Starmer may be the son of a toolmaker, but he speaks for a

There is a new ‘professional, managerial class’ running the party, and it has a complex relationship with the working class

Keir Starmer, if you didn’t know it already, is the son of a toolmaker. It’s a line he has repeated often, reflecting his team’s wider strategy to highlight the Labour leader’s less-privileged roots and appeal to working-class voters. In fact, recent reporting about his camp has revealed a leadership intensely focused on class.

Starmer’s team is acutely aware of the challenge facing Labour after the long process of deindustrialisation – and the reporting suggests they are keen to put Labour back in touch with the parts of the working class and other low-income groups. Hence the “toolmaker” line and Starmer’s repeated, if slightly awkward, references to his love of football.

Dan Evans is the author of A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie