Like all politicians in the flesh, Sir Keir Starmer looks like his newspaper caricatures, with a large concrete head, big buggy, slightly rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights eyes, and an earnest disposition. A Labour leader who isn’t obviously pleased with himself and a leader who is almost exactly what you might expect.
When we meet at the Labour HQ down near Tate Modern, it is obvious Starmer has had a fair bit of media training, and while he’s quite stilted, he wants to make a good impression. Tony Blair was extremely Blairish, and in person he was always sort of like Blair times 10. Gordon Brown was exactly the opposite and always looked as though he would rather be somewhere else. Ed Miliband always looked as though he was about to make a speech (something he shared with Neil Kinnock, although with Kinnock there was always the possibility he might launch into song, too). And as for Jeremy Corbyn, well, it was like talking to an Antony Gormley sculpture.
