After what was widely acknowledged to be one of the worst weeks of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership — in which Labour once again became embroiled in antisemitism and the leader himself was accused of indecision over Rochdale candidate Azhar Ali — the mood has suddenly switched.
Labour has won two more by-elections off the Conservatives, picking up Kingswood in South Gloucestershire and Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, in both cases overturning sizeable majorities. It is further evidence not only that the party is on course to form a government in the autumn, but that crises of their own making do not seem to be hampering their progress.
