Starmer's new-look Labour is in the hope of power fashioned

WHEN Keir Starmer offered the role of chief of staff to Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who oversaw the partygate inquiry, he craved an organiser on his inner team who understood the interlocking levers of Whitehall - and the pitfalls of operating them.

- Anne Mcklvoy

The "exam question" was how to ensure that an Opposition lacking match practice in the practice of power would not be caught ill-prepared if Labour were to win the next election. Gray's forthright advice was to move at least a year beforehand and assemble a team Starmer would be happy to govern with any time an election was called.

Yesterday saw her start her job at Labour HQ and a reshuffle which reflected her advice. The result has been deemed a "Blairite" revival, which was not really Starmer's intention. He was not an enthusiastic Blairite at the time (other than through membership of the diehard London sect of Labour lawyers), so this is less tribute band and more a template he thinks will de-risk his election chances.

When advising Boris Johnson, first in his mayoral quests and then in the attempt to get to No10, the strategist Lynton Crosby used to talk of "getting the barnacles off the boat", to smooth his candidate's path to success.