When the history of Keir Starmer’s revival of the Labour Party is written, one of the most significant turning points will be the decision to start playing with people rather than balls when it comes to Boris Johnson and Partygate.
Rishi Sunak’s biggest weakness in the leadership debate this election is his background as a hedge fund partner during the financial crisis, and Labour sees his explanation for his past as a fundamental test given that he has built a reputation for his economic savvy.
Policy battle lines are already being drawn for Tuesday’s debate, with both sides laying down their defenses and preparing their attacks at the same time. The Conservatives will want to focus on gender, defence spending and pensions – all areas where Labour has been called upon to deliver and has failed to do so. Labour has been laying the groundwork over the weekend on other key weak points, such as reducing net immigration and working on the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
But both sides are bracing for personal showdowns. Sunak is preparing for a debate with Oliver Dowden; he will be asked to play Starmer, with Conservative aides as mock audience members hurling hostile questions. Sunak believes the debate will be key to changing the narrative, and that the audience will be watching him for signs of a comeback for the underdog.
Labour knows it will lose the debates and wants to keep the number of debates to a minimum, ignoring the Conservative challenge and wanting to hold up to six face-to-face debates. Labour’s policy director Tom Webb will deputise for Sunak in preparing the debates, continuing the role he played in preparing for Prime Minister’s Questions. Starmer will attend one public event on Monday but then focus all his efforts on preparations.
Over the past few months, Starmer’s team has deliberately chosen events, including question-and-answer sessions with Labour groups, in preparation for the debate. “We know people are very careful about asking difficult questions in front of their boss but there have been some and it’s good practice,” a Labour source said. “But they’ve never called in Labour MPs.”
Another added: “The debate will be a key moment – for voters who only started to pay attention to politics since the election was announced, it will be the first time they see Keir and Sunak going head to head. But we’re confident – Keir is good at this and well prepared.”
It’s also a crucial week within the Labour party, with the national executive committee meeting on Tuesday to give final approval to all candidates for the election – a crucial moment for any final dissatisfaction or resignations, but for now it is seen as a formality.
Starmer will focus on preparing for the debate until Tuesday, after which the leader’s attention will turn to the manifesto. On Friday, Labour will convene a crucial “Article 5” conference, where the party’s most powerful figures will go through the manifesto line by line and debate any salient differences at length.
Those attending included members of the shadow cabinet, Labour parliamentary committee members, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Wales First Minister Vaughan Gething and 11 trade union general secretaries.
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The “Article 5” conference is also intended to address issues not covered in the manifesto and to reach broad agreement on all outstanding issues that are of particular importance as the party prepares to take power.
Labour insiders say the Budget will be lean and targeted – there will be no big new spending surprises in the manifesto – and one of the best ways to avoid falling into this extremely cautious approach is to not keep rabbits.
