How is he going to win back the lost northern Labour support?

In the north, being a heterosexual white male who has had a successful career before politics isn't seen as the crime that it might be to some media types.

I've got to ask what these new blue, Northern, Labour supporters saw in millionaire, old Etonian, bon vivant, Boris Johnson, or millionaire, old Etonian, investment manager, Jacob Rees-Mogg. You can paint Starmer as an establishment figure all you want, but Johnson and JRM are the establishment's establishment!

You mean SIR Starmer.... surely?

QC, DPP,CPS, Hooman Rights lawyer.

Seems a pretty decent and sensible bloke, reading his wiki you'd say as blue as the pacific. Be nice to have a sensible opposition, hopefully he will crush momentum and rid the party of anti-semites.

My guess is you won't read another word in the press about Antisemitism or Venezuela.

I certainly think Keir will be a bit more "statesman" like than Corbyn, he is comparatively new to Parliament and, initial impression, more open to partnership, at least in these strange times.

Labour needs to reinvent itself pretty thoroughly to become relevant to modern Britain. What were once the northern labour heartlands are now in electoral play and so important to both major parties. If you’re under ~40 in those regions, being of political importance will be a novel experience after a long period of Conservatives knowing they couldn’t win there and Blair taking those seats for granted while wooing Worcester woman.

Labour have got a few years to work it out. Sulking Momentum, can eff right off with their promise to hold Starmer to account. They sound like the sodding ERG (before the ERG took over - they’ll be less keen on accountability now).

The post-Brexit Conservative Government has to work out what it is now, while simultaneously trying to run the country during and in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis. There was a bleak humour in seeing Laura Kuenssberg stressing the scale of the task facing Starmer, when comedy charlatan Johnson is laid up sick, during a crisis that could easily overwhelm somebody fighting fit and competent, and with another kid on the way at 55.

I dope you spat on the floor when you typed that womans name, she is awful.

They will be raking over his old cases to see what dirt or with a bit of a stretch unproven dirt. He is a Sir something Johnson is yet to receive which I am sure will be a cause of great grief to him.
At least Sir Keir Starmer does not have to live with a name like Boris de Pfeffel and unlike Johnson he was born in the U.K and appears better at his personal life. In addition I am sure he is more honest than Johnson but that is not a very high bar to reach

and there we were, having a sensible conversation.....

Jimmy Saville was also a sir so I wouldn’t use that as a bench mark LMAO.

Boris Johnson is also the prime minister. Something that Starmer is unlikely, sorry, has no chance of achieving

I think the right-wing media attack strategy on Starmer will be like this:

1) They know it is unlikely to stick if they try to make out that Starmer himself is a Britain-hating, terrorist-supporting antisemite. But they can probably find others in the Labour party (especially councillors) who have questionable stuff on their social media feeds, so will continue to research these so there can be a drip feed of them coming through. After 2 years or so, when they are still unearthing cases of "prospective Labour councillor in Barnsley said in a facebook group in 2013 that Palestine should be free from the river to the sea" they will have an argument to undermine Starmer's claims that he has got rid of antisemitism.

2) They will simultaneously try to undermine Starmer's support on the left by making him out to be not woke enough, attacking him for failing to do enough on transgender rights, bringing up things from his time as DPP when he "failed women who suffered from violence". The audience here isn't the core Tory voter who doesn't care, it's the disillusioned former Corbyn supporter who will say "Labour won't get my vote until they elect a proper leader again".

I have no doubt that Starmer will come under a lot of attack and also he is hardly a charismatic or media friendly performer. He comes across as dull and wooden.

However he does have some advantages that will make him a more difficult opponent for the Tories than Ed Miliband or Corbyn. He is very good on detail and will be better at forensically holding Johnson to account, and will expose the Tories when they are trying to blag things. He also will have a natural appeal to a broad spectrum of ex Blairites/Lib Dems and pro-EU Tories that are disillusioned with the current party, and if the Tories really mess things up with Brexit and effectively become an anti-business party (well anti small-business, they may well give favours to big business backers) then Starmer will have default appeal to the middle Englanders who voted for Blair. Corbyn was toxic to a large proportion of these groups because of antisemitism and also his Brexit policy. Starmer won't be.

There is a risk for the Tories that they focus on the ex Labour "red wall" heartlands and leach London, cities and middle England to Starmer. The red wall is most exposed to negative impacts from Brexit and from the coronavirus recession so there could be a lot of angry people there whose lives have got worse since Johnson came in, and that would put the Tories in trouble if their grip loosened there and they realised they'd been undermined in metropolitan areas and shires.

At the moment the Conservatives are still confident and crowing "Labour will never win again" but things can turn quickly in politics. I remember at the time when Cameron took the Tory leadership in 2005, people were writing the obituaries of the Conservative party saying after three election defeats the traditional Tory party could never find a route back to power unless it fundamentally reformed itself. Five years (and the aftermath of a recession) later Cameron was PM. There's a bigger recession coming this time.

A good choice Sir Kier,

Should attract a few dissenters from this Tory socialist government

The initial attack on Starmer will be his perceived failure as DPP on child abuse; it started this weekend with his decision not to pursue charges against Jimmy Saville, and if it follows the now established playbook they used on Corbyn, the logical extension will be that all Labour members who oppose the motion, are paedophile apologists. I see it's started this weekend - and the BBC will repeat it with glee, as it gets them off the hook for their culpability in allowing Saville to hide in plain sight for many years. Thin line for the Tories to walk mind you, given that Mr Saville was Margaret Thatcher's favourite New Year's dinner guest for several years, and she lobbied on numerous occasions for him to be knighted.

As an aside, I worked with Keir Starmer a bit many years ago - nice enough man, but exceptionally dull and uninspiring, even then; if as I suspect we've got Tony Blair v2.0 (minus the charisma) I don't have much hope for the supposed rebirth of the party.

Using the Savile thing is pretty desperate. It's like blaming the number 11 batsman for not getting all the runs, when the openers have got ducks, and the middle order haven't reached double figures. Still, it'll be fleshed out and will probably work with a good section of the British public. I'd imagine come the next election, there will be BBC vox pops of numpties saying "I'm not voting for a peadophile apologist party".