If Keir Starmer has a strategy, it’s this: to paint his party as more competent than the Tories while keeping his head down on almost everything else. The aim of this is to ensure Labour can crawl across the line come the next election, winning a majority with a bit of help from the SNP. There’s a big problem with this approach though: it’s the same one that failed to work for Ed Miliband.
To beat it, Boris Johnson need do little more than recycle the Tories’ 2015 campaign, which depicted Miliband in Salmond’s pocket, substituting Sturgeon in his place.
The other problem with the ‘do as little as possible’ strategy is that it will almost certainly result in the break up of the Union. And what then for Labour? Beyond the obvious ideological horrors of the Union falling apart, losing Scotland would also presumably lose Labour their majority in the rest of the UK, making the whole thing a short-term bet at best.
Just as Blair did, Starmer needs to focus solely on the swing voters and not worry too much about keeping his base happy
So what should Starmer do if he wants to win in 2024? The answer is simple: look to another former Labour leader for inspiration.
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