It is an occupational hazard of being leader of the Labour party to receive a lot of unsolicited advice from people who think they have a better idea how to do the job. There’s no immunity from this for Sir Keir Starmer, even though he must be doing something right. Labour starts the run-up to a general election around 20 points ahead in the opinion polls. Rishi Sunak has just dropped a heavy hint that the UK will make its choice in the second half of this year, as I suggested would be the case last week. Whenever the election is called, few Tories think they have a prayer of clinging on to power.
For all these encouraging auguries for Labour, we are just a week into the new year and a dumper truck of suggestions about how he could be doing better has been unloaded on Sir Keir. The complaint from some is that he is too opaque about what the country should expect from a Labour government. Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham and head of policy during Ed Miliband’s time as leader, has helpfully branded Sir Keir “elusive” and lacking a comprehensible sense of purpose. Grist to the mills of those on the right who clamour for the Labour leader to spell out his intentions in pointillist detail.
