At 5 o’clock on Friday morning, just as the faint London dawn broke, Sir Keir Starmer walked into the huge Turbine Hall at the city’s Tate Modern museum to meet his supporters. He wore a smile that mixed delight and uncertainty and his eyes darted across the room. “We did it!”, he shouted, almost in disbelief.
Seen from overseas, that disbelief might cause surprise. Like Anthony Albanese’s Labor party in 2022, Starmer’s Labour party went into this election as a firm favourite. It had, after all, led the Conservative government by over 20 points in opinion polls ever since Liz Truss’ disastrous 49 days as prime minister in 2022.
