Keir Starmer broke decisively with Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy – by not mentioning him

The Labour leader has moved on from his predecessor with surprising stealth and speed, writes John Rentoul

Labour is attempting to win back the working classes (PA)

Keir Starmer has achieved the remarkable feat of repudiating everything about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership – without ever saying so directly, and without even mentioning his predecessor’s name. What was most surprising was that he did so without also provoking the kind of furious denunciation in which Labour’s so-called left specialises.

His first annual conference speech was delivered to an imaginary conference in an empty room in a museum in Doncaster. If there isn’t a metaphor there we writers might as well all give up now. But he delivered it well, with plenty of expression, so that, as we watched online, we forgot that there was no physical audience in front of him.   

The other reason we forgot was that the speech itself was interesting enough to hold our attention. He did a good job of saying he had tried to be constructive in his opposition to Boris Johnson, but that the prime minister was just so useless that he wasn’t able to keep it up. He appeared genuinely upset about this: “It makes me angry that, just when the country needs leadership, we get serial incompetence.”