The UK is in desperate need of an effective opposition

If the atmosphere at the Labour conference was a good deal less euphoric than might have been expected for a party just returning to government on the back of a landslide majority after 14 years in the wilderness, the mood among Conservatives as they assembled in Birmingham was a little more upbeat than might have been predicted, given the scale of the party’s election defeat. The reality is that, for all Labour’s recent discomfiture, there remains a huge disparity between Labour, on the one hand – with its swingeing overall parliamentary majority, a cabinet at work, a Budget in preparation, and a prime minister whose position and authority are not in dispute – and an opposition, on the other, that barely warrants the name. It may be a good democratic use of the party conference to stage leadership hustings, but the fact is that the Conservatives go into their conference with four candidates vying for the leadership and no prospect of a new party agenda until a new leader is in place – and not necessarily even then, unless unity suddenly breaks out. The latest demarche – in the form of Labour MP Rosie Duffield’s resignation letter to the prime minister – contained justifiable criticisms, both of flaws in Starmer’s leadership and of the clear contradiction between his acceptance of suits, glasses and luxury accommodation worth thousands of pounds, and the abolition of fuel payments to most pensioners and the retention of the two-child benefit cap.