When earnest Keir Starmer looks more of a Prime Minister than the actual Prime Minister, anything is possible.
Labour changed all political calculations by picking a substantial champion just as the coronavirus exposes the dangerous faults of lightweight liar Boris Johnson.
Every crisis is an opportunity, and public confidence in the Government’s handling of the cataclysm is fading now that fatalities are mounting and the economy is plummeting. So all political bets are off.
As Starmer starts asking questions about slothful Johnson’s “serious mistakes” on tests, masks and ventilators, Labour MP Jo Stevens tells me: “Compared to Boris Johnson, it’s clear Keir Starmer has the Prime Ministerial qualities we are so desperately lacking right now.”
Laser-brain Starmer has put Labour back in the game and will forensically scrutinise Conservative incompetence with a focus beyond Jeremy Corbyn.
Spending the past fortnight interrogating coronavirus experts and devouring every scrap of information available with the insatiable appetite of a barrister swotting for a high-profile cross-examination, Starmer knows what he’s talking about.
Johnson won’t know what’s hit him when he finally climbs out of his sick bed.
But the new Labour leader knows he must walk the tightrope, with constructive opposition.
Tory attack dogs primed to smear him as rich and a friend of terrorists (he’s neither) will accuse Starmer of “playing politics”, a familiar wail against the Left from Right-wing politicians desperate to evade responsibility for their mistakes.
I don’t underestimate the size of the electoral mountain Starmer and Labour must scale to deliver a promised land.
But likeable Starmer is undeniably a serious man for a serious job in serious times. When families are burying loved ones and grafters are losing jobs, his ability to master facts deserves to triumph over Johnson’s lies and excuses.
