Keir Starmer stunned sceptics and rebuilt Labour. Now he must do the same for Britain | Andrew Rawnsley

Not one senior party figure originally thought he had a prayer of leading them back into government in a single parliament, but now he bestrides a transformed political landscape

David Lammy likes to tell a story about sitting at his kitchen table with Sir Keir Starmer shortly after Labour’s cataclysmic defeat at the 2019 election. Having ascertained that the other man intended to run for leader, Mr Lammy cautioned him that hauling Labour out of the abyss and back into contention for power would be “a 10-year project”. “No,” came the sharp response from Sir Keir. “I’m going to do it in five.”

Was he truly convinced that he had it in him to pull off what everyone else regarded as mission impossible? Or did he have to tell himself this because he knew he’d probably only get one crack at Number 10? As it turns out, he’s taken his party from its most abject defeat since 1935 to a landslide victory, and pulled off that remarkable feat in a bit under five years, to become the 58th prime minister in our history and only the fourth Labour one to secure a parliamentary majority.

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