Keir Starmer is falling into the same trap as Francois Hollande

There has been no honeymoon for Keir Starmer after his election victory in July. That is hardly a surprise as it was a ‘loveless landslide’ that Labour achieved, winning just 34 per cent of the popular vote. In the two months since the general election, Starmer’s approval rating has dropped still further, with two-thirds of Brits sceptical that he is a force for the good.

Yet Starmer appears to be deluded about his popularity. The same delusion afflicted Francois Hollande when he was elected president of France in 2012. Like Starmer, he didn’t understand that his victory owed more to the failings of the opposition than his own star quality.

Nicolas Sarkozy had been elected president in 2007 on a pledge to crack down on crime and reinvigorate the economy; instead he became ‘president bling-bling’, a leader obsessed with the trappings of power.