Only a few months ago, Keir Starmer was hailed as a prime minister in waiting who was giving Boris Johnson serious jitters. Now the shine appears to be coming off Labour’s leader.
Starmer’s ‘forensic’ approach can only get him so far. And there are serious questions about whether he has what it takes to get the Labour party back to winning ways. The postponement of last year’s elections hasn’t helped, as it meant Starmer missed a chance to show what his party could achieve without Corbyn at the top; everything about how a Labour party with Starmer at the helm might fare with the electorate remains theoretical. For his critics, the worry is that Starmer could be Ed Miliband 2.0: a leader, not without strengths, but just simply not good enough.
To pile more pressure on Starmer, he knows that if he fails to succeed in 2024, Labour will be condemned to its fifth general election defeat in a row.
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