Friendly faces, screaming fans - for a moment it felt like the PM was back in opposition

I’ve been to a few political meetings in my time, but this was the first one where the supporters started screaming before the special guest has even appeared.

Ok, it wasn’t quite Beatlemania circa 1964, but there were definite screams and wolf-whistles from the assembled supporters at City of Wolverhampton College.

The past two years may have taught Sir Keir Starmer that high office does not automatically equate to universal popularity, but from the vocal support of the 300 or so assembled supporters at the city’s £61 million new learning quarter, you would never have guessed that this was a man who, if the pollsters are to be believed, is set for a comprehensive drubbing when people go to the polls on May 7.

There weren’t any students in the college, of course, what with it being half term, but there were a fair few familiar faces in the crowd. Pat McFadden, Wolverhampton South East MP and Work and Pensions Secretary, was there along with West Midlands regional mayor Richard Parker, Wolverhampton Council leader Stephen Simkins, and local MPs Warinder Juss, Sureena Brackenridge and Sarah Coombes. Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, who some will remember from her time as an MP in the city, was also there, although I don’t think she joined in the wolf-whistles.

It fell to Lucy Powell, elected last year to succeed Angela Rayner as deputy leader of the Labour Party - but not deputy Prime Minister - to provide the warm-up act.

“Look into my eyes,” she joked, as she ridiculed Green Party leader and one-time hypnotist Zack Polanski.

But it fell to Black Country mother-of-two Sarah Scarfe to introduce the Prime Minister.

Mrs Scarfe, a 40-year-old data analyst from Coseley, told how her decision to adopt twin boys two years ago had changed her and her husband’s lives.

“But like many parents, once we’d settled into life as a family of four, I wanted to go back to work, “ she said. “But when we looked at the cost of nursery full time for two children, it looked undoable.

“Child care is one of the biggest costs any family faces, and with twins, everything is doubled. I remembered sitting down, working through the numbers and thinking ‘how are we going to make this work?’

She told the room how she thought she would only be to return to work part time, until the Government doubled the availability of free nursery care from 15 hours a week to 30.

Mrs Scarfe admitted afterwards that there had been a few nerves about introducing the Prime Minister.

“I have had butterflies in my stomach since last Thursday, since I found I would be doing this, but I feel really good now,” she said.

The Prime Minister strode out in smart-casual blue shirt, sleeves rolled up, seemingly buoyed by the (slight) bounce in his approval ratings over his handling of the crisis in the Middle East.

“Sarah, you were brilliant,” he told his new compere, to willing applause. He singled out a freshly printed placard bearing the slogan ‘Pride in Wolverhampton’, and told how it was pride in local communities that would see off the ‘divisive’ politics of both the Left and Right.

He accused both Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch of wanting to “go straight in, with both feet”, into the war in Iran, without thinking through the consequences.

“Now they’re in opposition, that doesn’t matter very much, but it’s terrible judgement, because taking your country to war is the single most important decision you can make,” he said.

“Then you’ve got Polanski, he thinks that with a war on two fronts, now is the time to give up our Nato membership, and to start negotiating with Putin over our nuclear deterrent. We’d be left so weak and so exposed if any of those individuals were in government.”

With the formalities over, it was selfie time, and the party loyalists wasted no time in besieging the PM for a quick photograph. This must have reminded him of his time in opposition, when everything seemed so much easier, when simply not being Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss meant instant popularity.

Within the safe confines of the college building, surrounded by his most dedicated supporters, the Prime Minister could do no wrong. But it will be in the far less forgiving environment of the polling booth where his future will be determined.