How will Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves cope now their main policy has been stolen?

Labour has won a huge victory, dictating government policy – but what is its next trick, asks John Rentoul

Apart from the windfall tax to pay for help with energy bills, what policies does Labour have? (PA)

It may seem strange to see a momentous Labour victory as a problem for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. It is the kind of problem that the Labour Party has been desperate to have since it lost power 12 years ago. But it is, nevertheless. a problem.

The Conservatives have stolen their policy. Indeed, Rishi Sunak’s main criticism of the Labour plan was that it wasn’t ambitious enough. He announced more generous help with people’s energy bills than Labour proposed, funded by a bigger windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

It is not obvious that the chancellor’s sums add up. The more he spoke of fiscal responsibility, the clearer it was that he was announcing huge numbers with only a vague idea of how to pay for them. He and Boris Johnson were in such a hurry to announce what was in effect an entire Budget that most of the details will have to be sorted out later.