Within 20 minutes of Rishi Sunak announcing plans for a July election, Keir Starmer was up delivering his response. The Labour leader’s first pitch of the campaign could be summed up in six words: stop the chaos, vote for change. It is a neat encapsulation of Starmer’s four-year-mission as Leader of the Opposition – making his party electable again by fashioning it as the safe, reliable, respectable mainstream of British politics.
Central to Labour’s election campaign will be contrasting Sir Keir’s leadership with the three Tory premiers he has faced across the despatch box. Over the next six weeks, he and his shadow cabinet will hammer home to voters the message that the past 14 years have been ones of disarray and division. The pledge to ‘stop the chaos’ featured three times in Starmer’s 610-word address – the first of many such references no doubt. He promised a ‘politics that treads more lightly on all our lives’: a variation of the message which Boris Johnson used so effectively to win over red wall voters last time.
Starmer was circumspect about the ‘change’ he offers in this election – a criticism throughout his time as leader. Yet it is clear that the six-policy pledge card that he unveiled last week is going to be the basis of this campaign. ‘We can deliver economic stability’, he said. ‘Cut the NHS waiting times. Secure our borders with a New Border Security Command, harness Great British Energy to cut your bills for good, tackle anti-social behaviour and get the teachers we need in your children’s classroom.’ Focus-grouped and laser-targeted, these will be repeated day in and day out until polling day. His speech was a neat summary of a broader pitch that has been finely honed for months now. Election chief Morgan McSweeney warned since the beginning of the year that a May election was likely – in the end, his judgment about the election date was only weeks out.
Starmer’s hurriedly-assembled remarks may not have contained many memorable phrases but at least they were not delivered, like Sunak’s, in the pouring rain. The contrast between the sober, dry Starmer with a soaked Tory premier being taunted by protestors blasting out ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ is one that has delighted Labour aides tonight.
As the campaign gets underway, all signs suggest it is the Labour leader’s pitch which resonates more with voters too.
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