![]() Labour thinks there are lessons to be learned from Bidenomics in the US, with its emphasis on skills, recognition for trade unions and good, well-paid jobs. She intends to focus on practical solutions to the issues she thinks worry people the most – such as energy bills and mortgage costs. She says the four Labour defeats from 2010 call into question the appetite of voters for a left-radical approach, and that what they are really craving is security. Yet, something more transformative may rekindle concerns about whether Labour can be trusted with the economy. An ultra-cautious approach may persuade voters to buy Rishi Sunak’s argument that only the Conservatives will meet the demand for change. ![]() Is it best to hunker down and so give the Conservatives little to attack? Or would it be better to go hard on a “time for a change” platform, seeking to exploit the fact that the Tories have been in power for the past 13 years?īoth have their risks. There is no real sense that voters are thirsting for a Labour government.Īll of which poses a dilemma for Starmer and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, at Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week. This, though, is really the story of Tory self-destruction – Partygate, Liz Truss, a cost of living crisis, record NHS waiting lists. The assumption then was that it would be a long haul, lasting two parliaments, for the party to win again. The Tories have had to deal with one nasty economic shock after another, and a 20-point opinion poll deficit is the result.įor Labour, a poll lead of that size would have been beyond the wildest dreams of Sir Keir Starmer when he became leader in the spring of 2020. Boris Johnson’s honeymoon was soon cut short by the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020, and that pandemic led to a monster recession, a ballooning budget deficit and – as the economy recovered – the highest inflation in 40 years. In retrospect, it was not a bad election to lose. People might have been looking for change in 2019 but they lacked faith in Labour’s ability to achieve it. Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto contained things – free broadband and higher taxes on the better off – that were designed to appeal to an electorate fed up with the system. The public may be willing to embrace more leftwing ideas in principle but it has been reluctant to vote for them in elections. The upshot of 15 years of stagnation has been an ebbing of support for capitalism itself.īut here’s the paradox. Since the global financial crisis, voters have moved to the left on economic issues, with polls showing strong support for the nationalisation of public utilities and for wealth taxes.
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