Sir Keir Starmer might be a symptom not a cause of a long term Labour malaise.

Sir Keir Starmer attracts a lot of criticism for his failure to perform better against Boris Johnson, looking at the polling figures (both voting intention and leadership metrics) it appears at the next general election Sir Keir is set play the role of Khalid bin Barghash to Boris Johnson’s Harry Rawson. I have a bit of sympathy for Starmer, one because of the toxic legacy bequeathed to him by Jeremy Corbyn and the fact Labour have some fundamental problems that long predate Starmer.

Today is the forty-seventh anniversary of the last time a Labour leader other than Anthony Charles Lynton Blair won a general election for Labour and the fundamental problems Labour have can be seen in the chart below.

It shows that the Conservatives have no problems finding an election winner whilst Labour struggles, this may well be down to the fact the Conservative message resonates more with the electorate. What must be truly worrying for the Corbynite left is that many of them consider Tony Blair a Tory so it is quite something in their world that no Labour leader has won a general election in nearly half a century, and no, 2017 wasn’t an election victory for Labour.

That chart above gets much worse if you extend it to cover the last seventy years.

Instead of criticising Sir Keir Starmer perhaps Labour should wonder what is behind this persistent failure for the party? Is there another Tony Blair out there? Will the party accept them?

TSE