The country today gains an opposition leader who will for the first time subject the government’s competence in this coronavirus crisis to relentless scrutiny. The political landscape will be recast beyond recognition. Where there was no effective opposition, a void, a limbo, now in Keir Starmer the party has a grand prosecutor well qualified to hold the government’s feet to the fire. Until now Boris Johnson had nothing to fear from a four-times vanquished and demoralised foe, with a leader so discredited a plurality of his own voters tell YouGov he changed their party for the worse. From now on Johnson faces the challenge of an unrecognisably remade opposition. A trusted, tried and tested, big-brained grown-up arrives as a formidable opponent to this ramshackle, impromptu and patently incompetent prime minister.
Starmer has swept the board, a man risen without enemies. No digging has found anything but decency and a background of pro bono work: “a bit dull” is the worst they can think of. Not since Tony Blair in 1994 has a Labour leader emerged from the party’s byzantine structures with support from every section, backed by a majority of MPs, trade unions, affiliates and now its members, too. He has promised unity and this solid support may augur an end to the party’s civil wars. The respectful tone of the leadership campaign in the three finalists’ hustings drew praise from all sides: peace was possible. His cool authority swayed many Jeremy Corbyn supporters and Momentum members, when only a short while ago it was glumly assumed only a Corbynite stood a chance.
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