways and more.
Starmer acknowledged some of those decisions would be unpopular, but said “we will turn our collar up and face the storm."“If the last few years have shown us anything, it’s that if you bury your head because things are difficult, your country goes backwards,” he said.Starmer won the election on a promise to banish years of turmoil and scandal under Conservative governments, get Britain’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health ServiceThe government is gambling that voters give ...