Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Vic are applauded by supporters in Downing Street [Alexcsandra Dragoi/No10 Downing Street]

IT ended with such an ovation that a man from Mars might wonder why Sir Keir Starmer was leaving at all.

As he departed Number 10 for the final time as prime minister on Monday, staff lined up in the corridors to clap. Then in Downing Street, loyal supporters continued this banging out with more cheers.

Some of the same faces from Camden who were there to clap him in two years ago were at least there to clap him out.

Those closest to him were then invited to join him for an afternoon pint back on familiar territory, sidestepping the Burnhamania in Westminster for a glass at The Grafton in Kentish Town. Even Rachel Reeves, the now
ex-chancellor, was persuaded to join them.

This has been the strange gap between Mr Starmer announcing he was stepping down as the Labour Party’s leader to Andy Burnham’s arrival to take his place, a time in which lists of achievements have been supplied with the repeated claim that he is leaving the country in a better place than he found it.

[Lauren Hurley ­/ No10 Downing Street]

The base requirement for many voters fatigued by Conservative governments had been to be better than Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, although his time at the helm has itself proved to be short-lived.

Mr Starmer, who insists he has laid the foundation for a growing economy and better living standards, had been given applause too by Labour MPs – the very people who have essentially moved him on – during his final contributions at Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday.

His last words were a very firm, very loud “goodbye” after he had told the House of Commons that he had reached the “end of his political journey”.

That journey had begun at the end of 2012, when we first reported that he was appearing at more local events and commenting on issues that affected the Holborn and St Pancras constituency.

It wasn’t a secret that Frank Dobson would soon retire and a rare vacancy would soon be available, one which the late health secretary eventually endorsed Mr Starmer to fill.

[Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street]

The selection contest against former council leaders Sarah Hayward and Raj Chada was not much of a contest and he was picked to stand for Labour in 2015.

Almost immediately after becoming an MP, he was urged to stand for the leadership in the wake of Ed Miliband’s resignation.

Instead, he worked with Jeremy Corbyn on the shadow front bench, a period which saw Labour run the Tories close and then get a battering at the two quick elections in the immediate post-Brexit referendum era.

When Mr Corbyn made way, Mr Starmer seized his opportunity and Labour secured a large majority two years ago – the kind of lead which should have enabled the winners to do what they liked to soothe people’s troubles.

There was a deflating start, however, with a message about how things were much worse than first realised and that more pain was on the way. It was a communications mistake which his advisers repeated over again.

Successes listed in recent days were wasted by Labour’s PR people, and instead cuts to disability benefits, the winter fuel allowance and an initial refusal to remove the two-child benefit cap were allowed to characterise his government as mean ­spirited.

The start of his ‘political journey’ as a candidate and MP in Holborn and St Pancras

His approach to Gaza, meanwhile, seemed to please nobody.

An even more pervading view was the idea that he is robotic – or boring – even though he is known to be engaging and entertaining when the cameras and microphones are off.

Maybe he is relieved it is all over, being PM is obviously all-encomp-assing and affects everything from security, to family life and even where you can sit to watch Arsenal play. There appeared to be a more relaxed air to him as he departed.

He could potentially return to the football pitch at Talacre, instead of Sunday morning press calls.
What he does next is a plan yet to be revealed, but he has pledged to only give advice to Andy Burnham when it is asked for.

That line about his political journey coming to an end, however, has had an unsurprising effect back in the Camden ranks.

Labour strategists would be happy for him not to trigger a parliamentary by-election after mixed results in the recent council elections, where the Greens and the Camden People’s Alliance made gains.

But it was not the kind of comment made by somebody who intends to live out his days on the backbenches and there is an expectation that at the very list he will not stand again at another general election.

The queue of interested candidates to succeed him had first been forming when his poll ratings began to drop with the possibility that the current scenario might arise. The gossip has intensified now.

Councillors and several former councillors are working out whether they would have enough support if a selection contest comes about for this prime seat.

If history is anything to go by, Labour members in Camden like a character with a back story to be their candidate: a former Oscar winner, the niece of Bangladesh’s rulers who had met Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton and the former director of public prosecutions.

Mr Starmer, after some reflection, has the final decision about when or if a search for a new candidate begins; perhaps his own preferred successor will be one of the first to know.

The actual first will be, the many times mentioned Vic, his wife, who he walked into the bright sunshine with on Monday morning.

He had told her he loved her in the Commons last week, and there was an embrace and kiss as part of their farewell to this historic address.

It was time to get back to NW5.