Keir Starmer, the post-populist

IN 2019, WHEN Labour’s vote collapsed, Deborah Mattinson headed north to listen. Throughout the New Labour era she had run focus groups of swing voters. What car would Labour politicians drive? What did they drink and smoke? But she had not tested opinion in “red wall” seats in the Midlands and northern England, home to voters who had been among Labour’s most reliable before Brexit drove them into the arms of the Conservatives.

In a book published last September Ms Mattinson offers detailed studies of new Tory voters in three former Labour seats to help rectify that omission. And she offers some advice for Sir Keir Starmer, who became leader after that drubbing. He must introduce himself clearly, prove Labour’s economic competence and show that his party is serious about the fate of provincial towns. Above all, he must set out a positive, patriotic vision. In the words of Colin, a bricklayer from Stoke-on-Trent whom she interviewed: “Show us the Britain they want to see and the Britain they believe in.”