“Constructive” is the word Keir Starmer hopes will define the opening act of his leadership, or at least his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Take his spokesperson’s readout of his latest conversation with Dominic Raab this morning: “The call was constructive.” But what does that emphasis mean for “unity”, the other watchword of Starmerism?
The leak of the report into anti-Corbyn sentiment among officials at Labour HQ over the Easter weekend already meant that Starmer would find uniting the party rather more difficult than the size of his mandate might have implied. One need only look to John McDonnell’s Twitter account for evidence of the left’s appetite to complicate the task before the new regime.
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