IT must be the shortest honeymoon since the silent-movie star Rudolph Valentino split up with his first wife on their wedding night.

Labour no longer leads the Tories. They are neck-and-neck on 27%. Labour’s 11% General Election lead has evaporated after 100 days of squalid, useless government.

Remember: the Tories are in the middle of an absurd race for the party’s leadership, in which Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch seem to be competing for who’s the weirdest and nastiest. Yet they’ve caught up with Labour.

Read more by Neil Mackay

Starmer has the same popularity numbers as Nigel Farage, the man whom half of voters polled say is “personally responsible” for the summer’s far-right riots.

Britain’s biggest villains are making mincemeat of the fool in Number 10. This isn’t just about donations of fancy clothes, or even the winter fuel allowance.

Starmer is being punished for making clear that his promise of "change" was a lie. He’s not offering hope. He’s offering a milksop version of the last 14 years. Rather than culture war austerity, it’s managerial austerity.

But even the managerialism doesn’t last the stress test, as the fiasco around Sue Gray shows.

Ministers can’t even work in a joined-up fashion: the Transport Secretary Louise Haigh attacked P&O Ferries owner DP World, urging a boycott, ahead of a UK investment summit the company was to attend. While Haigh was right in her condemnation, it’s a clear example of Starmer’s inability to lead.

Voters were exhausted after 14 years of Tory madness and declining living standards. All they want is sanity in a government which works to improve........

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