Sir Keir Starmer finally looks like a prime minister-in-waiting

Interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Sir Keir Starmer was asked repeatedly why he made three interventions about the Downing Street parties in parliament last week, rather than the cost of living crisis. Similarly, Conservative ministers and MPs, including Boris Johnson, accuse Sir Keir of playing party politics rather than focusing on the “big issues”, like the economy and the war in Ukraine.

Yet the Labour leader was right to prioritise the important matter of standards in public life when Boris Johnson has the unwanted labels of being the first sitting prime minister to be fined for breaking the law and to face a Commons inquiry into whether he misled parliament. Sir Keir and his MPs are under no illusions that living standards are a more immediate concern for millions of people. It is hardly the case that Labour is dodging the economy. It has drawn level with the Tories on the issue and on Sunday called for an emergency Budget, outlining five proposals for one.

Of course, any opposition would exploit a controversy like Partygate for all its worth. It doesn’t take long to imagine how the Tories and their newspaper cheerleaders would react if the parties during lockdown had taken place under a Labour government. Sir Keir has not missed this open goal, as some of his predecessors might have done. In three strong, statesmanlike performances in the Commons last week, he passed the test of looking like a prime minister-in-waiting for the first time.

Tory MPs underestimate the Labour leader at their peril. They think they can undermine him in the voters’ eyes by challenging him to explain why he wanted Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister. Yet this advertises one of his achievements as Labour leader; he has rightly drawn a line under the Corbyn era on antisemitism and Ukraine has allowed him to reassert Labour’s support for Nato, which Mr Corbyn wants to disband.

However, although Labour is ahead in the opinion polls, it appears that this is due largely to voters deserting Mr Johnson and his party rather than giving a positive endorsement to the opposition. This is the task to which Sir Keir must urgently devote himself. Partygate will only get him so far; he must look like a credible prime minister across the piece. Labour will have to provide more and better answers to the “what would you do?” question on issues such as migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, as well as the cost of living crisis. It does not require a vast programme covering every issue under the sun, but a few big symbolic policies showing how Labour would change the country.

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The results of the local authority elections on 5 May will be a factor in the unavoidable decision for Tory MPs on whether to back or sack Mr Johnson. But they will also be as important a test for Sir Keir, notably in the red-wall seats in the Midlands and the north which will likely decide the next general election. Sir Keir will need to show he can translate the opinion poll lead into votes in the ballot box – crucially, by winning back former Labour supporters who switched to the Tories.

Some Labour figures acknowledge privately that their leader lacks the charisma needed to engage voters. Others argue that Sir Keir’s blandness and solidity makes him the perfect antidote to a prime minister who seems to think the rules should not apply to people like him and who the French president Emmanuel Macron branded a “clown.” Certainly, the former director of public prosecutions is well placed to take on a prime minister who broke his own Covid laws.

For all the Tories’ bravado about relishing a fight against Sir Keir, the contrast between the two leaders strengthens the case for his party’s MPs to oust Mr Johnson in the hope of saving their own seats. The prospect of another act of Tory regicide looks increasingly likely. Labour would probably prefer to fight a damaged Mr Johnson rather than any of his possible successors but can no longer rely on doing so. That is another reason why Sir Keir and his party must now win the positive support they will need to have a chance of regaining power.