Are the Tories fooling themselves?
There are a lot of reports around at the moment about how the Tories think they can fight the election by going negative against Starmer. We see this in Sunak’s regular efforts at PMQs when he tries to make Starmer’s role while working for the then LAB leader, Corbyn, into an issue.
Only problem is that there is no evidence yet that this is going to work. It all reminds me of the Tory efforts ahead of GE1997 by trying to go negative against Tony Blair. Those who are old enough might recall the Tory ad that focussed on Blair’s eyes and tried to suggest there was something sinister about the then LAB leader.
I think GE2024 is going to be very hard for the Tories. For a start they have been in power for nearly a decade and a half and there is a great desire for change. Secondly the polls simply aren’t shifting. Those 20%+CON deficits are starting to have a permanence about them.
In my view Sunak is not even a second-rater as we see at PMQs each week. His terrible leader ratings aren’t shifting. In an election that will be dominated by the economy, it is going to be hard for the man to shake off the attacks that he is far too rich to understand. Marrying a billionaire will not help here and this will be brought up time and time again.
