Starmer is finally showing his ruthless side by stealing Tory policies

In recent weeks, Labour has unveiled policies on crime, immigration, buying land to build houses on and Brexit. Each one has sought to steal the Conservatives’ clothes, writes John Rentoul

Starmer is trying to shut down Tory attacks on him over what, traditionally, have been Tory issues – and looks to be succeeding (PA Wire)

Labour has come to life. After the middle period of Keir Starmer’s leadership of the opposition, when journalists complained about an absence of detail, and people in focus groups said he just criticises all the time, his party suddenly boasts policies.

In recent weeks, Labour has unveiled policies on crime, immigration, buying land to build houses on and Brexit. Each one has sought to steal the Conservatives’ clothes. Rishi Sunak had to rush out a counter-policy on crime – something about fly-tipping and making yobs clean up their own graffiti – but has struggled to keep up with the speed and boldness of other invasions of Tory territory.

On immigration, Labour proposed changing the rules for work visas so that foreign workers couldn’t undercut British ones in shortage occupations. On land, Labour came up with a policy that would enable local councils to buy land and to capture the gain in value from the granting of planning permission. This cut against Labour’s previous policy of giving local people the power to block development, but it successfully embarrassed a government that has dropped house-building targets.