Starmer's fatal flaw is that he's a normal man in an abnormal job
Speak to those close to the Prime Minister and they will tell you about him as a dad, desperate to be back in the flat above Number 11 Downing Street on Thursday evenings in time for his son when he comes back from kickboxing. They will tell you about how his idea of relaxation is to read the football transfer gossip and watch old Arsenal clips on Youtube. I spent six weeks trailing after Keir Starmer for a profile in the New Statesman and the man I saw felt both hidden and remarkably open and honest – often naively so.
The most startling example of this in my own experience was watching Starmer trying not to cry as he spoke to me about his brother. I have interviewed many prime ministers – from Tony Blair to Boris Johnson – and almost all were expert in moving the conversation on whenever the conversation turned onto difficult, personal terrain. Each had an inbuilt political antenna which seemed to go off when difficult subjects arose. The best of them were able to move the conversation on with tact; others simply dominated the conversation with politics. Starmer, though, is different. For a man with a reputation for political dishonesty – winning the Labour leadership on a platform of Corbynism only to destroy Corbyn and Corbynism in office – he is remarkably (even cavalierly) open in interviews.
Starmer answers questions with an apolitical normality which is striking. When I spoke with him, he did come with a line or story to tell. He told me what he thought: that the country was not broken and simply needed careful, prudent reform. In subsequent interviews marking his first year in office, he said he regretted his 'island of strangers' speech and – it seemed – much of his first year in office. He said he did not read his speeches closely enough and had been distracted by foreign affairs and his family home being firebombed. All of this came as he u-turned on his proposed cuts to winter fuel and disability benefits.
Much of this is entirely normal and understandable. But he is the Prime Minister and, fair or otherwise, we expect the holders of this office not to be normal. We expect them to be stronger, more hardworking, foresightful and wise than we are. We expect them to be resilient and to know where they are taking the country. Keir Starmer is a normal man in an abnormal job. If he is to succeed in office he needs to be less normal.
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