P&O spat shows Labour can’t afford to rock the boat when in Government - Ismail Mulla

But all the rhetoric from Starmer and his acolytes has been about how awful everything is. Forget jam tomorrow, it’s gruel today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future.

Starmer likes to project a persona of a man in control but this sharply dressed (thanks Lord Alli) former director of public prosecutions is quickly going to get a reputation for a floundering, fence-sitting and ineffectual PM.

Forget Blarism 2.0, the playbook that this Labour Government seems to be following is that of the coalition government of 2010-15.

It would be cruel to say that the Government has had a relatively calm honeymoon period. Not many administrations have had to deal with rioting on the streets within weeks of stepping into their ministerial cars. The Middle East is on fire, Ukraine is on fire and America is threatening to set itself on fire.

But the public won’t accept fence-sitting and tinkering from the new Government after Labour promised the nation different while in Opposition.

Many people will have a lot of time for Transport Secretary Louise Haigh. After having comatose ministers in post, who could not give a Flying Scotsman about the state of the country’s transport infrastructure, there is finally someone at least talking in a language that passengers would understand.

And a lot of people will feel that her criticism of P&O Ferries was warranted. Lets not forget that the operator sacked 800 British seafarers and replaced them with cheaper, mainly overseas, staff in 2022.

But her saying that she’s boycotting P&O and urging others to do the same is very much the language of Opposition, not Government.

The reported threats from Dubai-based DP World, P&O’s parent firm, to pull £1bn of investment in the UK shows the real-world implications of not understanding the difference between being in Opposition and in Government.

Starmer rebuked the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, saying that it’s “not the view of the Government” but for someone who came into Number 10 with visions of iron-clad discipline, this can only be described as embarrassing.

Business confidence will be key to getting Britain out of the mess that it currently is in. What people forget is that the Tories, oft touted as the party of business, did so much to alienate captains of industry. Starmer and his Ministers would do well to remember this.

That is why the Government needs to also start looking at how it's going to lay out a positive vision for Britain. Investors aren’t going to invest if you keep telling them that the country is a basketcase with little hope for a better future. Labour needs to tell them that things can only get better (remember that number?), not worse. That starts with having the confidence to loosen the purse strings, without the economically illiterate approach that came with Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget.

Ismail Mulla is the Comment Editor of The Yorkshire Post.