The tiny tweaks that could help Labour make a big difference to Britain

If he becomes prime minister on a ‘time for change’ platform, Keir Starmer will need some quick wins, says Andrew Grice. These easy, low-cost measures would help ring the changes – and give the nation’s mood a lift

Angela Rayner has hit back at Peter Mandelson, the former business secretary, who argued that business should be more closely consulted (Getty)

There is no enthusiasm for us in the country,” one senior Labour figure admitted to me, ruefully. “It doesn’t matter now. We are on course to win – but it will matter after the election.”

They are right. Voters are unlikely to give Labour the benefit of the doubt as they did the last time the party won power in 1997 – or give Keir Starmer time for his “decade of renewal” without seeing tangible progress.

I don’t think Starmer could afford to take his pre-election caution into government. He should remember Tony Blair’s regret at not moving more quickly in 1997, and his lesson: “You start at your most popular and least capable, and you end at your most capable and least popular.”