Fear of the Labour party has long been the most powerful Tory weapon. During every election campaign, the Tory strategy is to talk up the threat of Labour: the demon-eyed Tony Blair, ‘Red’ Ed Miliband or the Corbynite menace. Tories, for all their quirks and flaws, keep the other guys, the dangerous ones, out of power.
Rishi Sunak may struggle to revive this argument at the next election. The economy is in recession, the NHS is collapsing, national debt has doubled. After four Conservative prime ministers, public services are in such a state that strikes don’t make much difference. When things go back to ‘normal’, the trains, border control and ambulances are still in crisis.
Some interesting solutions are, at least, floating around. How about allowing NHS patients to refer themselves to specialists, cutting the burden on GPs? Or letting victims decide the punishment for antisocial behaviour? How about an Office for Value for Money, to stop so much taxpayers’ cash being squandered? But all of these are coming from the Labour party, which can claim to be providing fresh ideas in a way that was unthinkable just a few years ago.
It doesn’t help the Tories’ credibility that the government has stolen so many Labour ideas
Sir Keir Starmer can be accused of being a stupefying bore whose leadership strategy doesn’t go beyond tut-tutting at Tory errors.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in