I fell in love with this cartoon from the moment I saw it! What a clever piece of satire! I’m sure you can work out the details of each part of the commentary from Chilton’s very clear imagery, but let’s take a deeper look at the images in turn. Just who is Kier Starmer, leader of Labour and her majesty’s opposition?

If you’ve never been to IKEA, and I’m sure there must be someone who hasn’t, you won’t recognise the internationally understandable, language-free format of their products’ assembly instructions. To those that have, this is instantly recognisable. KIER, replaces the brand name, and Starmå becomes his furniture name. It’s enormously clever.

The little IKEA man (for even though the person is not gendered, it’s definitely a man) takes you through a series of steps, some which you must do and others you mustn’t, and at the end offers you to call IKEA if you get stuck.

Here, in place of the items you will need to construct this article is the things one might associate with Starmer. His education and the scales show that he is a barrister by trade, a knight’s helmet depicting his “Sir” status, and the worker’s fist, that he is a Labour representative.

Below are four wonderfully funny and clever images, each with a cross next to them. Kier Starmer is not like any of these men, the four previous leaders of the Labour Party and their most memorable issue.

Tony Blair stands with a missile representing his unfortunate legacy of taking Britain to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gordon Brown stands with a fiscal chart and somewhat sadly after 12 years as a chancellor famed for his economic perspicacity oversaw as PM the 2008 economic downturn, the consequences of which we still live through today.

Ed Miliband stands with his “Ed Stone”; a communications disaster which prior to the 2015 General Election saw his key policies listed on a gravestone-like plaque.

Finally Jeremy Corbyn holds a simple sign with a Star of David and a little negative cross showing his constant battle with allegations of anti-Semitism within the party.

In the next set of boxes, two images of the hapless looking Starmer show he is neither left, nor right leaning. The third shows him looking puzzled and startled and at the instructions as he regards a covid particle and an EU flag. For many, this has been the criticism levelled at Starmer, that he has no policy or difference from the current Conservative government on either issue. Starmer, I’m sure, would say that on covid, the opposition needed to rally with the government to put up a united front, and on the EU, it is time to move on from Brexit. But it’s not exactly clear what the Labour party’s position is on a post-Brexit EU relationship.

Finally, in another borrowed image front the IKEA instructions, Kier is pictured on the phone to Läba (Labour) HQ, instead of the recognisable IKEA building. This leads on to the finished product which is held by him and a very recognisable figure – that of our current and outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson. The finished product is a Union flag, signalling that both men share the desire to keep the Union intact. This is true, although they have very different ways of going about it – Johnson’s Conservatives favouring more direct rule, whilst Starmer appears to almost defer to Mark Drakeford’s Welsh Labour as the most successful part of the party in government in Wales.

I think this is the first time I’ve written about Kier Starmer which surprises me, as he’s been in power over two years. Whilst they’ve been odd years, Chilton’s review is clear – Kier Starmer isn’t really one thing or another and what he stands for has never really been addressed. If we end up with a General Election after we get our new prime minister, it might be time for “Ikier Starmer” to work a bit harder on his message…