To believe that we now have a real Leader of the Opposition

[LaureBerthaud]

Who will hold the Tories to account.

Listened to Sir Keir Starmer on the Today programme. He was articulate, direct and reasonable. I'm hopeful he'll sort the Labour party out and hold the Prime Minister to account.

Phew - what a relief!

Yanbu, I have hope too. It will be great to have an effective opposition again.

Complete dickhead , he needs to get behind the efforts of the government not sit and snipe in bbc interviews

Another labour leader detatched from reality

he needs to get behind the efforts of the government

Perhaps he could if only they cared to share what these efforts were.

I can't wait to see him at PMQs. His legal background will enable him to coolly eviserate bumbling Boris. (Not literally of course )

he s busy talking about an exit strategy when he should be focusing his and his parties efforts on how they can support this unprecedented crisis
he seems unaware that this country has not reached peak yet let alone a flattening of the situation so no need to publish an exit strategy

he seems to be trying to get questions made public for the purpose of points scoring later on

YANBU, finally a leader of the opposition with a shot at victory.

He's made it clear he's supporting the government (interview is available on Sounds, starts after 8am news).

The public do need to hear the govt's exit strategy particularly given the dire economic predictions released yesterday.

I don't see why he's pushing for an answer about an exit strategy right now, they likely don't really have one yet. I'm sure they said the other day they were going to watch what other countries do.

Ask the questions that we need answers to right now, please don't try to point score, it's not what the country needs or wants at the moment.

I would love to think he will be able to resurrect a working opposition and we can maybe get politics out of the awful state they're in right now.

YANBU, I think he's an extremely intelligent, articulate and pragmatic man whose focus is absolutely in the right place at the moment. He's also been extremely shrewed in his first shadow cabinet choices in "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" way. He knew he wouldn't be able to unite the party with RLB and Lisa Nandy sniping from the sidelines. Go Keir! /#TheRealMarkDarcy

I'm not a Labour supporter, but I agree with you OP. For government to work, a strong, articulate opposition is needed to hold the ruling party to account. I'm delighted Keir Starmer won - a reasonable, intelligent, moderate socialist who has all the credentials needed. I'm delighted to see the back of Commie Corbyn and his cabal of leftie twits. Thank goodness Rebecca Long-Bailey wasn't elected.

He is intelligent, experienced, and rightly wants to know that the government is planning ahead and not just firefighting.

He is exactly what the country needs. He's supporting the government while holding them to account and looking forward.

I don't see why he's pushing for an answer about an exit strategy right now

I disagree, because what he said was 'Let's see what the strategy is, let's debate it and if it's good let's all get behind it' or something like that. The government don't have to say 'We will re-open on x date', but I think it's time to debate HOW they will reopen when certain criteria are met. Which businesses will go back first? At what stage of the epidemic do they hope to reopen schools? I think we all agree that a phased return to normality is needed, so how does the government envisage that working in practice? I'd like to know and I think everyone else would too, but obviously it will be dependent on how our epidemic pans out - we all accept that dates can't be written in stone at this point.

He does not have the gravitas yet that he needs, but that will come.

Complete dickhead , he needs to get behind the efforts of the government not sit and snipe in bbc interviews

Another labour leader detatched from reality

No offence but it is the opposition leader’s exact job description to question the current Prime Minister isn’t it?

I do not agree with Boris’s actions to date as he put us in lockdown far later than he should have. This needs questioning at some point but not now. However, I support the whole country’s efforts, those in the nhs, teachers, shop workers etc. I have signed up to nhs Sam and will help however I can.

I am very excited to have Keir.

just to qualify my above post: I'm not a Labour supporter (yet) and have never voted for them, but there's a first time for everything. Maybe if my total arse of a local Labour MP fucks off, I'll be able to bring myself to x that box at some point in the not too distant future.

No - I had hopes, because a strong opposition is important in a parliamentary democracy, and Corbyn was a disaster but this one has the superficial presentation of a statesman but has been very unimpressive so far. Just wanting to score petty political points and rehash the same old same old that was the reason for Labour losing in the first place.

He's alright. But his shadow cabinet is the same shower of shite. I'm a life long labour voter. But I won't be voting for them again.

I don't see why he's pushing for an answer about an exit strategy right now, they likely don't really have one yet. I'm sure they said the other day they were going to watch what other countries do.

We'll likely be coming out of lockdown in little over a month, the economy is tanking, these are urgent questions.

Waiting to see what other countries do is beyond pathetic, that's not leadership!

The public do need to hear the govt's exit strategy particularly given the dire economic predictions released yesterday.

The problem with that is that having that debate in the open could have a material effect in the public’s psychology and observance of the lockdown. It’s human nature to start relaxing if you think the end is in sight, but the last thing we need at this critical point is to ease up the pressure - that will inevitably lead to a longer lockdown, more economic damage, more deaths.

I’m as happy as anyone to see the back of the crazy Marxist, but I’m afraid Starmer is still being too naive. A smarter approach would be for him to request access to the government’s data - assuming he doesn’t have it already - use it to formulate his own exit strategy, and then debate that publicly after the peak of the danger is over.

This whole thing may need to last months longer than the public is prepared for. Undermining our collective psychology at this juncture is not a trivial problem.

You mean the one who let off the grooming gangs and did nothing about Saville? Yeah, he’s great!

He'll need to defeat populism (good luck with that). Outside of that it is just centrism/Blairism v2. Pander to the neo liberal staus quo, throw a few crumbs to the marginalised.

Centrism has been a failure over the last 4 years (see the peoples vote, Change UK etc).

Waiting to see what other countries do is beyond pathetic, that's not leadership!

On the contrary, if watching other countries can give us a priceless heads-up on how (not) to fuck up releasing the lockdown, then we’d be fools not to take the opportunity.

Well the talk if exit strategy is a 'cheap win' tactic.

There will be one. It'll be made public, probably in a step by step manner, depending on how our numbers gomand in light of experiences in countries just ahead of us.

This will happen whether or not he had said anything. But it leaves him poised to say ' you 're finally doing what I said'

Same playbook as Blair talking about the importance of testing.

I'd hoped for better - genuine cooperation (unprecedented times) not positioning for point-scoring.

Anyone who calls him a "dick head" has lost the argument.

He does not have the gravitas yet that he needs, but that will come

We'll see that at the despatch box when Parliament resumes. He'll nail Boris Johnson on the detail and not let him bluster his way out.