Terry Prone: Labour’s losses are down to the fact that they didn’t listen to voters

Starmer may announce a listening exercise to put Labour back in touch with its voters; that’s what political parties do after a catastrophic poll result: promise to listen in a new way

Labour leader Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer after casting their votes in the local elections at Westminster Chapel in central London last week. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA 

Two pictures. Two pictures of British political leaders on the day England, Scotland, and Wales went to the polls. One picture striving to make its subject likeable and failing. The other succeeding without striving.

The one trying to make its subject likeable was the one showing prime minister and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer headed for the ballot box with his wife, Victoria, in jeans and white T-shirt with a white jacket, smiling. Starmer wasn’t smiling.