A manifesto for Labour

Never has an opposition leader with ratings as dismal as Keir Starmer’s gone on to win an election. In any other year, his wooden speeches and nebulous agenda would have earned him a place on the long list of Labour losers. But this time, the real question of the election was: who has disappointed voters most? And here the Tories proved hard to beat. Years of talking right and governing left has left them with a record that is the opposite of what was promised. ‘Either I’m delivering for you, or I’m not,’ said Rishi Sunak. It really is that simple, he said. Voters, it seems, agreed.

Conservatives have all summer for their postmortem, but for the government now there is work to do. Having won over the public, Starmer’s next job will be to win over the markets. They rebelled over Liz Truss’s borrow-and-spend agenda – and crushed her in the process.