Once Keir Starmer had beaten the left, he had no plan for government

As a candidate for the leadership of his party, Keir Starmer’s pitch to Labour voters was this: keep most of Jeremy Corbyn’s policies but present them with a suit on and a tie done up.

The people behind his campaign to replace Corbyn, which began months before the 2019 election in which the veteran left-winger was dispatched by Boris Johnson, saw Starmer as the best person to deliver this message.

With the backing of Morgan McSweeney, Peter Mandelson, Roger Liddle and other figures on the right wing of the Labour Party, Starmer became leader. He made ten left-wing pledges to the Labour Party members who elected him. All were subsequently abandoned or watered down.

First as Labour leader, then as prime minister, Starmer kept the appearance of managerial, suit and tie professionalism, while abandoning the policies he said he’d carry over from Corbyn, the man he had described as a friend.

“The door is open, and you can leave,” Starmer told left-wingers, who he disparaged as antisemites.