WE’RE just three weeks away from the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and English local council elections on May 7.

And maybe, depending on how bad a night it turns out to be for Labour, just three weeks away from Keir Starmer announcing his resignation.

Right now, he will have a team of number-crunchers calculating the scale of possible catastrophe: a scale that will begin with ‘Phew, that was too close for comfort’ and ending with, to paraphrase Frasier Crane, “Abraham Lincoln had a brighter future when he picked up his tickets at the theatre box office”.

Starmer’s biggest problem, or so it seems to me, is his complete lack of passion.

It’s a problem he shares with David Cameron (still, and by a considerable margin, the worst prime minister in my lifetime).

Passion alone doesn’t make you a great prime minister, of course. Just look at Boris Johnson. But it makes it much easier for you to connect with the different elements of your party’s voting base.

Starmer didn’t do that in the 2024 general election, and he didn’t even manage it afterwards with a thumping majority. The tumbrils are on the way for him, and nobody seems to care – apart from those on his advisory and government payroll.

The Greens and Zach Polanski will also be watched very closely, not least by........

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