The great prime ministerial paradox is that Sir Keir Starmer sits in Downing Street as one of the safest leaders in recent history, given his comfortable majority, a divided opposition on the right, and the fact that the next election is at least three years off. Yet Labour is febrile and uncertain of its leader.

He has worked hard in this past year in a tumult of activity to define himself on the world stage, offering olive branches to European leaders and moving mountains to stay on the relatively good side of Donald Trump, in order to avert damage from the tariff tsunami. 

Abroad, I find his reputation generally positive – he’s “pleasant and constructive” says a key policy former for Germany’s Merz government. The Washington Trump bubble is at least vaguely positive about him, a contrast to their general antipathy to pretty much everything that comes out of “Europe”.

Back home though, he rules an unhappy party, is enduring floundering popularity and a sense that the “what are you for?” question has not been answered sufficiently for Labour in its first year. Starmer himself........

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