General Election 2019: Swinson stung by bee protest
Boris Johnson had to perform a balancing act today. Donald Trump was still in town and the Prime Minister needed to court him in the hope of securing a quick trade deal for a post-Brexit Britain. However, Johnson also had to keep Trump, who adores public show and adulation, out of the spotlight because there is an election on.
Associating himself too closely with a man most of the British public dislikes during an election is not a good move, especially as Labour is intent on hammering home the message the Tories will sell the NHS to Trump. While Trump, likely at the request of Johnson, specifically denied that the US was interested in the NHS in upcoming trade negotiations few people inclined to believe Labour’s charges will be inclined to believe Trump.
Usually the US president storming off in a huff from the Nato summit after you were filmed having a laugh at his expense would be disastrous – but in an election context Johnson might almost be relieved.
The Nato summit and Trump overshadowed most of today’s campaign news. However, Jo Swinson’s latest troubles stood out. Extinction Rebellion targeted her party. Protestors dressed as bees criticising climate change by gluing themselves to your eco-friendly electrical battle bus is not a high point for any campaign. “We’re an active rebellion against the government” declared one man looking as earnest as one can in a bee suit.
Being forced to have an earnest discussion with self-proclaimed insurrectionaries in insect uniforms might not the most humiliating part of her day. Tonight Swinson faces Andrew Neil. Given his recent demolition of Corbyn, Swinson might be wishing she’d done a Johnson. Maybe she’ll rise to the occasion but a Neil interview is rarely something anyone escapes from unscathed.
The Nato summit has also spurred some discussion of defence today. As ever Corbyn remain vulnerable on defence given his record. Barry Gardiner, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, tried to push back saying Corbyn’s approach was simply “you don’t start bombing before you start thinking” and that he had been on right side of history over Iraq. The statement jarred a little considering Gardiner had voted for the war.
Labour is clearly worried that it is losing working class voters in the North and Midlands among whom charges Corbyn is weak on defence and unpatriotic do resonate. Corbyn’s embarrassing interview this morning where he claimed he watched the Queen’s speech in the morning on Christmas day, and then backtracked ineffectually when faced with the fact the speech is on television in the afternoon, probably didn’t help. Even the many members of the public who don’t watch the speech either might find such hamfisted dishonesty off-putting.
The bad news seems to keep rolling in for Labour. The most tribally Labour of all publications, The New Statesman, refused to endorse the party for the upcoming election declaring Corbyn “unfit to be Prime Minister”.
In a similarly embarrassing vein Ivan Lewis, a former Labour Minister who left the party earlier this year, has withdrawn his candidacy as an independent in Bury South and urged voters to vote Conservative. After Ian Austin and Tom Harris this is the third ex-Labour minister to declare support for the Conservatives. In many ways Austin’s stand is a crystallisation of the issues Corbyn faces.
The latter may well prove a killer issue in this election. Labour seems to think it is sliding in its own heartlands which tended to support Leave and backpedalling on its pro-Remain message. Ian Lavery, Labour chairman, is the latest prominent Leave supporter to be sent to shore up support in areas that used to be known as The Red Wall.
Labour is also rejigging their message on domestic economic policy as well. Announcement of big ticket spending plans splurging money on everything WASPI, to free broadband seems not to have had the desired impact. An attempt at a rebrand focusing on how Labour will put money into the pockets of ordinary people seems to in the making.
This message was hammered home in a fiery speech by McDonnell who proclaimed: “We want to abolish poverty once and for all.” He accused the Conservatives of overseeing a decade of rising living costs and stagnant incomes.
Still, Labour seems to be continuing to creep up in the polls and rejigging their campaign like this might help them keep up momentum.
The National Education Union has relaunched its School Cuts website highlighting cuts to school funding under the Conservatives, and planned rises under a Labour government. This website hurt the Tories substantially and helped fuel the Labour surge in 2017. A strong anti-austerity message is one with great potential to resonate with voters. The election is not over yet.