Diane Abbott has exposed Keir Starmer’s Red Wall dilemma

Were Keir Starmer more like Gordon Brown in temperament then by now he’d be throwing his mobile phone at a wall and ranting about the bigotry of the electorate. Instead, he plods on. Or perhaps we should confine ourselves to saying merely that he plods given the lack of any discernible sign of progress.

YouGov produced more terrible numbers for Starmer this week when its monthly tracker poll on public views of his performance emerged. A month ago, it showed him in net negative territory for the first time, at -6 in the split between those saying he was doing well compared to those saying he was doing badly. 

Now that rating has deteriorated to -13. He scored especially badly with the over-50s (-19) and men (-22). Even Labour voters – who scored him a mighty +55 when he debuted on the chart last May – now only give him a +5.

The conventional template for success for an opposition leader says that he – we are talking Labour, so it’s always a he – should first secure his party’s electoral base and then seek to broaden its appeal.