UK leader Starmer aims to shed gloomy image by saying things will get better — eventually

Associated Press

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has tried to shake off his image as a gloom-monger by telling voters that better times are on the way — eventually. Starmer capped Labour’s first annual conference since winning a landslide election victory with a speech Tuesday  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. He used his speech to say the government will deliver positive change, but won’t offer “false hope” about the cost and difficult tradeoffs involved.