Analysis
With policy battle lines set, Sunak and Starmer
prepare for TV combat
Jessica
Elgot
Deputy
political editor
With PM as underdog hoping to use TV debates for
comeback, Labour leader is also preparing for election to turn personal
Sun 2 Jun
2024 22.30 BST
When the
history of Keir Starmer’s resurrection of the Labour party comes to be written,
one of the most important turning points will be the decision to start playing
the man, not the ball, when it came to Boris Johnson and Partygate.
Rishi
Sunak’s key weak spot in the leader debates this election is his career as a
hedge fund partner at the time of the financial crisis. Labour believes the
prime minister’s account of his past will be a fundamental test, given he has
built his reputation on his economic competence.
The battle
lines on policy have already been drawn for the debate on Tuesday with both
sides building their defences as well as preparing their attacks. The
Conservatives will want to focus on gender, defence spending and pensions – all
areas where Labour has been challenged to match their commitments and has not
done so. Labour has been doing groundwork on other key weak spots over the
weekend – on bringing down net migration and on commitment to the UK’s nuclear
deterrent.
But both
sides are now prepared for things to start getting personal. Sunak is doing his
debate preparations with Oliver Dowden. The deputy prime minister has been
asked to play Starmer and Tory aides will be in a mock audience asking hostile
questions. Sunak believes the debates are key to changing the narrative and
that the audience will be watching him for signs of the underdog making a
comeback.
Labour
knows the debate is its to lose and wants to keep the number of these to a
minimum, brushing aside Tory challenges to hold up to six head-to-head debates.
In its debate prep, Tom Webb, Labour’s policy director, stands in for Sunak,
continuing the role he has played during PMQs prep. Starmer will appear at one
public event on Monday but will then turn his full focus to preparations.
Over the
last few months, Starmer’s team have deliberately picked events which involve
Q&As with groups of workers, with one eye on getting him debate-ready. “We
know that people are quite cautious about asking difficult questions in front
of their bosses, but there have been a few, and it’s good practice,” said one
Labour source. “But we definitely haven’t drafted in any Labour councillors.”
Another
added: “The debate will be a big moment. It’s the first time that many voters
will have seen Keir and Sunak go head to head as they will only just have
started paying attention to politics since the election was called. But we’re
feeling confident. Keir is good at this stuff, and he’s well prepared.”
Internally,
Labour also has a crucial week. On Tuesday the national executive committee
will meet to finally approve all candidates for elections, the crunch point for
any final complaints or resignations, but it is now seen as broadly a
formality.
While
Starmer is focused on debate preparations until Tuesday, the leader’s attention
after that will be on the manifesto. On Friday, Labour will convene its pivotal
“clause V” meeting, where its most influential figures will go through the
manifesto line by line and thrash out any outstanding differences.
Those
present will include the shadow cabinet, MPs on the parliamentary Labour party
committee, the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, the Welsh first minister,
Vaughan Gething, and 11 trade union general secretaries.
The “clause
V” meeting is also designed to raise issues that are not in the manifesto – and
to get broad agreement on all outstanding issues which is particularly crucial
as the party prepares to enter government.
Labour
insiders say it will be a slimmed-down and precision-targeted offering – there
is no big new spending offer as a manifesto surprise. In this highly cautious
operation, one of the best ways to avoid traps is to avoid having any rabbits.
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