Keir Starmer needs to find his inner John Major

I still support Keir Starmer, but it’s hard going. The problem he has is, ironically, not being political enough rather than being too political! He hasn’t created a distinctive political persona and told us what he believes. He talks slogans but they are a veneer covering very little – at least very little that’s observable.

Harold Wilson said “Campaign from the Left, govern from the Centre” – and he did. So did Blair. Quite where Starmer is I’ve no idea. Some of his policies seem more Thatcherite than Blairite. Others are reactive , responding only to what Harold Macmillan called “Events”. Behind the scenes my guess is that there are some good things going on. But they get little prominence in the media because Starmer doesn’t sell them.

People can be divided broadly into “Persuaders” and “Reactors”. The former sell us what they’re doing. The latter only respond , and it’s often too late, unconvincing and nakedly opportunistic. Starmer is a Reactor, and people have rumbled that.

Starmer is a genuinely cerebral Prime Minister – a rare thing. The last was Gordon Brown whose intellectual brilliance was seen at its best when he showed internationally respected leadership during the global financial crisis during his premiership. Starmer is as bright as Brown, but with nothing like Brown’s political depth of experience. In truth Starmer isn’t a conventional politician at all.

Starmer first entered Parliament in 2015 at the age of 52. Whilst he had dabbled with politics, and was clearly a Labour supporter, his first highly successful career as a Lawyer precluded political activism. Moving quite late in the day into politics can be seen as a second career and he started close to the bottom of the Learning curve. And it shows.

The best politicians are grounded in grass roots activism. Starmer had no such grounding, The best Prime Ministers are grounded in previous performances in Parliament, often spread over many years. Again Starmer had done none of that. To be Shadow Brexit Secretary to Jeremy Corbyn, having previously been Shadow Minister for Immigration, were poisoned chalices. Significantly he could be consistent in neither job with his previously expressed personal views. As the Daily Mail later (accurately for once) put it:

“In his Labour leadership campaign he produced a 10-point manifesto including ‘defending freedom of movement’ and softer treatment of illegal immigrants. But after winning the leadership he began his long journey towards a harder line on immigration, sparking fury among his former allies on the left.”

Of course Starmer is not the first Labour Prime Minister to renege on his views from his past. Clement Attlee is perhaps the only one who didn’t! But where skilled communications helped Wilson and Blair get away with it brilliantly Starmer lacks that quality. He’s at best a dull public speaker sounding more like a summariser in a complex civil legal case than an impassioned advocate defending, or prosecuting in a criminal trial at the Old Bailey. The former worked, no doubt, in the rather cold world of the Crown Prosecution Service. But persuasive politicians need more passion.

Starmer needs to find his inner John Major, if he has one. Major seemed grey and dull – a huge contrast with Margaret Thatcher his predecessor as Prime Minister. But in 1992 he climbed onto a soapbox and won a General Election he was more than likely to lose. It was clever, courageous and effective. Starmer could learn from this.