Raf Baer

I think it shows that he'd been a cabinet minister before in a previous government.

He'd had that portfolio before.

So unlike so many people, including the prime minister, he was really able to hit the ground running.

And actually...

In the world that we live in, war in Ukraine, Russian threat, war in the Gulf, the argument that we could really do without being totally dependent on hydrocarbon imports and we could really move towards a green transition is a great progressive story that actually reaches a large number of people.

It's actually broadly a majority position in this country.

So I think that's a pretty good idea.

And I think actually Ed Miliband has done well to cement that.

And I actually think the EU reset has gone okay.

Personally, I think it's been a bit slow and it's been a bit frustrating.

But broadly speaking, he has done some of the necessary diplomacy so that if someone now wants to come in and say, you know what, we're really going to transform Britain's relationship with the European Union.

The foundations for that will have been laid by Keir Starmer.

And the other things the government would name, workers' rights, renters' rights, starting the process of changing the planning legislation so you can actually get some houses built.

These are all things that, if they are going to make a difference to people's lives, it will be incremental and it'll be something that people will look back on and go, the foundations were laid by Keir Starmer.

You don't get popular in politics generally for laying foundations.

And particularly not in a political climate where attention spans are short and people want the payback now, not in 15, 20 years time.

I think winning the landslide election is not to be sniffed at.

The Labour Party was in a terrible, terrible state.

And actually, as he said at the lectern in front of Number 10 in his resignation statement, people thought maybe the Labour Party was finished and certainly it was going to take a couple of terms of opposition really to get back.

And to win on the scale he did, it was a significant achievement.