Tories should be terrified of Starmer’s ruthless streak

How does a Labour leader going into an election with only around 200 MPs to his name become prime minister? Well, the conventional answer is that he doesn’t, as Neil Kinnock demonstrated in 1987. Kinnock stuck around for a second go in 1992, but still couldn’t get over the line. We can tell from Sir Keir Starmer’s utterances this week that he is not really a sticking around type of bloke. We can also tell that he has identified a path to Downing Street that, while rocky and full of potential pitfalls, might just be navigable.

In his audacious conference speech on Tuesday, Starmer explicitly set himself a punishing goal – to take Labour into power at the next election, removing its frontbench team from ‘the shadows’ and catapulting it into government. Labour had had three ‘winners’ he said – name-checking Attlee, Wilson and Blair – and he intended to be the fourth.