@sunshinegrey the issue is this:
In any other business, course correcting based on new evidence is considered to be a good thing. In politics it apparently is not. It even has a name "U turn".
When Corbyn was leader, he had been elected such by the Labour Party membership. Starmer essentially supported his boss. Now that Starmer is the boss, you could take the view that he either said whatever was necessary to get to be the boss, or he has realised very quickly (or knew anyway) that the previous direction was the wrong one. In my view this was evident by the crushing defeat Corbyn got because he was completely unelectable.
The problem Starmer has now is that the further right the Conservative party go, the further right Labour has to go to capture the votes of the Conservatives who would normally be just right of centre and are finding the current regime too far right for them. He has to do this without making the traditional left Labour members feel too disenfranchised, which is a delicate balance as I'm sure you can imagine.
The press will take either stance depending on their mood and who they are wishing to sell newspapers to on a particular day. On Monday they may well be criticising him for going too far to the right, and on Tuesday, not far enough.
As an aside, this is the same battle that is going on between Conservative and Reform. The latter is far right and is capturing the Conservative members who believe Sunak isn't right enough.
Also as an aside, I think Starmer has a considered approach and is unwilling to nail his colours to the mast until he sees the true horror the Conservative party have left him to inherit, however he should have enough information to make some more definitive statements of intent. He is not doing himself any favours in this sense, and is essentially ahead because the Conservatives are losing, not necessarily because Labour are winning.