IT is fair to say Keir Starmer has had a good week. Going on the attack over Partygate, the Labour leader has spent the past seven days setting about Boris Johnson with a determination that might have earned a nod of respect from Tyson Fury.

Having successfully landed the Prime Minister with a third inquiry into his conduct at Downing Street during lockdown, Mr Starmer even stood a round of drinks for colleagues, an occasion so rare it has already become part of Labour history.

But politics must observe the same laws of gravity as the rest of life. What goes up must come down, or in the case of the Labour leader, be taken down a peg or two.

On Saturday, Andrew Neil compared Tony Blair at this point in the electoral cycle with Mr Starmer and and found the current Labour leader wanting. Although “decent, moderate, and patriotic”, observed Neil in The Mail, his lead in the polls was nothing like it should be given the state Mr Johnson’s government was in.

Nor did Mr Starmer have the personality and polish of Blair. Worse, he lacked the kind of policies that made Tory voters take a chance on New Labour, and his Shadow Cabinet was low on talent and even lower on name recognition. Where were the big beasts to rank alongside the likes of Brown, Cook, Straw, Blunkett and their ilk?

The next day it was the turn of the Sunday Times to kick the Labour leader’s tyres and wonder if he had what it took to make it to 10 Downing Street. Picking up on his lack of box office appeal, one “senior party figure” said: “Whenever I see Keir the image that often comes to mind is of a wooden plank.” With senior party figures like that, etc.

READ MORE: Can Piers Morgan powerslam his way back onto our televisions?

As good fortune had it, Mr Starmer was the main interview on Sunday Morning, giving him the chance to prove his critics wrong. Before we got to that, however, another “Gate” had swung open and demanded attention.

With the precise label yet to be settled upon, we shall call it Basic Instinct-gate or Stonegate. According to unnamed Tory MPs who had spoken to the Mail on Sunday, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has been crossing and uncrossing her legs at PMQs in a bid to somehow rattle Mr Johnson.

“Pretty sexist,” said Sky News’ Sophy Ridge to her first guest, Conservative party chair Oliver Dowden, who duly condemned it as “a totally ludicrous story that I do not recognise in any way at all.” Ms Rayner accused Mr Johnson and his “cheerleaders” of dragging the Conservative Party into the sewer.

Yet the story did not feature in Sunday Morning’s newspaper review, a large part of which was given over to mentioning the launch of a new television channel. Piers Morgan was the shy, retiring paper reviewer who managed to get maximum mileage out of his brief appearance, and he threw in a clip from his interview with Donald Trump for good measure. “Don’t storm off,” was the parting advice from Sophie Raworth to the ex-Good Morning Britain anchor.

Mr Dowden was already having an uncomfortable time of it before Stonegate reared its sexist head. On Sky News, Sophy Ridge cited a YouGov poll in which 78% of voters thought the Prime Minister had lied over parties in Downing Street. On Sunday Morning, Mr Dowden was pressed on how many fines would be a resignation matter.

To each inquiry, the Conservative chair refused to “engage in hypotheticals”, insisted the Prime Minister had already apologised, and declared his boss to have “plenty more fuel in his tank”. Another Minister might have steered away from anything that reminded viewers about the price of fuel, but not Mr Dowden.

Finally, it was Keir Starmer’s chance to shine. Would he agree, asked Sophie Raworth, that the main concern of voters was the cost of living crisis? He would. Then why was he spending so much time on Partygate? He wanted to talk about the cost of living, he insisted, and he had done, but there was still the matter of Mr Johnson being the first serving PM to have broken a law he made.

The Labour leader emerged unscathed from his Sunday encounter and headed back to the local election trail. If he had been watching the paper review earlier he would have heard what every politician wants - a warning from Piers Morgan. If the Labour Party did not do well in the elections it would be an “extraordinary moment”, said Morgan, because they were never going to face a more wounded premier than Mr Johnson.

Curtain up for Mr Starmer will be May 5. For Morgan and his “Uncensored” show, it’s tonight at 8pm on TalkTV.