It's a truism for a reason in office but not in charge.

The leader of the opposition is the permanent understudy of British public life, on most of them fail.

But since Thomas election, he has resurrected labor's cadaverous opinion poll ratings.

Still, some worry a ceiling appears to have been reached or worse.

Labor's ratings have sharply increased in Starmer became leader, but the rise has stalled.

Way see a similar pattern with starters personal ratings, his negative starting to climb quite sharply over the last few months on Boris Johnson has once again overtaken Starmer on the preferred prime minister stakes.

But many leaders of the opposition never get into positive territory at all or only fleetingly.

Ed Miliband managed a few months in positive territory.

Even Cameron's positive ratings disappeared after a year.

Labor old hands say then that this is nothing to worry about for Kier Starmer in a year to not just have got us back on equal terms in the polls, we were 26 points behind, by the way, but also is the first leader.

I thinks it's Tony Blair.

You've got a personal rating higher than the than the current prime minister, who has been all too often over the last 10 years of living in the Conservative Party.

That is in a terrific achievement in his first year.

And yet not only the Tories just about still ahead, but they're now pulling a bit further ahead on geekiest armors.

Personal ratings.

It's like to dip a little.

Yeah, I don't think that should concern here in the sense that in the middle of a pandemic, I think it's very difficult for governments to actually go down in the polls, given that most people in Britain anyway, give them the benefit of the doubt on.

Of course, Starmer hasn't been able to campaign, hasn't been able to make a conference speech, sometimes unable to leave his own home.

And he's had to navigate a covert politics.

Where to be seen to commit Politics may be a sin, but overall I welcome this statement.

I believe the government is trying to do the right thing.

But there are those who whisper that there's not enough politics within the man to begin with, that he hasn't the bite of a successful predecessors, that his critique of the Johnson government has been one anchored incompetence, just to the point that through the vaccine program, the government has shown it has it.

One of the critiques of Keir Starmer this year has been despite the fact that he is clearly a very competent figure, someone who many people can imagine being prime minister.

Perhaps he's a bit too lawyerly, a little bit too cautious.

The public square on the so called court of public opinion are actually very different from a a court room.

Um, even PM cues, Um, where people say here has been a very able performer.

Even PMK use.

Prime minister's questions is not the same as courtroom advocacy, but in a sense, those, um, those critiques and those conversations are our Westminster bubble stuff.

What I'm looking for is not really that what I'm looking for is the offering.

What I'm looking for is the great big hearted, optimistic offering Thio, the British people that says it was labor, Um, that did it after World War Two.

It was labor that built the welfare state, and thats the offer to which Starmer will turn tomorrow that he will, we're told, start to map out the intellectual basis off a storm.

A labor governments off what social democracy will look like in the 20 twenties that he will say that there could be no return to business as usual or the failed conservative ideology of the past.

Now you may think this sounds rather run.

Can labor credibly talk of a failed conservative ideology when they have So that is the conservatives, transformed before our eyes moved away from the free market?

Become, in many cases, born again status?

Well, talk to those around Starmer, and they think that in the long term that isn't going toe happen, that the Conservatives haven't bought into a fundamentally new version off political economy that in the medium term at least, Rishi Soon AC and others will start to argue for spending cuts.

The deficit reduction that will become a key plank once again of our politics on that is the opening that labor, starting tomorrow could start to prise open on the economic crisis will have a much longer tail, I suspect, than the public health crisis that code that code has brought about.

But I think this is this is a good time to start talking about priorities with a long tail of inequality and security with the end of the furlough system, which was gonna cause all sorts of directions in our economy with the regional inequalities that postcode life will reveal.

There's so much that's going to be the A free area for reasonable disagreement between the opposition Onda conservative government.

Many seem to think that Keir Starmer looks and sounds the part of a prime minister.

But only two leaders of the opposition have made that leap since 1994.

It isn't yet clear that he plays that part nearly as well.

Lewis Goodall win In a moment, I'll be joined by James Snyder, co founder of Momentum and former director of strategic communications with Jeremy Corbyn and an eternally the former Labor MP for Red Car.

But first, I'm joined by Jonathan Reynolds, the Shadow Work and Pensions secretary.

Good evening, Jonathan medals, First of all, giving the various crises in the pandemic from PPE to schools to care, home to track and trace, and even to Dominic Cummings.

Given all that, why is it that the Conservatives are not only ahead in the polls but pulling further ahead look, if you look at where the Labor Party is today, based on where we were a year ago, I think actually the writ or progress has been fantastic, and I certainly feel much more comfortable about where we are today.

If you look at governments around the world, incumbent governments have got a boost.

As you see the international crisis, people rally around the government, they want the government to succeed, and we want the government's Corbett strategy to succeed.

Nobody wants to continue the disruption to people's lives.

The loss that we have all felt, so that is natural.

If you look at the poll, that really does count, which is, does the public see?

We've got a new leader?

Yes, they have seen that.

Do they like him?

Yes, they do.

Do they see him as a potential prime minister?

Yes, they do now.

I'm not some good people who've been the leader for their party.

You haven't had Paul rate things like that.

So on that, Yes, I think that's a good position for us to be in a year on.

And you acknowledge that the government's done a very good job in the vaccine because as I say, it's not just about the government.

Being ahead in the polls is about pulling the head, just pulling ahead, despite the fact that people know who could cure, stammers and think that he might be a trustworthy leader.

Toys, Air pulling ahead just now.

Well, we've been ahead in the polls and lost big elections.

I don't think frankly, people should look too much of where things are right now, except for the fact that we know they've noticed we've got a new leader on.

They like him quite a lot in terms of your question about the handling off the pandemic.

Now, if you look at where this country has got to tragically, with the highest death toll in Europe and the biggest recession of any major economy, what Kira is going to say tomorrow is yes.

That is about decisions the government have made in the pandemic.

But it's also about the country we had going into this crisis, the inequality, the poverty, insecurity in the workplace on That is why, when we're talking now about what should come after the pandemic here is going to say we cannot go back to business as usual deliver something better and only labor could do that, he says.

Under my leadership, labor's priority will also be financial responsibility.

So what is more important, spending what it takes to appear Britain or reducing the massive deficit?

It's about spending on the things that matter.

We've seen this government spend very large means that frankly haven't worked like tests and trace what here is going to say tomorrow, the priorities that we would have to make that difference.

But there could be no return to austerity.

People always forget in these type of discussions.

It's not just about spending cuts on tax rises to get a grip of the deficit.

It's about shrinking that debt as a proportion of GDP, shrinking it as a proportion of the economy, and that requires growth.

And I would just say we cannot think that we'll get to where we need to be by ignoring rising levels of child poverty heading towards five million people, five million Children, sorry on that will take that will take spending and that will take spending.

And I wonder about the whole radicalism of that because what he says he's going to do, According to the speech tomorrow is going to reverse the planned cuts to Universal Credit, which will benefit six million families by £1000 a year.

That is only taking it back to pre austerity rates.

That is not a radical agenda.

What, you're right to say that there has bean in Social Security, a very punitive set of settlements for many years.

I don't deny that.

But that commitment on universal credit, which is obviously directly in my brief, yes, that is absolutely the right thing to do for British families.

I mean, let's just not forget.

You've got to go back to the Great Depression to find the government that was willing to cook out of work support in a major recession.

But that is also the right thing for the economy, because otherwise you'd be taking £6 billion worth of spending that would be spent in local shops on on local services out of the economy.

Now that s the point.

That is a return to the original question, which is?

You'll spend what it takes to the to repair Britain the way you want to repair it, rather than being concerned about drawing away from the deficit about reducing weight.

Exume Lee, in the short term do both.

You can't do the short do both in the short term.

Well, I say you can do both Kirsty, because if you look at where we've been for the last few years, if you look at the George Osborne plan on austerity on its plan to tackle the deficit, it didn't work.

It didn't work.

And you can't find anyone now saying That's the right way forward.

You can't find the time for the 100 or major publications who specialized in this area.

They all agree that isn't the right way forward.

So let's surely learn the lessons off the past.

But the way forward to tackle both the national finances on the opportunity that people need in this country is to say that let's not go back to what we had going into.

Let's not have a prime minister who doesn't even know that child poverty is rising.

It doesn't seem to care anything about it.

Let's not be food Bank Britain.

Let's be Britain with opportunity.

Hold security for everybody.

After every major crisis in this country's history, we've come up with something better if David blanket if David Blanket is saying tonight, as he did that he wants to know what labor stands for.

Surely that's a bit of an indictment off a former such a former senior figure in the Labor Party in the center, right, saying, even now, all these months after Keir Starmer doing, he doesn't know where labor stands for.

I don't think this infertile.

I think what we all know is when you've got a new leader, they have to set out their their new territory, how they want to take the party in the country forward.

There have been restrictions on us in the pandemic, but in terms of what we've been able to do to challenge the government where they should have been challenged to make sure the government's response is as good as it could be.

And if they listen to us more, I think their response would have Bean even better.

But yes, at this stage now, let's be clear.

At the beginning of this pandemic, we were talking about the long term aspirations for the Labor Party.

What we wanted to do that wouldn't have been the right time.

But this is the right moment.

We're a stage with the vaccination problem where we can look to the future.

But we also have the budget.

We also have a very big set off elections this year.

This is the right time.

This is the right moment, people.

Nokia's new.

They like him this chance to really set out his vision on.

Sure, thank you very much.

Jonathan Reynolds.