Will the Ukraine crisis finally end Stop the War’s hold over Labour?

For weeks, discussion about partygate dominated Britain’s newspapers. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put paid to that. But Boris Johnson is mistaken if he thinks he has been saved. Instead Keir Starmer is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of the Ukrainian crisis.

This might come as a surprise to some. After all, history suggests that a Conservative government should be able to benefit from this conflict by relying on its traditional reputation for being strong on defence and foreign policy in general. Yet the Ukrainian war is different, at least for now, to skirmishes that have arisen in the past. It is a conflict in which Britain has firmly taken a side but to which no British troops will be sent: the main impact on Britons will probably be confined to even higher energy prices and a steeper rise in inflation. Scuttling around the world stage in recent weeks, Boris Johnson appeared hopeful that waving the flag and making dramatic speeches was a way to make voters forget all about partygate.