Keir Starmer needs to shake-off ‘Captain Hindsight’ jibe in Yorkshire visit – The Yorkshire Post says

Not only did the cavalier actions of Mr Cummings compromise the public’s faith – and trust – in the restrictions that they have had to endure since March, and often at great cost to their own health and wealth, but it exposed another example of Government double standards.

Yet many will be surprised, perturbed even, that the Opposition leader did not ask more searching questions about this particular pay award – and the accountability of key officials – at the last PMQs of the year before a campaign visit in Yorkshire.

For, by choosing to critique the PM’s handling of Covid throughout the year, Sir Keir once again left himself open to the charge from a still sceptical public that he is leading by hindsight and that the country would be no better off if his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn had won last December’s election.

He has been less assured on Covid recently – Labour even abstained in a key Commons vote over the imposition of new Tier arrangements – and even vaguer on how his party would begin to fund the additional measures that it demands daily.

And that is Sir Keir’s test as he looks to shake off the PM’s ‘Captain Hindsight’ jibe and begin to win back lost support in the North. Not only do voters expect greater economic clarity – and credibility – from the Opposition leader, but a policy prospectus that is underpinned by foresight and which satisfies all wings of a Labour movement still struggling to come to terms with its electoral humiliation of 12 months ago. Over to you, Sir Keir.

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