He finally did it. Sunak succumbed to the reality that, unlike the D:Ream song that blared in the background throughout his announcement this afternoon, things really aren’t going to get much better than they are right now.
He’s called a General Election for Thursday 4 July.
He clearly calculated that going to the country now gives him the best possible chance of lessening the scale of the expected Conservative defeat. The amount of good news Sunak will be leading the Tories into the campaign on the back of is, shall we say, limited. Yes, inflation is down to 2.3%, hovering tantalisingly close to the Bank of England’s 2% target.
However, when considering the progress of his other five pledges, things look far less positive. The coming months don’t signal a sudden uptick in the UK’s economic prospects; NHS waiting lists don’t look set to suddenly come down; the summer months are likely to bring with them a larger number of small boat crossings across the channel; and debt is still higher than it was last year.
Sunak and the Conservative Party will be fighting an uphill battle to hold on to as many MPs as possible. But I firmly believe that the result of the election is anything but a foregone conclusion. This is now Labour’s election to lose. All eyes will be on Sir Keir Starmer, a man whose tenure as Leader of the Opposition has been bolstered significantly by the incompetence and corruption of those on the other side of the dispatch box. But one thing Starmer won’t be used to, is policy-based scrutiny.
For too long, Starmer and Labour have enjoyed such high levels of support based not on an enthusiasm for him or his party’s policies, but instead on virtue of the fact he’s *not* the Tories.
Now, I’m not suggesting for one moment that Starmer doesn’t have policies. We’ve already had a whiff at some of them (Great British Energy, the new Border Command are a couple of examples that come to mind), but relying on a platform of not being the Conservatives will only carry you so far. I’m certainly looking forward to learning more about what life under a Labour government might look like.
I want to vote enthusiastically for Labour, not just enthusiastically against the Conservatives.
It’s highly likely that Sir Keir Starmer will be Prime Minister come 5 July. I think most politicos and journalists accept that. But six weeks is a long time in politics, and as 2017 taught us, massive poll leads going into an election don’t automatically translate to massive majorities following polling day.
I don’t think Starmer is taking his assumed victory for granted. And, for what it’s worth, I think he’s a man of principal. I think he’s a man who genuinely cares about public service and making life better for ordinary people. His record in public service speaks for itself. And for the avoidance of doubt, of course I’ll be voting for Labour in six weeks’ time.
My only hope is that Starmer and the Labour Party find another gear and give the British something to vote for, rather than just being the vessel through which people can vote against the status quo.