SIR Keir Starmer and his cabinet know that Nigel Farage and Reform are breathing down their necks, but what are they actually doing in response?

Despite the scale of Labour’s victory last year, the “honeymoon” at Downing Street lasted for about two seconds. Those who were meant to be emerging as the big beasts of the new government have proved unconvincing when asked about what will change people’s lives for the better. The growth mantra has failed as a rallying message for the country.

The weary-looking front bench types, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Yvette Cooper and Bridget Philipson, already look like they have run a marathon a day since reaching office.

And, so scared to say boo to a goose or a ghost, it’s sad to see Sir Keir’s government reaching in to almost borrow Reform’s policies, rather than challenge them.

Amid the desperation to appear tough guys on the Channel crossings they have lost any coherent narrative. If the voter you want to persuade is red and angry over refugees, they probably will never vote for Labour anyway. They probably won’t vote for the Tories either, as it happens.

But what if Labour didn’t slide into the hole of chasing this debate.

Oxford university academics Professor Jane Green and Professor Geoffrey Evans this week showed there is another way to win the next election. Their analysis, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, didn’t get huge headlines but expertly underlined the problem Labour is making for itself with its endless election mode conservatism.

While it worries about whether it has the right message on immigration and if the Daily Mail will shout at them, it is neglecting to provide messages of hope for the growing number of people struggling financially.

The professors reported that Labour may have lost 40 per cent of supporters within a matter of months of taking charge, and that half of those were people who had fallen into economically insecure times.

Professor Green said this week: “Financially insecure voters are the ones looking for political alternatives because they can’t see things getting better for themselves or their children. All the talk of culture wars and immigration misses their primary experience.”

She warned of “much more political volatility and further electoral fragmentation” if so many continued to feel so insecure in their own personal finances.

By-elections aside, the next time we can really test volatility in Westminster will be next year’s all ward council elections – the point where residents decide again who should run the council.

Having finally won power here last time, councillors may now need Sir Keir and friends to say more than reminding us they inherited a mess. The ‘if all fails, blames the Tories’ backstop has been removed from local politics now.

It could make for an unpredictable contest.