Sir Keir Starmer at the Will Hutton book launch

THE possible future prime minister made a surprise appearance at a political book launch in Angel this week.

Striding confidently onto the stage five minutes into journalist Will Hutton’s book launch on Monday night, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer received a rapturous reception from the audience at the Union Chapel in Upper Street.

Political journalist and author Steve Richards of the Rock & Roll Politics podcast said the evening was “significant” in plotting what might come next.

“Given that so much of [Sir Keir’s] tone is very cautious, just the act of endorsing a book with radical ideas was an interesting and possibly significant moment,” he said.

“For those in the audience who want to have a sense that change is coming, the fact that Keir Starmer enthusiastically endorsed a book with many radical reforms, gave that audience cause to be optimistic.”

Mr Richards, who lives in Crouch End, just moments from Mr Hutton’s home, said Sir Keir’s shock appearance “electrified” the audience.

Mr Hutton’s book, This Time No Mistakes, has been described by Sir Keir as “brilliant”, and in a sign he could be putting it on the summer must-read list for his future cabinet, he added “[it is] an intellectual, historical, political read with some strong themes” which people should “read if you haven’t already”.

The book describes how Conservatism has driven Britain to the brink of despair, and now sits on suicide watch itself alongside the long-suffering electorate.

Last year Mr Hutton hailed Sir Keir as a “potentially transformational Labour leader”.

This is not the first time Upper Street has been at the centre of a potential blueprint for Labour’s future: former prime ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair infamously hatched their plans for power at its Granita restaurant in 1994.