Will Starmer bow to the Sun King?

It all depends on two questions...

Spurious claims in Evolve Politics this weekend got me thinking about an age-old dilemma that was put on hold for Labour during the Corbyn administration. 

Sir Keir, they report, wants The Sun to endorse him and the Labour Party in an apparent snide to left wing factions of the party who prefer their leaders to remain pure.

To be fair, that isn’t quite what he said and the open nature of the interview clearly left him vulnerable to clumsy interpretations, but it does bear thinking about.

There's no doubting that Sir Keir is taking a different approach to the mainstream media than his predecessor. 

One of his first acts after winning the Labour leadership contest was to write a column for the Daily Telegraph and he even cosied up to the Daily Mail today in a piece that struck a remarkably similar tone to that of the Prime Minister. 

He has yet to reach out to The Sun but it is not inconceivable that he could. 

Whether he will do or not will depend on two questions. The first is whether Rupert Murdoch's red top rag can still win elections. To which the answer is undoubtedly 'yes'. 

Aside from a slight wobble in 2017 The Sun has, like it or not, has dictated the result of every election and referendum since Margaret Thatcher. They backed Blair, they backed Cameron, they backed Brexit and they backed Boris- and there's no escaping that.

The second question must therefore be, at what price? 

Sir Keir's primary quandary here is whether he would be alienating parts of the party in order to win back others - robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. 

There's no question that it would rub many people (and publications) up the wrong way, but as you have seen from the Evolve piece and as I have previously pointed out here, those wheels are already in motion. 

So the other thing he must consider is whether an alliance with The Sun will ultimately infringe on his policies, particularly in regards to Brexit, which will be the ultimate bargaining chip. 

He has to decide whether, like Tony Blair, he can "manage" the attack dog in the corner by conceding on certain issues and being firm on others. 

But the beauty here is that Jeremy Corbyn has already lost the Brexit election - and he took the bullet for it. So Starmer arguably comes into this in a position of power.

What remains to be seen is whether Murdoch will make him an offer. If he is serious about winning the next election, it will be one he can't refuse.