Labour leader must ditch aloof attitude to controversies as donations scandal rumbles on into conference

• Labour conference – live updates

Keir Starmer had a very specific comms strategy during the election campaign: fight on your own turf and don’t get dragged into someone else’s agenda. Don’t get distracted by the fight the Tories want to have on culture or tax – stick to the script and rise above it.

The problem with this tune is that it is one – to coin a football phrase – that you can sing when you’re winning. And even in the election campaign there were times when this came a cropper.