I wrote not all that long ago about this disconcerting situation we’re in where the only news story the Prime Minister seems capable of generating is a news story about the likelihood of his losing his job. Let’s just say, things haven’t exactly changed.

As ever, Starmer said all the standard things about how everyone saying he was useless doesn’t bother him

As ever, Starmer said all the standard things about how everyone saying he was useless doesn’t bother him

In the first week of January, his nibs thrilled the world by giving an exclusive interview to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg (and no doubt he’d think of this as a decisive move to draw a line under frivolous speculation in the Westminster Bubble): “‘I’ll be PM this time next year,’ Starmer tells BBC.” Yesterday he thrilled the world by giving an exclusive interview to the Sunday Times: “Keir Starmer: ‘I can win the next election.’” Another decisive line drawn. The grown-ups are back in charge, and they’re drawing lines. He’s drawn so many lines under frivolous speculation, at this point, that the area under the Westminster bubble must now look like a particularly intense area of Edward Gorey cross-hatching.

To his inward fury and grief, I expect, the rest of the world in January replied, “No you jolly well won’t!”, and the rest of the world yesterday replied, “No you jolly well can’t!” The case he pressed yesterday........

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