Keir Starmer poses a ‘dangerous’ threat to the Tories, despite new polling suggesting much of the British public remain unconvinced by the Labour leader, according to a political commentator.
It comes as new data suggests almost half of voters (47 per cent) think he has not done an effective job of setting out a clear vision for his party.
Starmer is marking his third year as Labour leader, and remains without an ideology, according to Deputy Editor of Spiked Online, Fraser Myers.
However, Myers believes Starmer is using this position to his advantage as he is adopting New Labour tactics, which saw the party become an effective election winning machine between 1997 to 2007.
Fraser Myers says a key Keir Starmer characteristic poses a threat to the Tories
GB News
He told GB News: “It might well work in a general election. It might work to be able to use this New Labour phrase ‘triangulate’, where you’re able to almost speak to different groups at different times and speak two sides out of your mouth.
“When you are then in government and you have to make the decisions and you don’t have any views and you don’t have any ideology, you can be quite easily buffeted by events and by forces of change.
“I think a politician without ideology is actually a dangerous thing. Whether you disagree with that view or not.
“You need someone who has a coherent set of principles, and Keir Starmer is the kind of politician who says ‘if you don’t like these principles, here are some others’.”
A new poll suggests the Labour leader has done an 'average' job
PAEx-Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney questioned the sentiment, suggesting a perceived lack of principles from the Labour leader could be seen as a position of “strength”.
He said: “Is this lack of hardline on things like Brexit and trans issues actually turning into something of a strength?
“The reason I say that is because he’s appearing to be where he’s not alienating voters like Corbyn did.
“This kind of Mr Magnolia, is that actually clever? He’s not a threat and he’s not putting people off.”
The YouGov poll for The Times found 49 per cent believe Starmer has been unclear about Labour’s Brexit stance, while one-third (34 per cent) has been an "average" leader.
Sir Keir’s move to block Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate was met with positivity by the poll, which sided with the leader’s decision.
A quarter (26 per cent) of voters feel he’s not moved the party on enough from his predecessor’s spell as leader.
Starmer told The Times that he is “clearly gunning for the finishing line” as he bids to take the reins from Rishi Sunak.
Sir Keir Starmer has not offered a definitive stance on trans issues or Brexit, according to many
PAHe said his leadership of Labour is a “three-stage project”, where he firstly went about “changing” the party following Corbyn’s premiership, before “exposing the Government as not fit to govern”, before presenting a “positive case” for people to vote for his party.
“I’ve always been clear that there’s three stages,” he said.
“And we’re now at the stage where we’re very clearly gunning for the finishing line.
“That has required an absolute focus on not being blown off course by the very many helpful or unhelpful comments from others - and complete ruthlessness.”
The YouGov poll suggests Starmer still needs to convince large swathes of the British public.
Just one in give Britons believe has been a “great”, leader (2 per cent) or “good” (20 per cent).
The most common response suggests the Labour leader has simply been “average” (34 per cent).
Myers added that Starmer is in a strong position to win the next general election, but has the incumbent Government to thank.
He said: “What Starmer is proving to be true is that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them.
“We shouldn’t really underestimate the complete implosion of the support in the Tories following in from the scandals that brought down Boris then to the kind of mini Liz Truss disaster and now Rishi Sunak is just clawing his way back slowly.”