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It seems like most of the criticism of Starmer at the moment (including this one) boils down to two points:
1) He should have been more critical of the Tories
2) He should set out more of their vision for the country https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/16/keir-starmer-leadership-urgent-course-correction-labour
1) He should have been more critical of the Tories
2) He should set out more of their vision for the country https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/16/keir-starmer-leadership-urgent-course-correction-labour
On 1) it’s a tough to get the tone right, and I don't think he has been far off. However, I think consistency has probably been a bigger issue. It has been clear for at least 5 months that the criticism of the government is that they didn’t/won’t lockdown early enough...
So you need to keep hitting that bruise over and over again until the public notice it and you definitely don’t let yourself flop when it comes to schools closing or further lockdowns. I suspect this floppiness was mostly driven by overcaution.
e.g. it seems they got shook by a (pretty weak) government attack, so didn’t feel about to come out and say that, obviously, schools should close. Individually this isn’t massive, but this kind of caution has limited their ability to build up a clear consistent critique.
On 2) (vision) it feels like the real question is timing. Set out a vision too early and it either becomes stale or gets nicked. Set it out too late and your opposition has a free run at defining you before you can define yourself.
This is, I suspect, why successful opposition leaders are often the ones who spend less time in the job. For Blair that was less than 3 years, for Wilson it was under 4, for Atlee it was 2 months. Also - see Jacinda for a more recent example.
One way to get around this would be to pick a medium-term project that isn’t your long term vision, but helps mitigate against one of your parties brand weaknesses – e.g. Cameron and huskies.
But we don’t know if Starmer would have done this in different circumstances.
The obvious choice would have been to spend the last year talking about crime, but that would seem strange when crime rates dropped so much, and something a bit more important was happening.
The obvious choice would have been to spend the last year talking about crime, but that would seem strange when crime rates dropped so much, and something a bit more important was happening.
So given he has missed this stage, he will just have to keep treading water until the vision setting out stage - which I would guess is going to ramp up over Summer and into conference season.
Ultimately, he will sink or swim based on the success of that.
Ultimately, he will sink or swim based on the success of that.
Overall, apart from consistency on the critique of the government, I don't think the criticisms of Starmer are particularly fair.
The recent drop in his numbers is probably because he hasn't really set out a vision yet, but there are also harms in going too soon.
The recent drop in his numbers is probably because he hasn't really set out a vision yet, but there are also harms in going too soon.
