In 2020 Keir Starmer took over a demoralised and fractured Labour Party still reeling from its worst election defeat since 1935.
The task ahead of him was daunting. With an 80-seat majority and riding high in the polls Boris Johnson looked set for a decade in power. Few believed Starmer could turn around Labour’s fortunes in just a few years, let alone lead his party to such a resounding election victory.
This is how Starmer picked up a dejected Labour Party and guided it to victory.
The awakening
Starmer knew the Labour Party had to change but it took the Hartlepool by-election in May 2021 for him to appreciate the scale of the challenge which faced him. Labour lost the once-safe seat to the Tories by more than 8,000 votes. The drubbing was so bad that Starmer even thought about quitting.
It was a pivotal moment. Starmer and his aides dusted themselves down and draw up a route map to take Labour back to power. There were to be three stages: overhaul the party, convince voters Labour had changed and then set out the plans for government.
Ditching the Corbyn agenda
While some Labour MPs, such as Rachel Reeves, had refused to have anything to do with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership Starmer decided to serve in his shadow Cabinet. When he ran for the leadership he stood on a platform which promised continuity with his predecessor, including common ownership of mail, rail, water and energy, axing student fees and the end of NHS outsourcing.
Most of these pledges were quietly dropped as Starmer pushed Labour towards the centre ground. Although this left him open to accusations of being inconsistent, his team decided this was a price worth paying if Labour was to be trusted again on the economy, defence and national security.
“We will never under my leadership go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government,” he said in his 2021 conference speech. He was as good as his word.
Cull of the Corbynites
It was not just Corbyn’s policies which were ditched. Starmer set about removing the Corbynites from the party, including Corbyn himself. Anyone accused of anti-semitism was shown the door. Rule changes were passed at conference making it harder for local party members to deselect their MPs
Starmer used the leadership’s clout to take control of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee. This gave him the power to place loyalists in key seats and the ability to block or weed out supporters of Corbyn.
The end result could be seen at party conferences. A party which had waved the Palestinian flag on the conference floor was transformed into one waving the Union Jack.
Ruthless reshuffles
After a year it was clear that Starmer’s shadow Cabinet team was not working. Starmer decided to act but even his closest allies were surprised with how ruthless he was prepared to be.
Shadow Chancellor Annelise Dodds was replaced by Rachel Reeves. Reeves, a former Bank of England economist, provided an economic weight and seriousness which Starmer regarded as essential if Labour were to be trusted on the economy. Nick Thomas-Symonds, one of Starmer’s closest allies, was replaced as shadow Home Secretary by Yvette Cooper. Wes Streeting, one of the best media performers, was given the health brief.
In a second reshuffle in 2023 Starmer cemented his grip by appointing key figures from the Tony Blair era to prominent positions. Pat McFadden was charged with preparing Labour’s election campaign, while Hilary Benn was brought back as shadow Northern Ireland Secretary.
Bringing down Johnson
There is no doubt that Starmer has been lucky with his enemies. The damaged caused by Liz Truss’s mini budget shredded the Conservatives’ reputation on the economy. Rishi Sunak’s election campaign has blundered from one gaffe to another.
But Starmer helped hasten their demise with his questions in the Commons and astute use of Parliamentary tactics. He ensnared Boris Johnson over Partygate by challenging him in the Commons to say whether he had followed all the rules.
“It was a thread that we pulled over months. I was less bothered by what he was saying to me than trying to be forensic and getting him on the record. It paid dividends in the end. He had to leave parliament – because he’d lied,” Starmer said recently.
Labour also ushered in Liz Truss’s departure by forcing a vote on fracking which caused such chaos among the Tories she resigned the next morning.
Restored Labour’s reputation in its heartlands.
The Hartlepool result had rammed home to Starmer how much Labour had lost touch with its traditional base. Labour was regarded as the party of city-based graduates which was weak on defence and immigration.
It set in place a strategy to win back what it called “hero voters” – former working class, Leave-voting supporters who had flirted with the Tories in 2019. Starmer changed Labour’s language – every speech referred to working people – and started to focus on issues which mattered to people: the cost-of-living crisis, housing, fixing the NHS and improving transport.
This was key part of Labour’s rehabilitation. “Only when we showed that Labour had changed would people start listening to us again,” one adviser told the Mirror. Slowly, the tide began to turn in Labour’s favour. In 2022 they gained just 22 council seats in England, a year later they won 537. By-election defeats were changed in by-election victories in Mid Bedfordshire, Wellingborough and Tamworth.
And changed his reputation
Team Starmer also realised it was not just Labour’s reputation which needed updating – the leader also needed a make-over.
In retrospect, Starmer’s advisers agree it was a mistake for him to be picture taking the knee alongside Angela Rayner and they admit he got in a tangle on the issue of transgender and women’s rights. Focus groups revealed that many people saw him as a buttoned-up lawyer and thought he was posh because of his knighthood.
Over time a new Starmer was presented to the public: an ordinary bloke who still plays eight-a-side football once a week and has an Arsenal session ticket. He stressed his working class background so much that his reference to being the son of toolmaker has become a national joke. But he also talked movingly about caring for his mother during her illness and the importance of his family in keeping him on the level.
Discipline
Not for nothing has Starmer been described as the most ambitious and ruthless person ever to lead the Labour Party. In pursuit of victory he has imposed an iron discipline on the party. All public comments by shadow Cabinet ministers have to be cleared by the Leader’s Office. During the election candidates were banned from speaking to the media without permission.
At the same, Starmer ditched any policies which could be exploited by the Tories. A £28billion-a-year pledge to boost the green economy was watered down. Plans to renationalise the water companies were ditched and, to the fury of the unions, reforms to improve workers’ rights were modified.
Rachel Reeves rejected any spending commitment which could not be properly funded. Many complained Labour’s offer to voters lacked boldness and failed to do enough to help those most in need. But Starmer prioritised winning power over making unaffordable promises.
Winning the ground war
By contrast with the demoralised Tory Party which relies on a depleted and ageing membership, Labour was able to count on hundreds of thousands of party members and activists. They also had more money, raking in more than ten times the amount of the Conservatives in the final weeks of the election.
These two resources – financial and personnel – meant they could knock on more doors, deliver more leaflets and, crucially get the vote out on polling day. Labour’s campaign chief Morgan McSweeney also played a blinder by making sure Labour was ready for a snap election in July and buying up advertising space in advance.
Friends and enemies
Labour did not just set out to win back its former voters. Starmer was determined to win over Conservative voters too. Tory voters who feared a Corbyn government were reassured by Labour’s emphasis on economic security and the promise of stable, responsible government.
The defections of former Tory MPs Dan Poulter and Natalie Elphicke were paraded as examples of how everyone was now welcome in the Labour Party.
Labour also benefitted from a non-aggression pact with the Lib Dems so they did not contest each other in seats where the other was best placed to unseat the Tories. Although the alliance was never officially acknowledged it helped deliver dozens of extra seats.
A dollop of luck
Starmer has been a lucky general. He could not have foreseen that Boris Johnson would turn Downing Street into party central or that the Tories would make Liz Truss leader. Nor that the SNP would be beset by scandals, allowing Labour to rebuild its support in Scotland.
And he could not have predicted that Rishi Sunak would launch his campaign in the rain, skip a D-Day event and be caught up in a betting scandal. But perhaps the biggest dollop of luck was Nigel Farage entering the election race which split the right-wing vote in two and gifted Labour dozens of seats.
