Embracing Blair’s legacy is vital if Starmer is to ever win power

LIKE crooners past their prime announcing yet another “comeback tour” so political leaders promising to re-launch their parties often elicit weary resignation among voters – if they can even be bothered to pay attention.

But Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party definitely needs a re-set and his promise, in an interview with the Financial Times, to plot a new course for the official Opposition from the autumn does at least show an acceptance that all is not well with Labour at the moment.

The pandemic has, of course, skewed politics in ways that few could have imagined 18 months ago. It is as if normal political life has stalled, voters’ critical faculties have been surppressed and the focus for the majority has – rightly – been on hoping that our leaders are getting things right rather than undermining their efforts at every turn.

Labour has found it difficult to cope with engaging properly in normal political knock-about, veering from grudging support to sometimes ill-thought through and inconsistent criticism of the party in power. It has also, to be fair, landed some credible blows on the PM’s leadership but the coronavirus crisis had made it next to impossible to build any sort of momentum.

Any honest assessment of whether Labour would have handled the pandemic any better than the Conservatives would have to conclude that some things might have been better, others worse. The key issue that divided the parties – whether to back the EU’s joint state-led approach to vaccination or – as Boris Johnson did – opt to go it alone backing the private sector is the one clear area where it has become plain the Conservative government got it right. And that may yet prove to be the truly decisive choice.

Sir Keir’s selling point when he won the Labour leadership race was not being Jeremy Corbyn. The leftwinger had, after all, led Labour to its worst election defeat since 1935. Now, however, Starmer desperately needs something more. And many, including those in his own party, are still wondering what that might be.

In his FT interview the Labour leader talks in general terms. But rebuilding trust with the people, links with business and an understanding of what makes the countryside tick are all on the agenda. Our own Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport is charged with that last challenge after an acceptance by the party that it needs to win rural seats to take power.

One telling point Sir Keir is now making to his party is that it should embrace rather than angrily dismiss the legacy of Tony Blair. For all his failure of judgement over Iraq, Blair did lead the most successful Labour government for a generation and held power for a decade before handing over to Gordon Brown who was PM for a further three years.

There were achievements during that period and a definite feeling that the party had shaken off the shackles of the past to adopt policies fitting for the turn of the 20th century.

If Sir Keir Starmer fancies himself as a Labour leader in the mould of Blair he may have to part company with some on the left. But if he really wants to be PM that may be no bad thing. He has it all to play for.