Is Keir Starmer Starting to Turn Things Around?

There were signs this week that Starmer's post-McSweeney Downing Street operation may finally be starting to drag itself back from the brink of death

Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Keir Starmer, at the Munich Conference on Saturday

After a dire couple of weeks for the Prime Minister there’s just a hint that things might finally be starting to improve.

The attempted coup by Labour’s Scottish leader Anas Sarwar fizzled out before it really began, after a rumoured wave of ministerial resignations never materialised.

And despite a continued exodus of staff inside Downing Street, there are signs that the post-McSweeney operation is starting to get a grip.

The first of these signs is the Prime Minister’s response to Jim Ratcliffe’s hateful comments about immigrants “colonising” the UK.

In the past, such comments by a billionaire former ally of the Prime Minister would have initially been met with silence, followed by days of equivocation from Downing Street about voters having “legitimate concerns”, before angry Labour MPs finally succeeded in pressuring their leader into saying something slightly stronger.

Not this time.