United Kingdom: annual Labor congress kicks off, virtually, in complicated context

The new leader of the UK Labor Party, Keir Starmer, here on January 5, 2020 in London.

REUTERS / Simon Dawson

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2 min

The British Labor Party is holding its annual congress from this Saturday until Tuesday 22 September.

But Covid obliges, the event has been redesigned and will be entirely virtual, which makes the task even more complicated for Keir Starmer, the new head of Labor, who is currently trying to raise the bar of a party left in bad shape by his predecessor, the controversial Jeremy Corbyn.

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With our correspondent in London,

The first of the three major British parties to unite its troops, Labor has the difficult task of developing the concept of the virtual congress.

Entitled 'Labor Connected', the event offers a lean program with a few keynote speeches including that of leader Keir Starmer on Tuesday and online rallies, most of which focus on the impact of the coronavirus: how to rebuild the country after years of austerity and the pandemic, what are the challenges and opportunities that await post-Covid young people, what is Labor's strategy to protect public services, the elderly care system or the environment.

But the challenge is considerable for the Labor opposition: to succeed in making itself heard and in differentiating itself, in particular from the conservative party in power, despite a glaring lack of visibility during a congress made confidential.

Keir Starmer has not ceased since April to stand out from Jeremy Corbyn and raise a Labor laminated in the last elections, accused of anti-Semitism, deeply divided between factions of the far left and the center.

Former lawyer Keir Starmer has started scoring points against a rough and often overwhelmed Boris Johnson by the pandemic.

But in reality few Britons still know his name and in this special context, he will have to redouble his efforts to impose his vision and motivate his supporters.

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