On top of all that, it is hard yards for a Labour prime minister to deal with an outpouring of dissent on his benches over changes to the benefits system, which to many MPs looks suspiciously like removing support from needy people in a manner they have long derided as the actions of cruel and heartless Tories.
Putting aside the criticism over policy choices, another fundamental question has sprouted wings: is he up to the job as a character – or just the stolid guy who against a thin bench of potential leaders seized the Labour crown, only to look uncomfortable wearing it?
The aim is to remind us that Starmer has a personality and is thus a leader who can point his government in a firm direction, even when its actions will hurt certain groups or split opinion.
Tempora mutantur – times change and we change with them, as Sir Humphrey Appleby was apt to say when dithery Jim Hacker in the TV classic comedy Yes Prime Minister had to shed a skin or two to survive.
At the same time, Starmer is a more impressive figure in his workload and readiness to dive into big and difficult topics from national security to the NHS and welfare than the present mood reflects. Privately, he is less pompous than (say) David Cameron at his most lordly or Tony Blair at his most self-righteous. But he is also used to the authority senior lawyers consider their due.
The undertow here is fear – that he has lost the confidence of his party, the building block of authority. That said, he has done the best thing he could do for a leader forced to water down a key reform.
But he has at least shown humility in admitting that his eye was off the ball, admitting: “I’d have liked to get to a better position with colleagues sooner than we did.”
square KITTY DONALDSON It's time to actually give Starmer some credit
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It’s less clear, however, that framing misjudgements about which freebies to take or leave as an unfair attack on the Starmers personally is wise: one habit he might ditch is the tendency to keep defending mistakes that he can best fix by expressing regret and not making them again.
I doubt this thought has crossed his mind, because he is not sexist in any operational sense, but there is lot of reliance on him being an assiduous football bloke, which is a bit of a worn trope and doesn’t cut mustard with groups rapidly going off Labour – older voters and women who favoured him heavily at the general election, and now in the “don’t know” grey zone of opinion about him.
There are also things he can change: he is better established on the global stage than the national one at this point and needs to bring his attention home to roost. His “Keir appeal” is never going to be inspirational, but neither is he dull as the “serious and pragmatic” self-description suggests.
Anne McElvoy is co-host of the Politics at Sam and Anne’s podcast
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