I think Labour need to understand and accept that it is not that the voters desperately want the Conservatives, it's that they desperately don't want Labour.
Corbyn tried to go the hard left route, and got himself and his party vapourised is the process.
Labour still appear reluctant to accept that the reasons for that were twofold - one was telling the electorate that they were fools for voting to leave the EU, and the other was utterly fannciful nonsense dressed up as policies that no-one could ever take seriously.
The current encumbents seem paralysed, utterly unable to move in any direction, or forming anything approaching a coherent strategy for their candidates to sell on the doorstep.
Right now, Starmer is treading water because he is either unable, or unwilling to move the party forwards with a proper strategy, policies he can sell, and a convincing argument that hw would do better than Mr Johnson.
So until the party gets a grip and finds some ideas that are saleable, and starts to sell them, they will remain where they are, stationary and damaged beyond repair.
That may be with Starmer, I suspect not, but whomever they choose, it has to be someone that the electorate can honestly see as a prosective prime minister.
Looking at the last fifty years' worth of leader - Smith and Blair excepted, they seem wilfully to choose the most unpleasant unattractive incoherent muddle-headed lefty muppet , and give them the job of leader.
That has to stop, and stop now - another useless leader will condemn them to opposition for decades, and based on their current choice - that is exactly what they deserve.