Coronavirus: How Keir Starmer is putting pressure on Boris Johnson

As the old adage goes, oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them. In other words, a lucky opposition leader will find themself confronted with an administration of such stunning ineptitude that they need hardly turn up for the game. After all, it is only fair to point out that Jeremy Corbyn’s stunningly impressive progress at the 2017 general election had much to do with his populist appeal and dedicated activists – but perhaps as much to do with the failures of Theresa May and her team. Besides, he still lost.

Thus far Keir Starmer has been able to land some deft blows on Boris Johnson because the prime minister’s coronavirus action plan hasn’t always gone to plan. Sir Keir was able to tap into a common theme around the government’s “road map” to unlocking the lockdown. When even the foreign secretary gets so publicly muddled up on the detail of family reunions and when the new rules take effect (actually rather important details), it makes it easier to call for these things to be cleared up. When Sir Keir regrets the lack of consensus he can simply point to the way the prime minister’s tactics have been ignored or even ridiculed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is skill though – the earnest quest to encourage ministers to get their act together is accompanied by a frank admission that it would not be easy for any government.

It was the same in the Labour leader’s first session of prime minister’s questions. Supportive of ministers, he nonetheless had to tell Mr Johnson that his cabinet was late to lockdown, late to testing and late to the personal protective equipment shortage. All broadly consensual truths, with a death toll standing in testament to failure. His health team – especially new appointment Rosena Allin-Khan – have also highlighted the scandal of the care home epidemic. All are issues where even the prime minister himself seems unhappy with the state of affairs, and no one seems inclined to give the health secretary much of a break. Labour has also cleverly dodged the Conservatives’ clumsy attempts to draw them into meaningless committees so that they would then be less free to criticise ministers and be forced to share the blame for Tory blunders. The job of an opposition is to oppose, constructively. That job is being done efficiently; the tone is right. The criticisms are growing more urgent, as well they might. The government is divided now, not the opposition.

The bolder of Sir Keir’s latest moves has been on Europe. Instead of allowing himself to be portrayed as some sort of bitter Remainiac, he has instead invited the government to deliver the “fantastic” UK-EU free trade agreement they’ve been promising – with everything, Mr Johnson promises, on course for a smooth end to the transition period on 31 December. If the government somehow manages to achieve that, then he could still ask pointed relevant questions while welcoming it. If, more likely, the talks fail, he can equally ask why the government didn’t deliver their golden promise. If the government is forced into asking for, or agreeing to, an extension to the transition period through force majeure – Covid-19 – then Sir Keir can again wonder why the U-turn came so late: win-win-win for Labour.

It is strange to see a Labour opposition leader mount a sustained and effective attack on the Conservatives, who (very) quietly celebrated a decade in power (one way or another) on Sunday. Not since John Major’s doomed government stumbled to defeat at the hands of Tony Blair in 1997 has Labour had a better chance of scrambling back to power. Or at least possibly, or potentially – Labour’s humiliating fourth defeat in a row in 1992 was, after all, followed by the New Labour landslide five years later.

Of course this parliament has hardly begun, and the coronavirus crisis will eventually pass. The Tories remain 20 points or so ahead of Labour in the polls, Mr Johnson has healthy personal ratings, and by the time of the (presumed) 2024 election politics will be very different again. Labour’s own policy programme is non-existent, its leading personalities barely even household names in their own kitchens. Oppositions also have to make some evidence of being a government-in-waiting to win the voters’ trust. Labour is not there yet. Nevertheless, Sir Keir has shown he at least understands the nature of the challenge. If the relaxation of the lockdown goes badly wrong, and the NHS does become overwhelmed, then it is the Tories who might find themselves 20 points behind in the polls. What might happen then to Mr Johnson and his government would be yet another unpredictable factor in political life.

In his commendably short (five minute) formal TV reply to the prime minister he again balanced support for him with an unanswerable appeal for future fairness, so that care workers struggling now on less than the minimum wage will get more than a just clap a week from us. There was no vote-killing silliness about nationalising the sector or some abstruse lecture on inequality. He was a touch wooden, and needs to work a bit on that though.