Sunak gears up for a ‘nasty campaign’ against Starmer | Adam Boulton

“This is going to be a nasty campaign from the Conservatives aimed full tilt at Sir Keir Starmer.”

Adam Boulton discusses when Rishi Sunak will “put a revolver to the head of his own premiership” and call a general election on #TimesRadio.

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This is going to be a nasty campaign from the conservatives aimed uh full uh Tilt at sakir starma the basically the argument is well there may be some uh people who you regard as centrists and reasonable in the labor front ranks but K starma was there saying uh from the

Shadow cabinet that Jeremy Corbin ought to be uh the Prime Minister he can’t be trusted he’s a lefty is Rishi sunak gearing up for an Autumn election the Times report reports today that after his trip to Italy for this right-wing conference he’ll be heading back to Westminster to really ramp up his

Election strategy Lord pickles is a former conservative party chair and he told breakfast that rushy sunak needs to think differently to the election of 2019 political parties always make the mistake of fighting the last election and this will be a very different election from the 2019 uh sakir is a very different

Character from uh Mr Corbin and uh the electorate frankly don’t like negative campaigns uh very much and I don’t think it would suit the personality of the Prime Minister I think if you uh underestimate the virtues of your political opponent it’s a very big mistake and people will vote

On the basis of what they think um uh the future life not just for them but for for their kids well Max Wilson former head of campaigns for the parliamentary labor party’s political Services Unit told us this election will be fought on the economy and that could make it harder for the conservatives

It’s going to be really really tough for the conservatives to make their positive case because frankly the economy is in such a bad State at the moment the labor are going to go on cost of living for obvious reasons they’re going to go on they’re going to be asking the question

They’re going to be asking the question do do you the electorate feel richer than you did five years years ago and it’s quite a simple question in a way for most people they’re going to say that they don’t feel uh richer well let’s speak to Adam Bolton times radio

Presenter of Sunday morning’s politics program and somebody who’s covered several elections in his time Adam good morning good morning good to speak to you um I think first of all on the kind of the ramping up of the strategy is that is that your sense as well that

Really come the New Year the election is on well I think it’s the really the only thing that positive the government has got to concentrate on as we you’ve already been talking about Rwanda earlier on well uh that issue is still going to be there the economy is still

Going to be in a difficult circumstance so uh the one thing uh where Richi sunak and the conservatives really in control is the timing of the general election unless of course the government is brought down uh by rebels in their own ranks which remains a possibility I mean

I I I Steve swinford is is always someone uh worth reading but the truth is this is not the first time time they’ve ramped up for a general election uh but events have got in the way uh and yes I think you know we’re all going to

Be asking aren’t we uh from uh well we’re already asking but certainly from New Year’s Day on when’s the election going to be the latest it could possibly be is January 2025 but uh the government looks sufficiently troubled that lasting that long uh seems to be quite difficult

But then that raises the question as whether um you know R puts the revolver to the head of own Premiership uh never an easy decision to take I have to say I probably agree with those people who think he’s going to go long if he can beyond the summer into the Autumn I

Certainly wouldn’t rule out us being in the same position uh this time next year expecting an election in January uh but um yeah it look it’s top of the agenda and really the big question that conservatives have to ask themselves is do they want to win this election and

Fight it or not because they’re quite a lot of people and I think we saw that with the right-wing rebels over Rwanda who quite happily lose the next election because for them they want to fight over the carcass of the Tory party and they think they can win that and take it in

That direction even if it’s not in power yeah and the message being briefed from well sort of uh uh the various articles that we’re kind of pulling together over the last couple of months as you say and Steve swinford repeats it today is the kind of Insider knowledge and Isaac lito

The election strategist who’s going to start properly at conservative HQ as of the new year as well but him saying that labor have not sealed the deal uh in his words that’s the quote many voters remain undecided uh none of that mattered he argued if the Tories were

Still Riven with infighting and so we kind of can turn to strategies I suppose Adam rishy Sak’s got a real headache when it comes to party Unity but Kier starmer similarly has not sealed the deal and so how do these two sort of come up against each other when a

Campaign does officially get underway how do these issues kind of play off well it depends how you you define seal the deal doesn’t it in terms of which party would you vote for labor are well ahead and that they have been ahead for a year around 20 points that I think

Would be interpreted by most people as sealing the deal although uh inside labor headquarters they’ve been deliberately scaring the shadow cabinet saying it’s not in the bag you shouldn’t assume it’s in the bag this is how it could go wrong uh and you’ve got to campaign all out but the difference is I

Think that the labor party at the top looks you United behind winning whereas the conservative party with the best win in the world doesn’t but it’s interesting the first name that comes up and came up when you talked to Eric pickles about the election is Kia starma

And uh we’ve been doing some work for our program tomorrow kcan and I talking to Richard Holden uh amongst others who’s now the chairman of the conservative party did you know that not a lot of people do he’s called Richard Holden uh and um again the first person

He mentions when you talk to him about it is uh sakir starma it’s quite clear that Eric pickles is going to be disappointed this is going to be a nasty campaign from the conservatives aimed uh Full Tilt at sakir starma the basically the argument is well there may be some

Uh people who you regard as centrists and reasonable in the labor front ranks but K starma was there saying uh from the shadow cabinet that Jeremy Corbin ought to be uh the prime minister he can’t be trusted he’s a lefty and I I have to say I disagree uh with the last

Comment that um it doesn’t suit uh Richi soon act to be negative I think anyone who’s been listening to prime minister’s questions closely knows that he loves being rude to secure starmer about being a lefty lawyer uh and out of touch and and uh I think uh oddly bizarrely uh

This election probably more than many others is going to end up being focused on uh Karma and rishy sunak uh partly because labor do identify Rishi sunak as a negative in the conservative ranks not because they’re particularly critical of him but because they can see that his

Own party doesn’t like him it’s really fascinating that and this from Steve swinford piece uh today Labor’s been preparing for the Tory attacks here’s the quote if they want to get dirty we’ll be ready does sunak want to open up scrutiny on his own finances his time

Working in finance or his time in America uh so mean there’s there’s preparation going in for this to be a negative campaign absolutely I mean people are Focus grouping we know that where they uh take groups of Voters and ask them what’s on their mind and uh the

Truth is that uh the words you get about sakir starma are things like boring and uh don’t really know uh but in this particular election campaign that is good because the words you get about Rishi sunak are what most people will regard as negative Rich out of touch uh

Doesn’t understand the concerns of ordinary people and you know he can’t get away from the fact that he’s married to a billionaires and has had a lifestyle not really on a par uh with most ordinary British voters yeah just in terms Adam final thought on you know

One of Eric Pickle’s points There Was You you shouldn’t fight the last election and that’s a trap that parties fall into but similarly we you know can’t help ourselves in comparing this sort of feeling uh where we’re at now in the Electoral cycle with previous experiences and one of the most common

And frequent comparisons is the kind of end of John Major’s government where SAS was Rife and you know party difficulties were so difficult to manage are you are you happy to draw any comparisons with lessons from the past or is this a whole new thing yeah I I do think that is the

Parallel I mean that the real question that sort of nerds like me have been asking ourselves is is this like 1992 when Neil kinck appeared to have a strong offer but ended up being trounced unexpectedly by John Major or is it like 97 when uh Tony Blair uh LED labor

Pretty much at a trot uh to a staggering victory of a scale that even surprised him I don’t think that level of uh uh you know Charisma is something people associate with K starma but certainly if you look at voting pattern in by elections and in uh in local elections

That’s more similar to the runup to 97 than it is to ’92 in as much as the votes for labor are stronger and more consistent than they were in ’92 even though there was a swing away uh from labor and by from the government the conservatives in by elections so I think

The patent at the moment looks like 92 but the big difference is whereas Tony Blair was this massively popular charismatic figure this time round the controversial figure if you like the figure attracting public attention is not K starma but Ry sunak who’s attacking that attention negatively not

Least from his own party Adam lovely to speak to you thank you very much thanks for joining us see you tomorrow cheers yes see you then Adam Bolton times radio presenter he and Kate mccan have got Sunday morning looked after for you tomorrow from 10 among their guests then

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver dowen and indeed Shadow secretary for Health and Social care Wes reing uh coming up on the program tomorrow