What should Sunak and Starmer do about the ghosts of leadership past?

On the left, Starmer has decided not to take any prisoners, writes Marie Le Conte. Sunak, on the other hand, is clearly hesitant to do anything drastic

It is clear that Corbyn will not go quietly. Well, neither will Johnson (AFP/Getty)

It is, in hindsight, striking how much Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have in common. They were both eccentric politicians who were never obvious leaders. They were both adored by the membership but treated with suspicion by large portions of their parliamentary parties.

They both led their parties through tumultuous times, blighted by vicious infighting. In the end, they fell because both voters and their own MPs had had enough. At time of writing, their successors are both men who were in senior positions on their front benches, and with whom each, respectively, had a somewhat complex relationship. Oh, and neither of them will shut up.

On Sunday, it was revealed that Johnson had urged Rishi Sunak not to drop the Northern Ireland protocol. He was also accused of encouraging the DUP to resist a compromise on the deal Sunak is attempting to negotiate.

Last week, Corbyn hit out against the news that he would be barred from standing as a Labour MP again, calling it “a flagrant attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members”. It is clear that he will not go quietly.

Well, neither will Johnson. Though Theresa May, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Gordon Brown and others chose not to create any chaos for their successors, these two men clearly feel they are not done. Annoyingly for said successors, both Johnson and Corbyn are still just about popular enough with some members, and some MPs, that they cannot be ignored entirely.

The question, then, is what should the leaders of both parties do about the ghosts of leadership past? On the left, Starmer has decided not to take any prisoners. Corbyn is out of the Parliamentary Labour Party, and it is now clear that there is no world in which he will be readmitted. The move has caused fury on the left of the party, and if Corbyn decides to stand as an independent at the next election it may make some waves, but the Rubicon has been crossed. As far as Starmer is concerned, there is no way back.

Sunak, on the other hand, is clearly hesitant to do anything drastic. He isn’t a chatty prime minister at the best of times, and on this issue he is no different. Johnson keeps looming and looming, haunting No 10 like an irritating ghost, but he is yet to receive even a slap on the wrist.

This may be a shrewd and calculated move: Sunak was a second-choice leader and he knows it, and his grip on his party isn’t as strong as Starmer’s is on his. As the Conservative Party now knows far too well, no captain of theirs is immune to mutiny.

Still, it is worth wondering if he is missing the point. In politics, as in life, your actions are what make you. Starmer could get away with ostracising the left of his party because he had a strong hand to begin with, but now his hand seems even stronger, because he had the guts to ostracise the left of the party. To butcher the famous Simone de Beauvoir quote, you aren’t born a strong leader, you become one.

What kind of prime minister cannot put a still controversial and largely unpopular figure back in his box? If you fear you are too weak to do something, not doing it will only make you look even weaker. Sunak clearly believes that he must pussyfoot around his own benches and, as a result, has trapped himself inside a vicious circle.

Corbyn supporters are furious now, and newspapers love an infighting story – but, in time, they will get bored and move on. If Sunak keeps refusing to stop Johnson from taking up all the oxygen in the room, he shouldn’t be surprised when he is left without space to breathe.