Aside from Jeremy Corbyn, there can be no other Labour politician who bears more responsibility for the party’s crushing defeat at the last election than Sir Keir Starmer. While Corbyn spouted the politics of the student union and opened the door to toxic extremism, Starmer was waging his own ideological battle – to stop Brexit.

As shadow Brexit secretary, he offered sincere assurances that Labour would respect the referendum result. But, as director of communications at No 10, I saw first-hand how Labour’s new leader sought to block our departure from the EU. I sat in on many of the cross-party Brexit talks and witnessed how he would frustrate any progress with endless objections. This reached farcical levels on one occasion when he branded the language of one government document as totally unacceptable, only to be told the text had been cut and pasted from a Labour paper.

Ultimately the public was not fooled, either by the “lawyer’s Brexit” that Starmer offered up or by public assurances that Labour would respect the referendum. He now has a mountain to climb when it comes to reconnecting with voters. How he approaches the terrible Covid-19 pandemic will be a major test of whether he can win back their trust.

If ever there was a time to transcend the boundaries of political tribalism, it is now. The Prime Minister yesterday wrote to party leaders urging them to “work together” with the Government. But will Starmer be able to resist playing politics with this pandemic? My guess is not. In his acceptance speech, he insisted he would work with the Government but would “challenge” and “call out” ministers if necessary. He went on to lay out a key battle line that will emerge when Britain breaks free from the pandemic – public sector pay.

It seems, as with Brexit, that Starmer will insist he is putting politics to one side, while in reality indulging in the same old point-scoring. This political profiteering will only serve to divide when we should all unite. We are all on the same side in this war and Starmer would be wise to avoid going down this route. Daily press conferences mean the public have access to Government information as never before.