Blairites are in despair over Starmer's flailing leadership

Someone close to Tony Blair says that Keir Starmer's problem, apart from the fact that his ministers and aides are not very good, is that they are "a bunch of librarians and academics in charge of a government".

- JOHN RENTOUL

This may be unfair to librarians and academics, but we know what is meant. I am told that this person thinks that Starmer’s government is unimaginative and out of touch; that it lacks the “dexterity” to manage the daily crises that besiege 10 Downing Street, and that there isn’t much diversity of thought at the top of government, that “they all think the same”.

There is a plodding, bookish other-worldliness about the government that worries a lot of Blairites – although Blair himself remains sphinx-like in his inscrutability.

Some of his acolytes say that although Starmer’s aides admire the prime minister’s ruthlessness, they are confusing ruthless sackings (Sue Gray, Louise Haigh) and the macho adoption of hardcore “Blairite” positions (such as on immigration) with a clear sense of purpose communicated to the public and pursued single-mindedly.

Not that “the Blairites” are a united bloc. Many of them, indeed, are working for Starmer. Morgan McSweeney, his most important adviser, is no conventional Blairite, but he has Peter Mandelson’s blessing as a tough centrist operator. Matthew Doyle, Starmer’s head of communications, has been with him for years and is New Labour through and through. The cabinet is stuffed with Blairites: Pat McFadden, Wes Streeting, Liz Kendall, Peter Kyle, Steve Reed, Ian Murray, Angela Smith (the leader in the Lords) and now Heidi Alexander, the new transport secretary.