It’s summer recess – but neither Labour not Keir Starmer can afford to relax

Starmer has become the ‘anyone but that lot’ candidate – but that’s not a place to get comfortable

Starmer doesn’t need a landslide – just a win (AFP via Getty Images)

Sir Keir Starmer was smiling at Boris Johnson’s final Prime Minister’s Questions – and no wonder. The Labour leader has a lot to smile about. Johnson is on his way out and his party is indulging in a bout of fratricidal bloodletting while trying to find a replacement.

“Outrageous characters taking lumps out of themselves,” is how Starmer described the leadership battle, before the contest was narrowed down to the gruesome twosome of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. The Labour leader can coin a nice phrase when he’s minded. He then had a fine time quoting the contenders trashing the government’s record back at the prime minister while they looked on, stony-faced.

It’s sometimes been said that Johnson was Labour’s best electoral asset. I’m not so sure that’s true any more. Those words are dredged up whenever an election looms. Both Tory candidates also have deep flaws. Is it possible that Starmer could sit back and watch as the governing party self-combusts in an (un)civil war?

It’s often said that oppositions don’t win elections – governments lose them. However, it’s worth remembering that it has taken this truly desperate state of affairs for Labour to open up the double figure poll lead it will surely need to put Starmer in Downing Street. He’s become the “anyone but that lot” candidate. But that’s not a place to get comfortable.

The Tory Party looked in a state after the defenestration of Margaret Thatcher, when John Major went to the country. Against all expectations, Major won. Things didn’t go so well from there. Those of us around at the time will shudder – and maybe chuckle – when remembering the PM being caught venting his ire at the three cabinet “bastards”. Everyone knew who they were.

Tony Blair had the look of the prime minister-in-waiting at the time, and everyone knew it. Even then, he wasn’t complacent – he was busy. He put himself about. He had ideas. His legacy has since been horribly tainted by dragging Britain into an illegal war in Iraq; for which many will never forgive him (and I’m with them). But before that, he was able to articulate a vision of a more socially-just country which found widespread support and translated into a 12.5 point lead in the popular vote, 145 extra parliamentary seats and a 179 seat parliamentary majority.

It would take an earthquake of biblical proportions for Starmer to equal that, even if he were to ditch his wooden demeanour for something more sparkly.

But he doesn’t need a landslide. Just a win. And the UK doesn’t need another Tony Blair, any more than it needs another Margaret Thatcher, whom Liz Truss has shamelessly been modelling herself after to a degree that transcends mockery.

No, Starmer really just needs to show that he has a plan for fixing the very obvious problems Johnson has “delivered”. You know: public services that don’t work, a crumbling NHS and the lack of a coherent economic policy, one which would encourage the investment Britain badly needs. Not to mention: debt, debt and more debt, inflation – and the cost of living crisis.

The Labour leader talked about his “costed” policies – and Rachel Reeves, who may well make a fine chancellor one day – has promised to be sensible when it comes to public finances, drawing a contrast with the Tories’s recent profligacy when it comes to unfunded tax cuts. But could you actually name a Labour policy? Other than the windfall tax? Which the Tories pinched of course. Some nice green ideas, I guess.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

But when does Starmer ever talk about getting wages up or improving rights at work? Where’s the counter-narrative to the Truss tax cuts? He’ll need one if the bookies’ favourite wins and then borrows to bribe the electorate with their own money. They’re going to be used as a weapon against him if the Tories vote for a woman who looks disturbingly like Boris Johnson 2.0.

True, you don’t want to give too much away for fear that a government without many ideas of its own will indulge in a little shoplifting, like it did with the windfall tax. But look at the policy section on Labour’s website – it’s a bit like wading through a tub of chocolate fudge. It’s sweet. It would certainly taste better than what the other lot are offering.

It’s also sickly, gooey and about as far from a balanced diet as it’s possible to get. Look, if “cautious Keir” gets in and turns into “competent Keir”, no one will mind. It will be a hell of a lot better than the rabble we have in charge of the country right now.

But it would be nice to put an X against something reading “not those bastards” at the next election. Complacency is dangerous. It’ll kill the cat every bit as effectively as curiosity. Labour should remember that while it watches the horror movie unfolding on the government benches.