Keir Starmer's vision for the economy is something Labour can rally around | Sienna Rodgers

The Labour leader says Tory ideology made Britain vulnerable to the pandemic. Now he has to bring the public along with him

• Sienna Rodgers is the editor of LabourList

Keir Starmer has always planned to conduct his leadership of the Labour party in stages. The first stage was focused on getting the party in order internally and then responding to the government's handling of the Covid crisis with constructive opposition". From April to December, he put his allies in key positions, most notably with the quick installation of a new general secretary, while slowly ramping up Labour's criticism of the government. Starmer's speech on the economy signalled that the second stage of his leadership is now under way: presenting a vision for the future.

I know from conversations with his team that this shift was mapped out from the beginning, which means the speech delivered, virtually, from Labour headquarters was not a reaction to recent commentariat criticisms. And yet concerns that the opposition leader may be stalling made this intervention all the more important. Westminster will be asking whether the second phase of his leadership can stop focus groups from describing Starmer as absent" and get opinion polls moving once again in Labour's favour.

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