Just how much worse can the Tory campaign get? With a fortnight to go until polling day, the party’s field director is now being investigated by the Gambling Commission. It’s a somewhat sub-optimal development for a campaign dogged by tortuous metaphors, D-Day disasters and torrential rain too. In such circumstances then, it is no surprise that the party is now reportedly fighting an ultra-defensive campaign to shore up its vote in its southern safe seats.
Yet with Sunak now spending much of his time touring seats with majorities of 15,000 or more, there is some confusion and irritation within Labour at the party high command’s focus on so-called ‘battleground’ seats. Analysis by LabourList suggests that there are more than 250 of these across the country. But Mr S is picking up anger from campaigners in constituencies outside of these areas, who are frustrated about threats to potentially restrict their access to campaign materials like the party’s door knocking app. This is due to concerns that candidates in non-battleground seats are doing too much campaigning in their own seats and not in target constituencies.
One candidate told Steerpike: ‘I actually think they’re losing their minds or becoming little dictators with all the power.’ Mr S asked the Labour press office for a comment but, alas, none was forthcoming. While there’s an understandable need to focus on the most winnable seats, the danger is that Labour gives an impression of indifference for opponents to exploit. The Lib Dems have already sought to exploit Starmer’s strategy by suggesting that ‘Labour have given up’ in non-battleground seats.
Just because they’re non-battleground, doesn’t mean there won’t be conflict…
Comments