Protester throws glitter at UK opposition Labour leader

A protester demanding more direct democracy evaded security at the UK Labour Party conference on Tuesday to cover leader Keir Starmer with glitter.

Starmer's party has a lead of some 20 points in opinion polls and is in pole position to become Britain's next prime minister.

What happened on stage

After he walked on stage to a standing ovation from party members in the northwestern English city of Liverpool, Starmer was stopped at the podium by the protester who then threw glitter over him.

"True democracy is citizen-led," the protester shouted. "Politics needs an update, we demand a people's House... We are in crisis, we are in crisis, our whole future is in jeopardy."

Starmer, who was set to make his conference speech, brushed away the glitter and told the protester that he was getting ready to deliver a change.

"If he thinks that bothers me, he doesn't know me," Starmer said after security guards removed the demonstrator.

Promise to repair damage

Undaunted, the center-left leader went on to deliver his speech, saying that his party would embark on "a decade of national renewal" if elected after more than 13 years out of power.

The conference may be the last one before a possible general election next year. Starmer portrayed the period since 2010, under the rival Conservative Party, as an era of decline that would need to be fixed.

"It's been 13 years now and what does Britain have to show for it," he said. "What is broken can be repaired, what is ruined can be rebuilt."

Starmer, who was elected as leader of his party in 2020, has steered his party closer to the middle of the political center ground after the leadership of his more left-wing predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

Starmer also made efforts to fix relations with Britain's Jewish community and to drive out the anti-semitism that tainted the party under Corbyn.

 A recent trip to Europe that included a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron was seen by some observers as Starmer projecting himself as Britain's prime minister-in-waiting.

A barrister who was formerly the head of England's national prosecution service, he has been criticized for not being radical enough in his policymaking approach.

Since it last won in 2005, Labour has lost four consecutive national elections and had its worst defeat since 1935 in 2019.

Since then, Britain has endured the COVID-19 pandemic, left the European Union and struggled with the economic shock of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Political turmoil saw the Conservative Party dispatch two prime ministers, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, last year before it installed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in an effort to restore economic calm.