Keir Starmer has a blank piece of paper where his policies should be – it will be no surprise if Tories win another term

FORGET the polls and the focus groups.

This is the week we’ll find out for sure if voters believe Sir Keir Starmer has what it takes to be PM.

Elections are the only real test of public opinion.

Thursday’s town hall skirmishes will reveal who is on track to win in 2024.

After 13 years of Tory chaos, coups and convulsions, any self-respecting Labour leader with a clear plan of action should be a racing certainty.

Yet Starmer is struggling to look like an outright winner, leaving Rishi Sunak with a faint hope of leading a shock fourth-term Tory government.

The “Rishi bounce” — a combination of competence and stability — has persuaded voters to think twice about switching sides.

But an even bigger factor is the blank sheet of paper which represents a Starmer-led Labour administration.

The biggest blank of all is Starmer himself.

He is rarely mentioned on the doorstep and, when he is, there are more questions than answers.

What would he do on taxes and public spending?

Or crime and punishment?

Would he stop illegal immigration?

Can he really define a woman?

As for more bread-and-butter issues, whose side is he on?

Is it the politically motivated wreckers who are crippling public services?

Striking doctors and nurses or terrified patients?

Militant teachers or innocent children robbed of a decent education?

After a torrent of twists, U-turns and policy somersaults on everything from crime and punishment to Covid and lockdown, voters have no idea what Sir Keir really stands for.

Asked to sum him up, focus groups range from the bland (“grey”, “wooden”) to the abusive (“insincere slimeball”).

Fiercely opposed

This is no surprise, remembering his erstwhile support for both ultra-left Jeremy Corbyn and the EU’s “free movement of people” — aka mass immigration.

Fortunately, the nature of this week’s elections provides a glimpse of how life might be lived in a Starmer-led Britain.

In Labour towns and cities, tin-pot tyrants meddle in every nook and cranny of our daily lives, from kids’ sex education to trans issues, race and diversity to policing priorities.

London motorists vow revenge for Mayor Sadiq Khan’s cash cosh on White Van Man, charging a huge £27.50 a day in congestion and “clean air” fees to enter our gridlocked capital.

Birmingham City Council faces a backlash for fiercely opposed road closures.

Car- parking fees across the country are steepest under Labour.

More than 8,000 council seats fall vacant this week.

Six months ago, amid the Liz Truss ruins, Labour were more than 20 points ahead in the polls and tipped to grab 2,000 seats from the Tories.

Today they would be lucky to gain half that number.

Anything less will boost Tory hopes of survival.

Voters still feel bruised, but any protest votes are likely to go to Lib Dems.

This is bad news for Labour.

Political analysts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher say Labour cannot afford to be seen as just another protest party.

“Labour requires a swing larger than Tony Blair achieved in 1997 just to register the slimmest of parliamentary majorities,” they said in The Sunday Times.

“Anything less than significant gains in a wide variety of English councils will suggest that ambition is out of reach.

“It will not be enough for electors simply to search for the best way to punish the Tories. Labour needs to show it is winning back support on its own account.”

Killer question

Devoid of ideas of his own, Starmer is now pinning all Labour hopes on the cost-of- living crisis, with soaring food prices right at the top of voters’ priorities.

Sir Keir believes he can win simply by asking the killer question: “Do you feel better or worse off after 13 years of Tory rule?”

But voters with long memories will recall the election of 2000, when Gordon Brown was defeated after 13 years of Labour rule.

His departing Chief Secretary Liam Byrne left a note on the desk of incoming Chancellor George Osborne. “I am afraid there is no money left,” he wrote.

Just eight words.

But as a verdict on Labour in power, they could fill Starmer’s blank sheet of paper.