Hartlepool was more than a horror for the Labour Party. More than a humiliation. It was a colossal, life-threatening defeat such as engulfed and eventually destroyed the Liberal Party 100 years ago.
Not a routine defeat for a government in a by-election but a complete crushing by a Government which the Labour Party had attempted to pillory for sleaze for months because it had nothing else to offer. A party under a shiny, new forensically intelligent leader who was going to be a herald of change. Or so we thought.
Well, that’s not how voters up and down the country, north and south, east and west – and especially in Hartlepool – saw Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday.