Voters still don’t know what Keir Starmer stands for

Keir Starmer is frustrated. He wants to talk about the future but interviewers like me will insist on asking him about the past. ‘I can’t believe I’m still talking about my parents when I’m over 60,’ the Labour leader has been heard to complain to his advisers. In my BBC Panorama interview with him, I asked him about his mother’s words on her death bed: ‘You won’t let your dad go private, will you?’ I felt that plea – which he revealed to me in a previous interview – told a great deal about Starmer’s ideological roots. So too does his passionate belief in comprehensive schools. Unlike plenty of senior Labour figures – Diane Abbott, to name but one – he wouldn’t let his kids go to a selective school, let alone go private. He appears to relish the argument about putting VAT on school fees for the few, as it allows him to be seen to stand up for the many – the 93 per cent – who use state schools.