The parties are gearing up for their first full week of campaigning since parliament was dissolved on Thursday. This means one-time MPs are now just candidates, and the spending limits are on. Both parties revealed their battle buses over the weekend – Labour’s is emblazoned with ‘Change’ while the Tories have gone for a three-point slogan: ‘Clear plan. Bold Action. Secure Future.’
This week, all eyes will be on the north-west – where Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will go head-to-head in the first debate of the election. The duo will be appearing on ITV on Tuesday at 9 p.m. for their first televised showdown. So far there aren’t many bouts in the diary, with the Labour leader saying he would rather debate voters than Sunak. Meanwhile Sunak and his team are playing hardball when it comes to requests from broadcasters for debates where the two leaders would appear separately.
The pressure is on Sunak to put in a game-changing performance
It means that Tuesday’s debate carries even more importance to both parties. Labour figures suggest Starmer will want to use the debate to press Sunak on his party’s economic record and bring up Liz Truss as many times as possible – potentially also Sunak’s background in finance. As for Sunak, I understand the Prime Minister has spent much of Sunday in debate prep, with his deputy Oliver Dowden playing the role of Starmer. Sunak’s aim will be to push the Tory campaign narrative that Labour has no answers to the big questions and represents the past not the future.
Given the Tories are trailing by about 20 points in the polls, the pressure is on Sunak to put in a game-changing performance. As I reported in this week’s Spectator, the Tories are working on a core vote strategy with big announcements aimed at their base (the latest pledge is to rewrite the Equality Act to clarify that sex means ‘biological sex’) – but so far the polls have not budged, to the disappointment of Tory candidates.
One of the reasons Sunak called a summer election (and dismayed many of his colleagues in the process) was due to frustration that government announcements were having little cut-through with the public. The hope is that in an election campaign, voters will start paying attention – this week’s debate will be the first big test of whether that will be the case.
This article originally appeared in Katy Ball’s new Election Insider email – out every Sunday. Sign up here.
Comments