Why Keir Starmer is failing against Boris Johnson

The way to beat Boris Johnson is to offer a stark contrast to his political persona. At all points radiate seriousness, professionalism and competence and in times such as these the electorate will soon tire of his joshing and clown-like antics and flock to your banner instead.

That’s the theory anyway and it seems to be working fine for Nicola Sturgeon, as evidenced by the SNP’s stratospheric poll ratings.

But it isn’t working for Keir Starmer, whose Labour party remains way behind Johnson’s Tories in UK-wide polls, despite the Labour leader matching Sturgeon’s demeanour comb for comb and furrowed brow for furrowed brow.

Starmer overshadows his own party’s top team every bit as much as Sturgeon does hers. In both cases the idea that a leader needs a group of high-calibre and well-known senior colleagues has fallen away. But while Sturgeon is perceived as an Ice Queen, so far Starmer has been viewed as the first example in British politics of a One Man Bland.