Sensing power, UK poll favourites Labour holds annual conference

Britain's Labour Party begins its annual conference on Sunday, eyeing a return to power after more than a decade in opposition in a general election expected for next year.

Labour, led by Keir Starmer, goes into the four-day gathering in northwest England buoyed by a big local election win and with a commanding lead over the governing Conservatives in opinion polls.

Starmer, 61, will be looking to come out of the event in Liverpool with the poll lead intact, even strengthened, after last week's Conservative party conference was overshadowed by infighting and the downgrading of a high-speed rail project.

He described Labour's huge victory in a by-election in Scotland on Thursday as a "big step in the right direction" towards becoming the biggest party in parliament, which would see him become prime minister.

"We're the party of change in Britain. We're the party of change right across the whole country," Starmer said Friday, a clear reference to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's claim that only the Tories offer change -- despite being in power for 13 years.

Labour last held the keys to 10 Downing Street in 2010, when Gordon Brown was prime minister, and is readying itself to govern again following a general election that must be held by January 2025 at the latest.

The last nationwide vote in 2019 saw Labour suffer its worst election defeat since 1935 under far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn.

But after the landslide loss to the Tories, then led by Boris Johnson, Starmer has pulled the party back to the centre ground.

He hailed as "seismic" Thursday's win over the Scottish National Party in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat, southeast of Glasgow, with a 20 percent vote swing.

Labour needs to win back a sizeable chunk of the 40 seats it lost in Scotland in 2015 if it is to have a chance of ousting Sunak's Conservative government.

Labour has enjoyed double-digit poll leads for months, with Britain locked in a cost-of-living crisis and plagued by strikes, and with Tory infighting leading to three prime ministers in little over a year.

- Economic constraints -

Recent surveys have showed the gap narrowing after Sunak announced populist policies that attempt to put clear water between the increasingly right-wing Conservatives and their opponents.

A constituency-by-constituency survey by the Observer weekly, however, predicted a landslide victory for Labour unless Sunak is able to close the gap.

The analysis, commissioned by the 38 Degrees campaign group and carried out by the Survation polling company, surveyed more than 11,000 voters shortly before the Conservative Party conference.

Starmer, a former chief state prosecutor, is regularly accused of being too cautious and of failing to spell out exactly what he stands for.

He has ruled out a number of things, including scrapping university tuition fees and taking Britain back into the European Union.

Starmer has also backed away from tax increases and scaled down Labour's green energy plan, allowing Conservatives to accuse him of flip-flopping on several issues.

Supporters praise him as managerial, saying he is adapting to economic realities, but many critics accuse him of not expressing a clear vision for the country.

Observers expect him to put more meat on the bones of Labour policies when he speaks at the conference on Tuesday, which could be the last annual gathering of the party before the general election.

But economic constraints mean he may be reluctant to commit to major spending pledges that Labour might not be able to meet if elected.