What we learnt from Keir Starmer’s speech about Labour’s 2019 election disaster

Four years on from the Corbyn humiliation, is Labour’s overhaul really ‘more than just a paint job’? Sean O’Grady examines the leader’s claims

Keir Starmer delivering his speech in Milton Keynes on Tuesday (AFP/Getty)

It is a measure of Keir Starmer’s confidence, misplaced or otherwise, that he chose to mark the fourth anniversary of one of the worst electoral drubbings his party has ever received with a speech. Labour has travelled some distance since the general election of 12 December 2019, after which many had written the party off for a decade; this is something in which he can take some pride. It now seems an eternity ago but at the time it seemed as if the Tories would remain in the ascendancy for the 2020s.

Their campaign had been masterminded by Dominic Cummings, and Boris Johnson promised to “get Brexit done”, “level up” and “unleash Britain’s potential”. The results were dramatic. The Conservatives scored their highest Commons majority since 1987; the best vote share since 1979; conquered safe red-wall Labour seats; and managed to win more support among the unemployed, state pensioners and semi-skilled and unskilled workers than Jeremy Corbyn’s party. Suddenly, the Tories were the party of the working class. By contrast, Labour went down to its lowest parliamentary showing since 1935. A lot has happened since then, as Starmer has been delighted to point out in his speech…

What does Starmer think went wrong four years ago?