It’s been 100 first days of woe but Keir Starmer should take heart, Tony Blair’s weren’t a picnic either

‘He wants to be vindicated on the pitch like a stoical Gareth Southgate’: Keir Starmer seated at the Cabinet Office table in No 10. Photograph: Harry Borden/The Guardian

And on the hundredth day, he rested. The prime minister marked the passing of this crucial milestone for his young government by jetting off to an Italian villa borrowed from a friendly millionaire, to relax and plan for the hundred days to come.

No, not this prime minister, and not the millionaire you’re thinking of, either. This was Tony Blair back in August 1997, chilling by the Tuscan swimming pool belonging to then paymaster general, Geoffrey Robinson. Keir Starmer on the other hand, having been forced by the riots to scrap his own Italian holiday this summer, could be forgiven for spending his hundredth day screaming into a pillow.