Starmer’s speech conveyed his decency, but he must be strong enough to make radical changes

The rain stopped for a moment at least. It was almost sunny when our new Prime Minister addressed us outside No 10. Not quite sunshine but nothing was as radiating as that rare Starmer smile. He and his wife Vic, private perhaps but an expert in hugging, were beaming as he accepted the applause.

No one knows better than him though that he is a serious man with a serious job to do.

What a massive relief this all is, whether you voted him for not. Things have been so awful for so long, permit us to be a little excited at the prospect of basic competence. As this is what he offers. Politics is all about public service. Of course, that should be a given but for so long it has been a visibly corrupt and self-serving business.

The relationship between the governed and the governors was consciously decoupled some long time ago. Trust was decimated and this was not just because of the pandemic or the war in Ukraine; it was to do with the entitlement and negligence of a whole series of Tory leaders whose values seemed to be simply about gaining power for its own sake. They deserved to be booted out, one by one.

Not a single tear could be shed for these grifters, for their legacy is a collapse of faith in democracy itself. This was reflected in this very low turnout which both right and left will use to taunt “Labour’s historic landslide.”

But that is for another time. Starmer’s ruthlessness in making a party that seems totally unelectable into one of fiscal responsibility, of solid working-class values, of promises to deliver the social mobility that austerity put pay to is laudable. Can this be achieved?

All the way through this campaign, he has spoken of public service and humility and that is the right note to strike. His job is to remoralise a demoralised country and to build bridges with those we have alienated, from European allies to Green and Reform voters. To ally with the Lib Dems on their push to prioritise social care seems necessary to me; bringing back into the big tent the alienated young men who voted for Reform, a party with only one policy, is another thing.

If the work starts now as he emphasised so do so many of the challenges he ducked during the campaign. I don’t know how much low turnout had to do with issues that Labour candidates denied were important. However, I know many lifelong female Labour voters who do not trust them to protect women’s rights. It certainly stopped me voting for them.

The idea of shunting in Harriet Harman to head up the ECHR has not gone down well. You may regard women’s issues as a single issue, as a fabricated culture war, but this is as myopic as it is patronising. Gender ideology embedded in our institutions needs a serious challenge.

The harassment of female candidates such as Jess Phillips and Shabana Mahmood has been appalling and Starmer has to come down hard on this while dealing with the anger over Gaza. His control freakery may have meant that Magic Grandpa remains a thorn in his side but also that they lost the winnable seat of Chingford.

But today, at least, he set the right tone. Nothing flashy but he preached moderation and stability, which the markets like. His methodical manner sets no one on fire but it is recognisably decent. He needs, though, to push through some radical changes soon.

He has to revivify a stagnant economy and caution will not do that. There will certainly be tax rises. With four Green MPs, he should be pushed on green energy.

I am glad to see Ed Miliband making a comeback. He appears to have shut down the Remoaners for now but Reform will play dirty on immigration. That is their raison d’etre. Thank god the evil gimmick of the Rwanda policy is gone. This was surely part of the “performative politics” Starmer vowed to get rid of.

I came back from a couple of events last night where I saw everyone from the ever-arrogant Lammy speak, to meeting Tory Spads who were taking these results in remarkably good spirits. They had jobs lined up some time ago but as I walked past Westminster and got on the tube all was quiet.

There was no jubilation but the feeling that the trash, piling up and decaying in public, had finally been removed. We can all breathe a little more easily. The realignment of the right was said to be the story of the night but actually this is all about Starmer’s push to realign the centrist left through sheer discipline. Where, many ask, is the passion of this technocrat?

It’s there surely when he says, “Service is a precondition of hope.”

There hasn’t been much hope lately. Ordinary people have been battered beyond belief.

These “end times” Tory governments have been so dire, so incompetent, so corrupt, hope feels entirely novel .

There is no grand ideological vision emanating from Starmer but a sense of quiet decency. Alongside that, there must be some realism. A party with such a huge majority may not want to tackle electoral reform but the clamours for proportional representation will grow with Reform getting so many votes and so few seats.

My hope is that Starmer throws caution to the wind on such issues. For that is what renewal really means.

Rather dull speeches from him and Reeves should at least give us a glimpse that underneath the managerialism, there is a beating heart – a conviction that this country could be so much better. For everyone.

It has to be both for those who voted for him and for those who didn’t. But most of all, for all those who stayed at home because they have lost faith that such a thing was ever possible.