Migration is dominating Sunak's premiership – but the pressure on Starmer may be even greater | Martin Kettle

Although Labour has successfully kept the spotlight on Tory incompetence, difficult battles are yet to come

For Keir Starmer, the Tory party is the gift that keeps on giving. If Labour has one overriding wish as the start of general election year approaches, it is that Rishi Sunak's party should continue to remind voters why they have given up on the Conservatives after electing them in such numbers in 2019. On Tuesday, in the Commons, the Tory party delivered handsomely on that Labour wish.

As well as days of buildup, every newsflash throughout Tuesday was about Tory division and Tory difficulty. There hasn't been a spotlit display of Conservative dysfunction like this for, well, several weeks. It may not have been a gamechanging horror show on the scale of Partygate in 2021 or the Truss emergency budget in 2022. But it was a reminder that the Bertha Mason version of his party that Sunak tries to keep locked in the parliamentary attic is alive and well and ready to burn down the house if it gets the chance.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist