Corbyn was neck and neck with the Tories too
""Nor is it all Corbyn’s fault: the problems of even the Gordon Brown years still hang over the party, with many of my focus group attendees saying it would be “just like last time” if Labour was in charge of the economy."
Imagine where the Party would be without the Blairites sabbotaging Corbyn's leadership from 2015 onwards - imagine had they supported the Party and not the Tories. The 2017 manifesto was extremely popular despite all that sh1te, thanks to enormous funding from Unite in support of the election campaign and the commitment of Momentum supporters on the ground. Starmer's p1ssed all that up the wall in favour of his control of the party machine and ideological purity - neoliberal purity.
The risk is, and it's a big risk, even if elected on vague promises, he'll fail to deliver and fuel a further drive to the right.