What would a Keir Starmer Labour party look like?

There’s still a month of the Labour leadership contest to go but most MPs have already concluded that Keir Starmer will win. The shadow Brexit secretary has led in every category so far: MPs, unions and local parties. As the contest enters its final stage, polling suggests the membership agree and Sir Keir will sail through. His closest rival, Rebecca Long-Bailey, is now seen as a ten-to-one outsider. One bookmaker is already paying out on a Starmer victory.

But if the race seems all but over, the conversation about what he’ll do as Labour leader is very much on-going. Is he the leader that the party’s moderates have craved to stand up to the hard left — or a vessel for continuity Corbynism?

So far, he has tried very hard not to say. He has managed to attract supporters from both sides of the party, parading a reputation for pragmatism to win support from the centre, while using selective cases from his legal career to present himself as a champion of left-wing causes. Most of these cases he lost, but to today’s Labour party this isn’t such an issue.

His campaign team has tried to balance the various Labour tribes. It includes Simon Fletcher, who has made a career working for socialist politicians, such as Ken Livingstone at City Hall. From the right of the party he has Matt Pound — formerly of Labour First, a Corbynsceptic group that has clashed with Momentum.

His supporters range from un-ashamed Blairites, such as Ben Bradshaw, to Laura Parker, the Momentum organiser, and to the now-retired Corbyn cheerleader Paul Mason. Sir Keir has spoken frequently in the campaign of the need for unity and to move past the internal conflicts of recent years.