When friends heard I was writing a book about Keir Starmer, there were the usual questions: does he believe in anything? What’s he like? Isn’t he, they asked with a frown, a bit boring? The last of these was the easiest to answer because he really isn’t dull. Starmer is good company, engagingly funny and listens in a way that too many politicians too often fail to do.
There is, of course, a long tradition of advisers (or ex-advisers like me) wailing on about how they wish more voters could see this or that candidate as we do. But the gap between the reality and perception of Starmer is bigger than with most, and it cannot simply be down to the way he sometimes closes in on himself when a camera is pointed at him, or how the online snobs – largely from the left – mock his accent and call him “Keith”.
