What do Gareth Southgate and Keir Starmer have in common? Quite a lot, actually

England football fans say they want to win games and Labour supporters say they want to win seats, but, asks Marie Le Conte, do they really want that at any cost?

We usually find it easier to forgive people for failing if they entertained us along the way (Reuters/Getty)

What do we want from a leader? Not just in politics, I mean – leaders in general. People in charge of something. What do we want from them? We want them to do the job to the best of their ability, presumably, but is that really all?

I ask because it is the question that has been hiding in plain sight for most of the past week. It has been hanging like a ghost around Keir Starmer, who was described as “boring” by a shadow cabinet member. He tried to fight back in a meeting that was later leaked and described, regrettably, as boring as well.

It has been hovering menacingly over Gareth Southgate, following the England team’s frankly appalling 4-0 loss against Hungary. The game was especially embarrassing but it wasn’t a one-off; the Three Lions’ performances throughout the Nations League have, for the most part, been underwhelming.