Sunday, April 16, 2023
Sunak attack ad comes back to bite Starmer
I have just listened to a discussion on Radio Wales in which a former Labour adviser argued that the advert out out by Labour, accusing Rishi Sunak of failing to put paedophiles in prison has been succsesful because it is being talked about in pubs. Putting aside the fact that pub talk is a hardly a measure of competence and success, in my experience very few people are in fact discussing it, but of those who are, it is hardly doing Labour any favours.
The Observer reports that an an Opinium poll has found that the controversial “attack ad” has caused more voters to think negatively of Keir Starmer’s party than a Conservative poster that accused the Labour leader of being soft on crime.
The pollsters found that the Labour advert about Sunak made 17% of those polled feel less favourable about the Conservatives, but also 12% feel less favourable to Labour. The Conservative advert about Starmer made 9% feel less favourable about Labour and 2% less positive about the Conservatives:
Behind the scenes, however, the release of the crime attack ad has caused tensions and dented confidence within Labour, with senior figures and officials at odds over the party’s campaigning style. Last Wednesday, Starmer’s political director, Luke Sullivan, gave senior advisers a dressing-down after stinging unattributable briefings against the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, appeared in the media. The briefings, including suggestions that Cooper still had leadership ambitions and was disloyal, followed a report in the Observer last weekend saying that she had nothing to do with the ad and that several shadow cabinet ministers were blindsided by its release.
One Labour insider said there was a lot of “nervousness” about whether the party had lurched too suddenly from a relatively sober approach under Starmer into “dirty politics”. “It was quite painful. There was no laying of the ground. It is not where we have pitched before,” said one senior adviser.
Some see the change of style, which officials say was approved by a combination of Morgan McSweeney, the party’s campaign director, Shabana Mahmood, the national campaign coordinator, David Evans, the general secretary, and shadow justice secretary Steve Reed, as a panicked reaction to Sunak’s re-establishment of some semblance of competence to government after the chaos under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, during which Labour had to do little but sit and watch its poll lead soar.
“We expected this with Sunak,” said a party source. “He was always going to be different because he is not as crazy as Boris Johnson and not as mad as Liz Truss. But there remain questions about whether we lose more than we gain by coming off the moral high ground.”
A shadow cabinet source added: “We all had loads of emails. Our people didn’t like it. They thought it crossed the line.” Some of those who complained believed the ad had racist undertones.
While much of the criticism has come from supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, it is by no means confined to that wing of the party. Another frontbencher said the ad was a product of Starmer’s lack of clear political vision, combined with frustration at having to limit spending commitments to a bare minimum in the belief that doing so bolsters Labour’s economic credibility. “If we can’t say much on policy, the view is that we have to attack them more. That is the thinking.
“But do people believe it when we tear into Sunak personally, when he has only been there five minutes? It’s not the greatest look.”
Inside the shadow cabinet itself, differences of approach are clear. Some point to Cooper and Reed. “She [Cooper] is very cautious, very risk-averse and always has been, whereas Steve is very gung ho, says let’s lean into everything which can be a problem,” said a well-informed source.
Labour may have retained their poll lead but if they keep up with this sort of campaign they will start to lose ground.
The Observer reports that an an Opinium poll has found that the controversial “attack ad” has caused more voters to think negatively of Keir Starmer’s party than a Conservative poster that accused the Labour leader of being soft on crime.
The pollsters found that the Labour advert about Sunak made 17% of those polled feel less favourable about the Conservatives, but also 12% feel less favourable to Labour. The Conservative advert about Starmer made 9% feel less favourable about Labour and 2% less positive about the Conservatives:
Behind the scenes, however, the release of the crime attack ad has caused tensions and dented confidence within Labour, with senior figures and officials at odds over the party’s campaigning style. Last Wednesday, Starmer’s political director, Luke Sullivan, gave senior advisers a dressing-down after stinging unattributable briefings against the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, appeared in the media. The briefings, including suggestions that Cooper still had leadership ambitions and was disloyal, followed a report in the Observer last weekend saying that she had nothing to do with the ad and that several shadow cabinet ministers were blindsided by its release.
One Labour insider said there was a lot of “nervousness” about whether the party had lurched too suddenly from a relatively sober approach under Starmer into “dirty politics”. “It was quite painful. There was no laying of the ground. It is not where we have pitched before,” said one senior adviser.
Some see the change of style, which officials say was approved by a combination of Morgan McSweeney, the party’s campaign director, Shabana Mahmood, the national campaign coordinator, David Evans, the general secretary, and shadow justice secretary Steve Reed, as a panicked reaction to Sunak’s re-establishment of some semblance of competence to government after the chaos under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, during which Labour had to do little but sit and watch its poll lead soar.
“We expected this with Sunak,” said a party source. “He was always going to be different because he is not as crazy as Boris Johnson and not as mad as Liz Truss. But there remain questions about whether we lose more than we gain by coming off the moral high ground.”
A shadow cabinet source added: “We all had loads of emails. Our people didn’t like it. They thought it crossed the line.” Some of those who complained believed the ad had racist undertones.
While much of the criticism has come from supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, it is by no means confined to that wing of the party. Another frontbencher said the ad was a product of Starmer’s lack of clear political vision, combined with frustration at having to limit spending commitments to a bare minimum in the belief that doing so bolsters Labour’s economic credibility. “If we can’t say much on policy, the view is that we have to attack them more. That is the thinking.
“But do people believe it when we tear into Sunak personally, when he has only been there five minutes? It’s not the greatest look.”
Inside the shadow cabinet itself, differences of approach are clear. Some point to Cooper and Reed. “She [Cooper] is very cautious, very risk-averse and always has been, whereas Steve is very gung ho, says let’s lean into everything which can be a problem,” said a well-informed source.
Labour may have retained their poll lead but if they keep up with this sort of campaign they will start to lose ground.
