Why is Keir Starmer shaking up his team when Labour is ahead in polls?

Tensions over Labour strategy are not far from surface, as Andrew Grice explains

The Labour leader is putting his party on a general election footing (PA)

Sir Keir Starmer has announced a shake-up of the leader of the opposition’s office as he puts Labour on a general election footing, even though the contest is likely to be two years away.

The Labour leader has ousted Sam White, his chief of staff. The official reason is that Mr White’s job is being merged with one at Labour headquarters as the election looms into view, so it is a smaller role than he took on last year. Policy and communications will now come under the orbit of David Evans, the party’s general secretary. Mr White, a former special adviser to ex-chancellor Alistair Darling, said “we part very much as friends with the intent to work together again in the future”.

Labour enjoyed a successful party conference in Liverpool last month and has moved to between 20 and 30 points ahead in the opinion polls since Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-Budget. But tensions over strategy bubble away not far beneath Labour’s calm surface, with a perpetual battle for the leader’s ear among advisers offering conflicting advice. Mr White was seen as too cautious by some critics; others said he had not professionalised Sir Keir’s operation as the leader had hoped. Some insiders said his departure was about ensuring Labour has the best people, rather than “the nicest guys”, in the top posts.

Sir Keir sometimes steers a middle course between those advisers urging Labour to put its foot on the accelerator (and the government’s throat) and those urging it to stand back and allow the Conservatives to implode.

Labour had a relatively successful party conference (Getty)

On Tuesday, he insisted that “this is not time for complacency or caution”, saying his party needed to “seize the opportunity we have and show the British people we are the party that can lead our country forward.” He added: “These changes to the structures of the party will move us on to that election footing. We’ve been planning this for a while but the scale of the Tory collapse has brought it forward.”

Putting a party on an election footing is an old trick that can allow a leader to rally and unite their troops. On this occasion, it gives Labour a free hit to advertise the Tories’ weakness and deflects some attention from Mr White’s departure.

With Liz Truss’s troubles showing little sign of abating, Sir Keir knows Labour is going to come under intense scrutiny as people judge whether it is a credible government-in-waiting. As he said in a call with party staff: “We are turning the page to the final act of opposition: driving the Labour Party into government. It’s going to get harder as we get closer.”