Katy Balls Katy Balls

Keir Starmer’s dysfunctional Downing Street 

Keir Starmer in Downing Street (Getty) 
issue 05 October 2024

By rights, the Conservative party conference in Birmingham ought to have been a funereal affair. It was the first time the party had gathered after its worst-ever election defeat and the number of former MPs rivalled the number of current ones. And yet the mood was surprisingly upbeat. ‘Opposition is so freeing,’ said one MP at the bar in the early hours.

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