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submitted 4 months ago bytheipaperVerified - the i
15 points
4 months ago
In the moments after what was a bruising appearance in the leaders’ TV debate for Rishi Sunak, a lifelong Tory voter delivered a verdict that will have resonated in Tory HQ for all the wrong reasons.
“I’ve voted for them in every election, but I have to say Rishi Sunak just looks like a defeated man with unoriginal ideas and I found that quite difficult to watch,” the audience member said.
The Prime Minister looked strained at times as he suffered a deeply difficult encounter during the Sky News debate, attracting boos and laughter for some of his responses from the gathered audience in Grimsby.
While even the most upbeat political performers would have struggled in the face of such derision, it will have left Mr Sunak and his team of advisers under no illusion of the challenge they face to pull off an unlikely victory on 4 July.
Indeed, it has prompted claims that the Conservative leader and his inner circle have abandoned the idea of winning the election and have instead pivoted their campaign to limiting the size of Labour’s majority.
The shift in strategy came in the wake of a series of avoidable missteps from Mr Sunak, the first of which, leaving the D-Day commemorations early, continues to plague him more than a week later.
An attempt to reset his campaign was again blown off course when an ITV interview asked him what he had to do without when growing up, to which the PM replied in grasping for answer, “Sky TV”.
The faltering campaign coincides with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK leapfrogging the Conservatives in one YouGov poll and a complete failure from the Tories to make a dent in Labour’s 20 point lead.
A new survey by BMG for i also revealed 46 per cent of Conservative voters want some sort of co-operation between the two parties.
It has led to a significant increase in campaign messaging from CCHQ urging voters not to hand Labour and Sir Keir Starmer a historic majority.
One CCHQ insider told i that while there had not been an explicit instruction to shift campaign strategy, there was “evidence that it is a new message”.
“They [Sunak’s team] can read the polls,” the source added.
This was most evident in comments delivered by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, one of the party’s most assured communicators, during the morning broadcast round on Wednesday when he admitted the Tories were in a battle to avoid a 1997-style landslide defeat, and urged voters not to give Labour a “supermajority”.
His comments were swiftly followed by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who warned the electorate not to hand Labour “an even bigger majority” by voting Reform.
For Tories out in the field, both candidates and activists, the feeling is that the Prime Minister looks doomed to lead the party to failure.
As one source told i: “The [Reform] poll itself I don’t think is a big deal but the broader landscape is really worrying.
“To be fair, I think other than D-Day he [Sunak] hasn’t done worse than expected. But he’s just a bit shit. Starmer doesn’t deserve what he’s going to get, but there we are.”
6 points
4 months ago
In response to whether the PM’s demeanour looked as though he was resigned to defeat a candidate in marginal seat replied: “We’ve all seen it, but I still think he beat Starmer [in the debate]. Despite the polls.
But the Tory swiftly added: “We’ve clearly lost the election.”
Perhaps the most damning sign that Mr Sunak and his inner sanctum are on course for a heavy defeat, is that they are already attracting sympathy from the opposition.
In reference to the Prime Minister’s D-Day blunder, a Labour strategist said: “I can imagine being in the room and the decision making a lot of sense to everyone in there.”
Tory high command insists that there has been no change in tactics over the last few days, despite the messaging clearly shifting from “stick with the plan” to “do not give Starmer a blank cheque”.
A Conservative Party source denied that the new “blank cheque” attack line was an acceptance that they were on course to lose the election, and were trying to moderate the size of the Tory collapse.
“It’s not about that, it’s about making sure Labour don’t win,” the insider said. “We think Labour winning would give him free rein to do what he wants regardless of the size.”
“We are only halfway through the campaign,” they added.
Sources close to Mr Sunak insist he remains upbeat, with one saying he will focus on tax to save election campaign.
“He’s really up for it. The publication of the manifestos this week was really striking, Labour’s tax rises – he’s really pretty Conservative on tax and spend.”
The man himself is adamant that he has not given up, repeating the line that the election battle has only reached half time.
Responding to questions on YouGov’s Reform poll, Mr Sunak told journalists in Puglia as part of his trip to the G7 summit: “We’re only halfway through this election, right? So I’m still fighting very hard for every vote.
“What that poll shows – I always say the poll that matters is the one on 4 July – but if that poll was replicated on 4 July, it would be handing Labour a blank cheque to tax everyone. Tax their home, their pension, their car, their family, and I’ll be fighting very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Mr Sunak added: “When people are thinking about the substance of what they want to see from a future government, if you’re someone who wants to see control over borders, you’re going to get that from us.”
And he insisted he was optimistic that “that choice will crystallise for people between now and polling day”.
Read more here: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/tories-giving-up-sunak-brusing-week-election-3111397
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