"Bloated Keir Starmer Looks a Victor Against Verifiable Truss Calamity"

Even replacing Liz Truss with Penny Mordaunt or Rishi Sunak is unlikely to save a warring and exhausted Conservative Party that deserves no mercy, says Kevin Maguire< /p> Keir Starmer at the labor conference with his wife Victoria (

Image: ADAM VAUGHAN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Hot Keir Starmer looks like a winner, while Liz Truss is a deflated loser as MPs return to Parliament this week.

He knocks on the door in Downing Street and she is at number 10 but not in office, as Tories openly speculate she could be ousted soon.

Leaders' fortunes couldn't be more mixed after a summer that left Starmer flying high and Truss low.

It carries a risk for the Labor leader, of course.

The scrutiny and accountability will naturally heighten when he appears to many voters as a prime minister-in-waiting.

And two years is over 100 of Harold Wilson's long weeks in politics, in which a lot could happen as the Cons delay a general election until the end.

The two leaders have contrasting fortunes

But complacency is not the danger for a Starmer who rightly takes nothing for granted. The biggest threat would be the ruthless Cons who would roll the dice once more and knock down Toxic Truss.

Betting on Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, Rishi Sunak or an anonymous backbench MP who isn't a household name in her own house would be better than sticking with a totally discredited figure that would seal the defeat.

Choosing an electorally more unpopular leader than Boris Johnson was a colossal mistake, a gift that continues to please Starmer and Labour.

Voters will neither forget nor forgive a Conservative leader who showed his true colors by standing up for a wealthy elite at the height of the cost of living crisis for low- and middle-income families.