Restless Labour impatient for power but questions over strategy remain

Senior party figures insist they are taking nothing for granted amid concern about whether voters know what Keir Starmer stands for

In a packed school assembly hall in an inner London comprehensive on a balmy evening last week, the great and good of the Labour party gathered to celebrate the launch of the memoir of the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting.

The party's general secretary, David Evans, mingled over glasses of wine and bowls of crisps with Peter Hyman, Keir Starmer's senior aide, Deborah Mattinson, Labour's director of strategy, and a host of other Labour MPs, political journalists and party officials.