Is Keir Starmer ready for office?
Britain’s Labour leader has made his party electable again. But there is more to do
It is 26 years since Labour last wrested power from the Conservatives in a British general election. At the moment Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, is on course to emulate Sir Tony Blair’s achievement in 1997. The next election must happen by January 2025 and is likely to take place sooner. Labour enjoys a big, if narrowing, poll lead and has positioned itself assiduously as a government-in-waiting. That alone is remarkable. Sir Keir became the party’s leader in 2020, soon after Jeremy Corbyn had led Labour to its worst electoral defeat since 1935. Labour has been greatly helped by the Tories’ haplessness in office; even so, to have a good chance of winning is a huge turnaround.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Is he ready?”
From the April 29th 2023 edition
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