The next election will be as much about integrity as policy

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After his pledge to immediately resign should he be found guilty of breaching Covid rules two years ago, Keir Starmer already has an advantage over rule-breaker Rishi Sunak (PA Wire)

This coming week Sir Keir Starmer has an almost unique opportunity to not only differentiate the Labour Party from the Tories over its economic and social policies but, perhaps as importantly, contrast its moral and ethical differences.

Reference to re-establishing a more principled and trustworthy Tory government, in the wake of his predecessors – particularly Johnson’s frequent transgressions – was almost entirely absent in Sunak’s leader’s speech. Yet in the wake of Partygate, the dubious award of PPE contracts, breaching international treaties and handing out peerages to cronies like confetti, the public may attach as much importance to the perceived integrity and conduct of the next prime minister and his party’s plans to reform our standards in public life as any other priority.

After his pledge to immediately resign should he be found guilty of breaching Covid rules two years ago, Starmer already has an inherent advantage that rule-breaker Sunak doesn’t. He should now follow this through by establishing a new set of public and parliamentary standards, including overdue constitutional changes, as befits a modern, egalitarian democracy.