Keir Starmer has been taking advice from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as he gears Labour up for government.
Labour was last night polling at 50%, 22 points ahead of the Tories after Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak ’s gloomy Autumn Statement.
Mr Sunak’s arrival has failed to generate enough of a ‘bump’ in the polls to recover the Tories from Boris Johnson ’s litany of scandals and Liz Truss ’ disastrous 44 days in office.
Mr Starmer told the Times: "I've been talking to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for some time now.
"I'm conscious that we've been out of power for 12 years. That means I don't have people around the shadow cabinet table who've got huge experience in government. So, I'm determined that we need to be ready to hit the ground running."
He described predecessor Jeremy Corbyn ’s 2019 lengthy election manifesto as “history” - and revealed Labour will go into the next election with a “slim” and “focused” plan for government.
"If you've been in the Labour Party all your life, and you're a Labour MP, of course you want a Labour government," he says.
"That is how party politics works. But we did lose our way and the electorate gave us their verdict."
Mr Corbyn was kicked out of the Parliamentary Labour Party over antisemitism, and now sits in the Commons as an independent MP.
He also indicated Labour’s historic lack of female leaders is a problem - saying a woman should succeed him.
"We do need a female leader of the Labour Party," he said.
"I've got really powerful women around me, if you look at Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper, Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, Bridget Phillipson."
Asked if the next leader should be a woman, he said: "Yes, ideally.
"We'll have to see what the circumstances are, but I don't think we should shy away from that challenge at all."
