Luke Tryl

Labour’s attack ads may already be backfiring

(Credit: Getty images)

‘Poor taste,’ said Julie, ‘Really desperate,’ added Shawn. Mark thought it was ‘A low blow’ and Becky was simply ‘gobsmacked’. That was the verdict of our focus group participants in Erewash in Derbyshire last week when they were shown Labour’s controversial advert suggesting Rishi Sunak did not believe that those convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison. 

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has defended the advert and suggested ‘There’s more to come’. But based on the feedback of voters, if these adverts are to mark the start of a more aggressive approach, the spinners at Labour HQ might want to think again. 

Because this was not a group of pearl-clutching snowflakes, but instead encapsulated middle England’s tendency towards fair-mindedness and fair play. Indeed, more problematic for Labour, several participants felt that the advert was an attempt to mislead them: as Shawn pointed out: ‘It’s not up to him, is it? He’s not the jury, he’s not the crown court. Nothing to do with him, is it?’

People are exhausted by politics

Worse still the advert played into what has emerged as a consistent criticism in our focus groups of the Labour leader, that he is ‘just someone who criticises’ and doesn’t have positive ideas of his own. 

What those who say that the Labour party needs to be more aggressive, and ‘take the fight to the Tories’, badly misjudge is that the public is just not in a fighting mood. Speak to any focus group and you’ll find people are exhausted by politics and battered by the rapid succession of Brexit, Covid, partygate and the cost-of-living crisis.

Instead, what people tell us they want to hear from the Labour leader is not what the Conservatives have done wrong – unfortunately for the government, many people have very strong views on that themselves – but how a Labour government would, in practical ways, make things better for them.

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