Full disclosure: I went into the ITV election debate wanting and expecting Sir Keir Starmer to walk all over Rishi Sunak, but from my sofa the Prime Minister looked like the clear winner. How so? He kept it simple: he would cut taxes, Sir Keir would hike them up by £2,000; he would stick illegal migrants on a plane, Sir Keir would spring them onto a high street near you; he wouldn’t force you to make expensive green upgrades to your house, Sir Keir would rip out your boiler with his own bare hands then hand you a bill. It was ruthless, fear-mongering stuff, but I suspect it will have resonated with some viewers.
The Prime Minster was especially adept – read: shamelessly sly – about turning his failings into doubts about his opponent. Every time the Labour leader brought up an example from 14 years of Tory failure, Sunak accused him of being stuck in the past and, more damagingly, of having no plan for the future. Sir Keir eventually began to fight back and draw attention to this audacious attempt at spin but he left it too long. He was clearly unprepared for the aggressive approach taken by the Tory leader. He expected Sunak the underdog but what he encountered was a pitbull.
Will any of this make a difference? It seems unlikely. It’s just one debate and if he’s smart Sir Keir will disregard the likely soft-peddling that will come from his admirers in the pundit class, recognise that he had a bad night, and make sure it’s his last. He enjoys a commanding poll lead, is up against a clapped out chaos-magnet of a government, can tap into a public mood that is not so much saying as screaming ‘time for a change’, and benefits from Nigel Farage battering the Tories from the right. He is still headed for No. 10 and with an eye-watering majority, but he should make this the last time he underestimates the Prime Minister.
Comments