Sir Keir Starmer came to power pledging to bring order and stability to government after 14 dismal years of Conservative rule, trading on his record as chief prosecutor while promising to rescue public services and restore faith in politics.

He declares that he will show how Westminster can improve lives, saying Britain is “broken but not beyond repair”. This is a noble desire. Yet the Prime Minister has struggled to share his personal vision or define a core ideology, despite all the “plans for change” and mission statements, while his stock has plummeted rapidly after a series of messy rows, mishaps and muddles that are sparking questions over his political skills.

There remains a nagging sense that Starmer is simply a technocrat, a decent and determined man earnestly wrestling with state failures, but also a politician who lacks any driving sense of ideological direction while the dark clouds of populism close in menacingly on Westminster.

He believes that one of his biggest successes during his five years as Director of Public Prosecutions was moving from paper to digital files, according to his biographer Tom Baldwin, who said that Starmer saw this as transformative, since it cut costs while speeding up the justice system. Yet even then he was accused by his critics and predecessors of lacking a clear vision.

Now we are at the start of a new year, six months into his Government, and starting to see the shape of this Labour administration as ministers promote their reforms. But strangely, this only adds to confusion over its ideological underpinning, since they are pushing in very different directions in the two key areas of education and........

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