Labour

2022 - 5 - 21

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Telegraph.co.uk"

Are we heading for 1997 all over again? (Telegraph.co.uk)

Many Tory MPs fear that Boris Johnson's party is echoing how things were before the landslide Labour general election victory 25 years ago.

Similarly, the government that is elected in 2024 will inherit a battered economy; there are even some in the Tory ranks who believe it might be better for Labour to take that pain and give the Tories a chance to rebuild for 2029. Some Tory MPs admit to a palpable change in the public mood. In Dartford, for example, where the Tories won by 36 percentage points in 2019, their lead is down to six. Tory MPs have noted an ominously familiar pattern to the leaching of Tory votes in recent elections. Starmer doesn’t scare people the way that Corbyn did, so they will be more tempted to vote Labour because they will think it’s time for a change. “I did a focus group in Tiverton where four out of six swing voters said they would choose Starmer over Boris,” he said. “In 1992 people didn’t really want us but they voted Tory anyway because they were scared of Neil Kinnock being PM and John Smith raising taxes. Major launched a moralistic Back to Basics campaign in 1993, and from then on the scandals just kept coming. A by-election will be held in Tiverton on the same day, after Tory MP Neil Parish admitted watching pornography in the Commons chamber. He is, fear some on the government benches, shaping up to be seen as a safe pair of hands. Is it really possible that we are heading for a re-run of 1997? “I was furious about the whole thing, and it was so unnecessary.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Quash talk of a Labour deal with SNP now, veteran election team ... (The Guardian)

Tory attacks depicting the party in the pocket of Scots nationalists 'must be halted before they lose us support'

On that basis, we might be able to say a confidence and supply motion like the one we had with the Liberals in the 1970s is possible. “The alternative is to say that everyone knows there is going to be another referendum at some point and the right way to proceed is to determine what the options to put to the people would be in detail, rather than have a vote about abstract concepts. “If an overall majority looks unlikely, we will be asking people to vote for a minority government living day-by-day and by the seat of its pants,” they said. Members of Labour’s 2015 team who spoke to the Observer agreed that Starmer should make an early intervention. “It is perfectly possible to say, ‘The only coalition we are seeking is one with the voters. Douglas Alexander, who was chair of general election strategy in 2015 and lost his seat to the SNP, was among those to call for early action.

Explore the last week