Why Starmer's pre-election rally was no victory parade

On Saturday evening, Sir Keir Starmer addressed hundreds of Labour activists in a large hall in central London.

- KATE DEVLIN

The Labour leader knows the opinion poll shows power is within his grasp. Forecasts suggest he could even make history with the largest ever Labour majority in parliament – winning by even more than Tony Blair achieved with his 1997 landslide.

Yet the event had an air of deliberate caution, tempered by fears of comparisons with 1992 and that the feeling a Labour government is already guaranteed will see the party leak votes to the Lib Dems and the Greens.

What was the event?

Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner spoke to around 400 activists at an invite-only meeting at the Royal Horticultural Halls, a short walk from 10 Downing Street, the house he is on course to make his home on Thursday.

But he warned Labour activists the “hardest mile” was still ahead and asked them to imagine waking up to another five years of Tory government. That “could happen”, he said, because polls suggest millions of people have yet to decide how they will vote.