By Iain Dale

Eighteen months really is a long time in politics.

Yesterday I was clearing out some papers and came across a copy of the New Statesman from 12 July 2024. It was their post-election issue. I flicked through it and was astonished by the hubris of some of the columns, and how wrong many of their pundits proved to be.

There were, however, a couple of exceptions. Ed Docx’s column was headlined BEYOND THE WALL: KEIR STARMER COULD BE A GREAT PRIME MINISTER – IF HE CAN ONLY BREAK THROUGH THE BARRIER OF HIS OWN RESERVE. I’m not sure Sir Keir was ever going to be a great prime minister.

Technocratic managerialists rarely are, but Dovx was bang on about his reserve. Starmer appeared to be a man for the times. On the face of it is a man of total probity, straightforward and the antithesis of Johnsonian ‘flash harryness’. And then came ‘Freebiegate’, which ruined everything.

Overnight, he turned from Mr Straight into Mr Dodgy and, not for the last time, the voters wondered if they........

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