Boris Johnson’s bluff and bluster will not be enough against Keir Starmer unless he masters details

Keir Starmer’s response to Boris Johnson’s promise of a “road map” for easing the lockdown was revealing. Labour’s new leader welcomed it because it was what Labour had been demanding; it was a “step in the right direction” but he would have to look at the detail.

The words epitomised his “constructive opposition”: supportive in a national coronavirus crisis, but cleverly keeping open Labour’s options to criticise. Starmer portrays the government as “behind the curve” – amid growing signs it was – and Labour ahead of it. He called for ministers to discuss an exit strategy in public but declined to publish his own plan or call for the lockdown to be ended, as he knows the public still supports it. When ministers eventually provide more detail of their sketchy “test, track and trace” programme, Starmer will remind us that he called for this all along.

Labour has adopted Johnson’s approach to the Brexit negotiations: having its cake and eating it – sometimes easier in opposition than government. Yet Starmer must perform a delicate balancing act: he knows the public does not want him to play party politics. This view will be strongly held among the working-class supporters who switched from Labour to the Tories at December’s election, the very people Starmer must win back.

It was interesting that, as he began a series of (virtual) “call Keir” sessions on Thursday, he told residents in (now Tory) Bury: “In the Labour Party, we should be proud of being patriotic.” It was smart to begin his virtual tour in the red-turned-blue wall of seats. Next stop: Scotland. The former human rights lawyer and director of public prosecutions is painstakingly assembling his case. He detects a growing body of evidence that the government was “slow” – to recognise the threat from the virus, to ensure enough testing and personal protective equipment and to see the risk in care homes.

In his two outings at Prime Minister’s Questions, in a largely deserted Commons chamber that feels like a hushed courtroom, Starmer has shown a sharp lawyer’s ability to think on his feet. The contrast with Jeremy Corbyn, who mostly stuck to his six prepared questions, is marked. Starmer has twice got the better of Dominic Raab, deputising for Johnson.

Some MPs suspect “broad brush Boris” will turn the tables on Starmer when he returns to the Commons fray next week. Against Corbyn, Johnson could point to the people’s verdict in December. We are in a different world now. If I were Johnson, I would spend Wednesday morning mastering the detail; against Starmer’s forensic approach, bluff and bluster will not be enough.

Johnson will hug Starmer close – metaphorically, of course. The two men had a “constructive” phone call on Wednesday; more will follow. But this might not provide the political cover the PM hopes for. Starmer will not attend meetings of the Cobra emergency committee. Whitehall officials tell me the leaders of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations and London mayor are there because they have “operational responsibilities”. It will suit Starmer to keep his distance, and ability to criticise.

It is early days, but the Labour leader already looks capable of passing the crucial “can you imagine him in No 10?” test. That he is 57 is to his advantage, as a younger opposition leader might look out of their depth in this crisis. Starmer is a serious man for serious times. A big question is: will Johnson seize his golden opportunity to become a statesman, afforded by his gruelling experience of coronavirus, or return to being the populist joker who hopes bouncy optimism can win the day? He might want to become the serious leader the country needs, but can he?

Whatever the final verdict on the government’s “war” against the virus, with the next election probably four years away, the battle between Johnson and Starmer will turn on how the economy recovers in peacetime. Unemployment has not been a big issue at recent elections; it might be at the next one.

The crisis gives Starmer a huge opportunity to offer the country a fairer economic and social settlement. The lawyer is building his case for an end to “business as usual”. In another contrast with Corbyn, he looks like a man who knows where he wants to be in 2024, and is working out a strategy to get there.

Yet Labour should not assume voters will flock into its arms in the new era of a big state with high spending. Johnson’s rejection of austerity on Thursday shows he will offer a different plan for the future too. One ally described it as “going for growth, the levelling-up agenda with booster rockets”.

With his wife working for the NHS in the lockdown, Starmer is overseeing their two children’s homework. He admits to struggling when “trying to keep one step ahead on the maths and English”. He also needs to keep one step ahead of Johnson. But his good start suggests he can.