Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch need to learn how to inspire loyalty

The latest defection from the Tories to Reform saw Danny Kruger – a member of Badenoch’s Shadow Cabinet, no less – leave with the parting shot that his former party was “over” and Conservative voters were “deserting the party that has failed”.

Badenoch then bizarrely decided to suggest there would be more defections to come, saying “this is the sort of thing that is going to happen while a party is changing”. She also insisted she was "not going to get blown off course by these sorts of incidents”.

A more helpful metaphor would be “when you’re in a hole, stop digging”. The Conservatives’ strategy to deal with the rise of Reform has singularly failed and unless a different approach is found, Kruger’s words will be proven correct.

‘Moral duty’

Meanwhile, Starmer finds himself under attack from the right and left. Brian Leishman, currently suspended as a Scottish Labour MP, has sponsored an SNP Bill to scrap the two-child benefit cap, despite one reason for his suspension being signing another nationalist Bill.

Leishman said it was a “moral duty” for Labour MPs to lift children out of poverty. This may be true but, given the SNP Bill has little-to-no chance of passing and is in reality a political stunt designed to embarrass Labour, Leishman’s actions will only further undermine Starmer’s government.

The beneficiaries of such indiscipline within Labour’s ranks will clearly be the SNP and Reform. If Labour is to survive in government, its members need to realise they are in the fight of their political lives –against Reform – and stop acting as if internal feuds are more important.

Both Starmer and Badenoch desperately need loyalty but they are simply not going to get it unless they can lay out a more inspiring vision of the future and find more effective lines of attack against their greatest enemy, Reform.

In short, they must become better leaders and both juries are out on whether either has the ability to do so.