On the day he unveiled Gordon Brown’s 153-page report into renewing Britain’s democracy Keir Starmer showed his steely side and helped us better understand the evolving character of ‘Starmerism’.
Up till now, when asked what they think about the Labour leader, many voters, after scratching their heads, have said something like: ‘boring’, ‘dull’ and ‘bland’. These are tags that have plagued Starmer ever since his election as leader. Indeed, over the summer Starmer even had to order his own Shadow Cabinet to stop briefing journalists about how boring he is.
As Rishi Sunak is discovering, it is hard to demonise someone widely seen as boring
The reality behind the bland persona is however very different: for both in terms of party management and policy Starmer is, when it comes to the pursuit of power, much more brutal than boring.
Starmer’s rise has been remarkable considering that he only became an MP in 2015, the year Jeremy Corbyn – whose politics the soft left Starmer had little time for – was elected leader.
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