What Keir Starmer needs to do if he really wants to land blows on the government

The pandemic may leave less bandwidth for attacks but the first step towards regaining power is to be an effective opposition, writes Andrew Grice

Keir Starmer managed to make his mark with his virtual speech (EPA)

Making his biggest speech of the year in an empty room in Doncaster, during a week dominated by coronavirus, was hardly what his spin doctors ordered for Keir Starmer. In five months as Labour leader, his only party audiences have been virtual.

Yet Starmer managed to make his mark. The media coverage would have been bigger in normal times, but it would also have lifted the lid on the simmering tensions between Starmer and the Corbyn left.

Starmer’s “new leadership” slogan is about the dividing lines between him and Boris Johnson, as well as a rejection of Jeremy Corbyn. Some of his pitch is too bland: who doesn’t want Britain to be the best country to grow up in and grow old in?