Thread by @philwoodford

In political life, there is inevitably a difference between what people are able to say publicly and think privately. As I haven’t been involved in frontline @UKLabour politics for many years, I am happy to say publicly what many moderates will be thinking to themselves. 1/16

2/16 Starmer is a decent enough guy. Bright, well meaning, broadly on the right side of most major political debates. But we know in our water we’re probably not looking at a Prime Minister. Something is missing. Perhaps an intangible quality.

3/16 Miliband and Kinnock were decent, intelligent men who lacked a certain something too. There’s a pattern here that @UKLabour probably needs to address.

4/16 The parallel with Kinnock is of course very stark for those with long memories. He had to battle the hard left too. Indeed many of the very same characters - Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott, Lansman etc.

5/16 Starmer is not a Blair figure unfortunately. But could he be a Kinnock figure? Possibly yes. But he needs to show more tenacity and actually take the fight to the renegade leftists who snipe and seek to undermine him.

6/16 Kinnock had real cojones when - in the mid 1980s - he faced down the Trotskyists of Militant in his famous conference speech. Degsy Hatton was left heckling from the back, as Eric Heffer exited in a strop.

7/16 Now is the time for Starmer to confront @PeoplesMomentum and the electorally poisonous agenda they advocate. Membership should become incompatible with @UKLabour membership.

8/16 Of course, Labour’s woes go way beyond the so-called ‘Long Corbyn’ issue. But this is just a hygiene factor. The party simply cannot and will not win back people who vote Tory as long as these extremists are still kicking around.

9/16 Starmer needs to be bold with his reshuffle and bring in people with real gravitas and presence. That means Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn. And I wouldn’t rule out a more formal role for a winner such as Blair or Mandelson.

10/16 The left seems to think the key to winning back Northern heartlands is socialist radicalism. That people will stop voting Tory when they see the alternative is more authentically left wing. Starmer knows this to be nonsense and must repudiate it publicly.

11/16 Some hard choices are needed over Brexit. I supported Remain and believe the decision to leave the EU was mistaken. But it’s happened. And there needs to be a much more open acceptance from former Remainers that the debate is closed.

12/16 Starmer has been very trapped by the pandemic. His instinct was to be supportive to the government, but the sheer incompetence and the mounting death toll in 2020 put this position under real pressure. So he started sniping.

13/16 It’s absolutely clear that as we moved into 2021 and the government demonstrated a much greater degree of control over the pandemic, the sniping had to stop. It didn’t. And it has landed badly with the public.

14/16 The sleaze allegations against the Tories are serious. But they are not going to turn the dial against a government helping to release people from a year of lockdown and offering some hope of a more normal future.

15/16 My advice: stop saying people don’t want to go back to normal and the way things were. They mostly do. Stop criticising the government over Covid and work *with* them. Paint a positive vision of the UK rather than carp on about decoration at Downing Street.

16/16 If Starmer can get some of these things right in the period ahead, I think it’s still possible he can be the Kinnock figure. Restoring @UKLabour’s credibility as a contender. And paving the way for a successor who can win later in the twenties.