ONE YEAR ON... THE SKY IS DEATHLY GREY IN STARMERLAND

Lapses in judgment, U-turns galore and, most troublingly, an abyss between himself and the nation. Can the PM save himself?

- BY ANDY COULSON

Being unpopular as a prime minister, one might argue, goes with the territory. So, as he approaches his one-year anniversary, Sir Keir Starmer, I suspect, isn’t losing too much sleep over polls that show him to have had the worst ever start as a newly elected PM.

He has time on his side and an opposition that is split between a diminished Conservative Party lacking confidence and Reform who know how to make news but who still wilt under serious policy heat.

But what should worry Starmer is the unscientific feel of the British people. That harder to define sense of connection — or lack of it — with those who really matter.

On that measure there’s evidence that he’s in serious trouble. That after being in our lives and on our TVs for five years, that feeling of who he is and what he stands for is firming up... and not in a good way. Or as one disappointed Labour voter said to me recently: “This government has all the Keir and no idea.” Ouch.

One of my roles when working for David Cameron was to filter out the incoming criticism and give a view on what I thought would stick. A finger in the air process but one, as a former newspaper editor, I had some instincts for.

I was as alive to the sarcastic dinner party anecdote about my boss as I was the screaming headline. I also paid attention to non-obvious media — stuff that sits well outside of the Westminster bubble — for evidence that a character problem might be cutting through.

Comedian Rosie Jones's interview on Patrick Kielty’s Radio 5 show on Saturday was one of those moments that made me worry for Starmer. Jones was promoting her new sitcom Pushers, which tells the story of a disabled woman who takes to drug dealing when her benefits are cut.