Keir Starmer has a spectacular inability to frame his actions in an appealing way

THE clue is in the name. The "mission-driven" government to which Keir Starmer is ostensibly committed is meant to be defined by its strategic objectives and the steps by which they will be achieved in his "decade of renewal".

- Matthew d’Ancona

As an irritated parliamentary ally of the Prime Minister put it to me yesterday: "The whole row over the winter fuel allowance cut is completely explicable in terms of Keir's missions." Good to know - with the minor caveat that nobody in government is publicly framing this message in such terms, or spelling out where these initially painful steps are leading.

The best that Starmer could do in his BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday was to compare the public spending cuts that he and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are planning to the necessary repairs to the foundations of a dilapidated house.

He had nothing to say about the prospective splendour of the restored house which is to say, the country — or the radically improved living conditions towards which we, as citizens, should be looking forward. Indeed, when the PM insisted that “tough decisions are tough decisions”, I had Vietnam flashbacks to Theresa May’s “Brexit means Brexit”: the meaningless slogan as a supposed assertion of strength and intent.

Presiding over a working Commons majority of 167, Starmer will comfortably win the parliamentary vote today on the winter fuel allowance cut. But the political outcome will be damaging to the Government’s credibility.