You’re partly right, of course. Everything is always down to multiple factors.
However, Starmer clearly deserves some credit for Labour’s success (and, I think, some credit for the Tories’ failures). It’s perfectly possible for the Tory vote share to fall and for Labour’s to fall, too, which we saw happen under Corbyn, or for the Tories to have an unpopular leader and to still win because the Labour leader makes themselves even more unpopular (as we also saw under Corbyn and Miliband). Those things aren’t happening now, so Starmer must be doing something right.
You’re partly right, of course. Everything is always down to multiple factors.
However, Starmer clearly deserves some credit for Labour’s success (and, I think, some credit for the Tories’ failures). It’s perfectly possible for the Tory vote share to fall and for Labour’s to fall, too, which we saw happen under Corbyn, or for the Tories to have an unpopular leader and to still win because the Labour leader makes themselves even more unpopular (as we also saw under Corbyn and Miliband). Those things aren’t happening now, so Starmer must be doing something right.