Excited Labour MPs, giddy on the fumes of Tory sleaze, are urged “don’t inhale” by Warley Warrior John Spellar. The veteran of 1992’s disappointment – when Neil Kinnock believed he was poised to usurp John Major in No 10 – leaves Keir “no complacency” Starmer sounding like a raging hedonist.
Spellar’s daily email newsletter for Westminster colleagues tells anybody who’ll listen (and some who don’t) that relaxing when avalanche polls predict the Conservatives could be swept away would be fatal. Labour finished 163 seats behind the Cons in 2019, he argues, and is unlikely next time to finish anywhere near Tony Blair’s 179-seat majority in 1997. Old warhorse Spellar is a wet blanket dampening premature celebrations.
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