What Blair can teach Starmer: pick your battles early, and surround yourself with experts | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister may not want a picture of Thatcher at No 10, but he could learn from his predecessors – and their mistakes

What can Keir Starmer learn from Tony Blair? He hit the ground running in handling last month’s rightwing riots over immigration. He rolled the pitch for Rachel Reeves’s first budget. He initiated a post-Brexit era with Germany. It looked good. Starmer’s watchword was “change”. Yet he could not face seeing Margaret Thatcher’s portrait in Downing Street, the one predecessor who knew most about change in government.

Blair’s latest book, On Leadership, is full of ambiguous advice. He points out that prime ministers are by definition newcomers to the job. They are little better than apprentices or interns. He says they pass through three stages. They start by listening and learning. Then they think they know it all. Finally, they mature into judgment, but by then it is too late. They have become unpopular.

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