Labour’s poll ratings have plummeted – so is Starmer’s future in question?

Starmer’s popularity has plummeted at a historic rate and the fact that MPs’ slim vote shares means they feel the threat personally. Photograph: James Speakman/PA

A lesson in comms for any prime minister: when asked whether you will serve another term, try to express some enthusiasm at the prospect.

When at the end of his first term, David Cameron breezily told a reporter he would not serve a third, he inadvertently fired the starting gun for leadership jostling between his potential successors. Keir Starmer fell into the same trap this month when he was asked whether he would fight the next election. “You’re getting way ahead of me,” he said.