Decency is not enough to win vote

Keir Starmer could be forgiven if, on waking up this morning, he pulls the duvet straight back over his head. One look out of his bedroom window at the political landscape and the Labour wreckage littering it should convince him today is not worth getting up for.

Some Labour MPs are even saying that this defeat is worse than the one Jeremy Corbyn led the party to in 2019.

Steady on, guys. That was the worst electoral catastrophe since 1935 and it is partly because of it that Labour has crashed to another.

But only partly. Sir Keir has rightly taken responsibilty for Labour’s failure to cut through at these elections because he also knows he must share some blame for it.

Which is why it is troubling that it was Angela Rayner who got the bullet last night as party chair.

The Sunday Mirror is a friend of the Labour Party. We believe Sir Keir would make a good prime minister and we want to see him as the next one.

But true friends must be critical friends.

Sir Keir is a good and decent man. But that is not enough.

He has a forensic ability to dismantle Boris Johnson under cross-examination. But that is not enough either.

The graveyards of political careers are full of good and decent men and women who had a way with words.

Leaders need to inspire. Leaders cannot sit on fences. And most important of all, leaders need to set out a direction of travel for others to follow.

There were too many complaints at this election from voters who said they simply did not know what Labour stands for.

It is the job of the leader to put that right. To clearly and unequivocally set out Labour’s stall so that voters know what they will get in return for their support.

Otherwise Sir Keir may find he has all the time in the world to stay in bed.