David Cameron is driving voters into Farage’s arms

Who on earth at Tory campaign HQ thought it was a good idea to send Lord Cameron into battle to attack Nigel Farage and try to head off the gathering threat from Reform UK? In an interview with the Times today, the Foreign Secretary accused Farage of dog-whistling.

He may well be right: it doesn’t take too much imagination to see how Farage’s assertion that Rishi Sunak ‘doesn’t understand our culture’ will have gone down with some voters. The trouble is, though, that Lord Cameron reminds many Reform-leaning voters of everything they dislike about the Tories. He represents the privileged, patrician wing of the Conservative party – the toffs and landowners, the green welly, ‘get orf my land’ brigade. As Tory leader and prime minister he looked after his own, showed a paternalistic regard for the poor – and treated the Conservatives’ self-made men and women with contempt. He went into the 2010 general election promising one tax cut – in inheritance tax – and tax rises for everyone else.