EVERYBODY is happier seeing Labour being much more muscular than usual when challenging Tory attempts to tear up anti-corruption rules to protect Owen Paterson and give more Tory MPs the chance to take £100,000 salaries to moonlight as corporate lobbyists.

Actually opposing the Tories on a popular point of principle might even help Labour recover in the polls. But there is one weakness.

Labour’s 2019 manifesto policy was simple and firm: “We will stop MPs from taking paid second jobs.” This would stop Paterson-style corruption in its tracks. It’s easily understood: MPs should not be moonlighting for corporations, they should work for their voters — not for their £100,000 employers on the side.

However, Labour seems to be abandoning this simple pledge. In his otherwise firm attack on the Tories, Keir Starmer suddenly descends into a confusing proposal.

Starmer says there are “a number of simple things that could be done to clean up politics,” like to “ban anyone who holds ministerial office from selling themselves to companies that want to write legislation in their own interests.”

A ministers-only ban. That is much less strong than the 2019 ban-all-MPs’-second-jobs plan. It would have no effect on the Paterson case as he is not a current minister.

The danger is Starmer will force Labour to defend the status quo against Tory plans to tear up minimal anti-sleaze rules, instead of proposing his own reform of Parliament. Instead of being the “change” party, the “reform” party, Labour becomes the “establishment” party.

Even here, where Labour is pushing hard and the Tories are on the back foot, Starmer gets to the “what will you do?” question and the answer is “turn back the clock to a couple of years ago.”

It is the instinct that made Labour try to reverse the Brexit referendum instead of arguing for a better future. An instinct to seek the comfort zone of middle-aged Westminster insiders rather than appeal to the real economic discontent in the nation. It’s an instinct that keeps Labour from building anything like a solid poll lead.