Labour doesn’t need to go back to Blair – but it does still need to learn from him

What Keir Starmer has to resurrect is the same election-winning ethos and will to win that Blair and Brown created when they made Labour, in effect, the political arm of the British people, writes Peter Mandelson

Keir Starmer came across in a natural way during his interview with Piers Morgan (ITV)

When Keir Starmer appeared on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, the first applause he drew from the audience was when he said: “I’ve been Labour leader for 14 months, and actually this is the first time I’ve had an audience.”

It was a nice public appreciation of what these abnormal times have wreaked on the leader of the opposition and a welcome sign that the public are prepared to keep an open mind about someone they may choose as their next prime minister.

Starmer’s Westminster share price has risen since the Life Stories appearance. It remains to be seen whether public sentiment follows in the polls. My hunch is that it will, partly because he came across in such a natural way with a genuinely interesting – sometimes harrowing – family back story, which will have registered with viewers and will be talked about by them.