Starmer has sought to drape himself in the flag and welcome British troops, and in so doing contrasts with the leadership of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, a socialist and Nato-sceptic.
Starmer certainly looks the part: square-jawed, tousled hair, ironed suit, stern expression: if you squint a little, you can picture him inspecting troops on a British aircraft carrier.
One shadow cabinet minister said Mr Starmer was likely to step up his defence if he won the general election on July 4 to place Labour’s tanks firmly in Tory territory. “That would be fantastic. [political] “Triangulation,” they argued.
The shadow cabinet minister added: “Coming from the Kent-Surrey border, he has a lowercase ‘c’ conservative view on some things, which sometimes gets overlooked when people only think of London lawyers.”
World traveller
Starmer’s team has spent the past 18 months trying to install him as the next leader, and he has travelled the globe meeting leaders and attending major events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos and the COP climate change conference in Dubai.
A key element of this is Labor’s unconditional support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and its broad agreement with the government on most areas of foreign policy.