Ukraine crisis has helped Starmer to find his voice

It’s eight months since the general election, but suddenly it feels like Britain has a new prime minister.

- JOE MURPHY

Whether he is treading the diplomatic tightrope in Donald Trump’s Washington, gladhanding European leaders back home or commanding the House of Commons, Keir Starmer seems a leader reborn MPs who study the premier most closely remark on his stronger, clearer voice. It is as though the crisis over Ukraine has catalysed a man pigeonholed as a timid leader with a robotic style. The Mk II Starmer is bold – a shaper of international events, rather than the victim of them.

What’s more, voters are noticing. Polls show that Starmer’s personal ratings have nudged upwards, even though approval of the government as a whole has continued to drift downwards. Labour may be at a historically abysmal 28 per cent, but there is finally a modest three-point gap with Reform, on 25, and a comfortable lead over the Conservatives marooned on 21.

For a Labour Party grappling with unsolvable dilemmas over public spending, service cuts, welfare reform and immigration, the uptick in Starmer’s fortunes represents hope that a leader who commands renewed respect on the world stage might help them navigate the hard trade-offs required at home.

Starmer would not be the first prime minister to come of age in a military crisis. Margaret Thatcher was reborn in the Falklands victory, which bought her a khaki election victory and gave time for her economic reforms to take root. John Major grew in stature when, within weeks of becoming PM, he was pitched into the first Iraq conflict. Tony Blair cruised the international stage effortlessly for a decade, and his third victory in 2005 came after the second Iraq war, even though the inquiries into that invasion ultimately ruined his reputation.