Keir Starmer’s tepid policies are alienating Labour’s core supporters

‘The problem with Labour under Keir Starmer is that it is even less radical than Blair’s party and certainly a long way from amassing a 197-seat majority.’ Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Polly Toynbee’s smörgåsbord of social policy benefits once Labour is elected is enticing (Not radical enough? Starmer’s caution may yet carry Labour to power, 2 August), but why is it only deliverable if most of the party keeps quiet during the run-up to the next election? Or, more significantly, what is it that the silenced are trying to say?

Leaving aside New Labour overreach and the hubris of Tony Blair’s foreign policy, the gains through initiatives such as Sure Start, child poverty alleviation and increased spending on education cannot be ignored. But set against that were the disastrous private finance initiative failures in NHS provision and the contracting out of public services to business.