When Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party was in opposition, policy-watchers hunted for a glimmer of ideology. They saw little of the intellectual ferment behind Sir Tony Blair’s “third way”. Sir Keir’s diagnosis of Britain’s problems was unflashy: under the Tories, he said in 2023, there was a “sense that nothing works, that we’re going backwards, a country in decline”. Under Labour, an orderly government would restore Britons’ faith in the system. He articulated a set of “foundations” and “missions”, which included promises both vague and precise.