A new YouGov poll has revealed that despite his widely-publicised speech yesterday, Sir Keir still needs to work on his public image. Despite having led his party for a year and a half, Starmer isn’t even the best-known member of the shadow cabinet – nor the most liked. Those two accolades go to Ed Miliband of all people. Who will be most known among the public for being an even more nasal Labour leader who they went on to not vote for in 2015… 

Rayner comes in third with 59%, though her scum rant clearly didn’t do her popularity any favours, garnering an approval of just 19%. She’s followed by Lammy, Thornberry, Dodds and Nandy who shunts the trend by being less known than Anneliese, though more popular. With a whopping 15% of the public liking her…

Guido learns that Ed Miliband still hasn’t put his money where his mouth is when it comes to his ‘electric car revolution‘. Despite preaching about the benefits of electric motors for months, suggesting they’re essential for ‘a green economic recovery‘, Ed still hasn’t actually bought one for himself – even after his hypocrisy was pointed out to him in the middle of a GMB interview back in March. Ed’s political adviser tells Guido he’s still only trialling a French-made Renault Zoe on lease for now. A trial that he’s been conducting for at least a month, because he told Nick Ferrari the same thing in May. At least he’s being thorough…

The Zoe has a claimed 245 mile range. In other words, not enough for the 340 mile round-trip from Westminster to Ed’s constituency of Doncaster and back, which is probably why he’s still holding out. He did have his eyes on a Nissan Leaf for some time, which would have been a great investment into the North East economy now that Nissan have announced plans for their new Sunderland gigaplant. Such a shame he’s opted to hire a French car instead… 

Not content to watch Labour plunge even further in the polls, it looks like Sir Keir has now decided to make the government’s job even easier today by spreading their own PR messaging for them. After a quick trip to Wales, the Labour leader took to Twitter to boast that Mark Drakeford is “moving Wales forward with a plan for jobs and the economy”; the cut-through must be subliminal if Starmer is repeating Rishi Sunak’s trademark phrase. For nearly a year it has appeared on virtually all of the Chancellor’s fancy PR graphics released on social media. The government even has a whole webpage dedicated to it, beaming Rishi included… 

This also isn’t the first time Labour have accidentally lifted the Tories’ messaging: last year, Ed Miliband somehow managed to botch his own ‘Build It in Britain‘ slogan by claiming we need to ‘build back better‘ – much to the Conservatives’ delight. A Tory source tells Guido “we don’t mind them helping push our message out. Imitation is the best form of flattery as the saying goes”…

Keir Starmer’s post-local election woes are far from over. After searing mocking by Boris in the Commons yesterday, Rayner has criticised her boss in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, saying the voters didn’t know what he stood for, and blatantly dodging questions about whether he tried to sack her. At the other end of the Labour spectrum, Blair helpfully writes that without total change “Labour will die”. In an essay for the New Statesman – which they point out is akin to a manifesto – Blair warns that “the Labour Party won’t revive simply by a change of leader. It needs total deconstruction and reconstruction. Nothing less will do.” Labour’s left and right dumping on Keir before he’s finished his granola…

“At present, Labour expresses perfectly the progressive dilemma. Corbyn was radical but not sensible. Keir seems sensible but not radical”

Blair also accuses Starmer of being in thrall to the “woke left”:

“There is a big culture battle going on. Progressive folk tend to wince at terms such as “woke” and “political correctness”, but the normal public knows exactly what they mean. And the battle is being fought on ground defined by the right because sensible progressives don’t want to be on the field at all. The consequence of this is that the “radical” progressives, who are quite happy to fight on that ground, carry the progressive standard. The fact that it ensures continued right-wing victory doesn’t deter them at all. On the contrary, it gives them a heightened sense of righteousness, like political kamikaze.”

Does Starmer have anyone backing him? A very tetchy Ed Miliband was out on the Today Programme this morning saying Starmer “has provided new leadership”. So that’s Starmer’s career salvaged…