Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Do the Tories really ‘have a plan’?

Credit: Getty Images

Tory ministers are now well rehearsed in the latest slogan that Rishi Sunak wants to take into the election. Today’s Education Questions in the Commons underlined what it is: ‘Our plan is working, Labour would take us back to square one.’ Education Secretary Gillian Keegan took care to ram that into every answer she gave, as did her junior ministers. The Conservatives have a plan on childcare provision, Labour doesn’t; the Conservatives have a plan to give better mental health support in primary and secondary schools, Labour doesn’t; the Conservatives are funding breakfast clubs in primary… you get the picture.

It shouldn’t normally be remarkable that ministers in the governing party are using their Commons slots to spout slogans in an election year. But it is for this current Conservative party, because the Tories have largely been behaving as though there isn’t an encounter with the electorate looming for at least a decade.

Isabel Hardman
Written by
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

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