Express & Star

Toby Neal - 'It's a new dawn, but without the charisma'

A new dawn. But will it be much the same day?

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That would be a once-in-a-generation missed political opportunity. Because if you win a massive majority in a General Election and don't use it for change – real change, that is – then what was the point?

It has been an extraordinary and fascinating general election. RIP tribal politics. Today's sophisticated voters are not governed by party allegiance but use their crosses at the ballot boxes as a weapon. Everybody is a floating voter now.

Sir Keir Starmer has won a landslide, but there is no landslide of enthusiasm. This is not a Tony Blair 1997 moment. He lacks the charisma of Blair and the Labour rank and file don't chant his name, as they did for Jeremy Corbyn.

He becomes Prime Minister on a wave of personal unpopularity and heading a triumphant party which has only done slightly better in terms of vote share than Corbyn did in Labour's 2019 wipeout, and actually significantly worse than Jezza achieved in his 2017 defeat.

Sir Keir Starmer with Jeremy Corbyn

Based on Labour's tepid manifesto, his is not a mandate for a radical socialist agenda, but for a largely conservative agenda without any actual Conservatives involved. That's the way Starmer played it. Safe, cautious, unambitious.

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