Whatever you do, don’t call it a “reset”. Yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer set out six milestones which he has committed his government to achieve by the next general election. Labour have pushed back hard on the initial media framing of his speech as a reset or relaunch, and fairly so. Resuscitation is the more appropriate description, though the patient may be beyond saving.

Since winning the general election in July, Sir Keir and his government have found themselves buffeted by events and scandals, from the riots in England and Northern Ireland in August to the resignation of his Chief of Staff, Sue Gray, after a fierce briefing war between her critics and supporters dominated her time in Number 10.

But they have not made life easy for themselves, either. The introduction of means testing for Winter Fuel Allowance was the one pre-Budget decision that cut through to the public. Even if the policy is a sensible one, and may even lead to more pensioners applying for and receiving pension credit to continue receiving their winter fuel payments, its positioning as an isolated policy disconnected from the government’s wider agenda allowed Labour to be characterised as a cruel government taking money away from freezing pensioners.

Read more Mark McGeoghegan

The public’s favourability towards the Prime Minister and his party has collapsed over his first five months in office. Immediately after winning power, Sir Keir’s net favourability rating in Ipsos polling was 7, and has since fallen to -29, the lowest rating of any of the politicians Ipsos asked about except Rachel Reeves, who registered a -32. Net favourability towards the Labour Party has fallen from 6 to -21,........

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