On the campaign trail

Not even 24 hours since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s car-crash election announcement, Sir Keir Starmer is already out kissing babies.

The Labour leader started his campaign in Gillingham, hammering home the notion that a vote for Labour is a vote for change. Be prepared for a lot of “time to turn the page” and “end the Tory chaos” for the next six weeks.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak was in Derbyshire, then at a brewery in Wales making his trademark clumsy mistakes – he asked a group if they were looking forward to the Euros next month. Wales never qualified for the tournament. 

There was some good news for the Conservatives today with the confirmation that Nigel Farage won’t stand to be an MP for Reform, but he will remain the party’s honorary president. Any worries CCHQ has about Reform splitting the Tory vote will surely have eased with that news. Reform leader Richard Tice maintains that his party will seat 630 candidates out of a possible 650 and he will stand in Boston and Skegness. 

But what will worry CCHQ is the mass exodus of Tory MPs continuing at pace. Today Deputy Speaker of the Commons Dame Eleanor Laing, rail minister Huw Merriman, Bury and St Edmunds MP Jo Churchill and Leigh MP James Grundy all said they would not be standing at the election. That takes the total of Tory MPs standing down at the next election to 68 and the Tories now have 93 empty seats. 

Naturally, speculation has turned to who might fill the gaps. Names being thrown around Whitehall include Onward’s Seb Payne and Adam Hawskbee, Number 10’s Jamie Njoku Goodwin and Will Tanner, Sunak adviser and close friend James Forsyth and special adviser Alice Hopkin. 

Another consequence of the summer election is that the machinery of state must be halted. As a result, several bills have been axed including the Renters’ Reform Bill, the controversial (and costly) Rwanda Bill and, what was meant to be Sunak’s lasting mark on British life, the smoking ban. 

As far as election promises go, it’s rather light on the Tory side so far. But what do we know about Labour’s plans for office? On energy, Keir Starmer has said Labour will create an initiative called Great British Energy to focus on renewables and bring down the country’s bills. Rachael Reeves is plugging her “securonomics” and on foreign policy, David Lammy has set out his plans for “progressive realism”. Yvette Cooper is promising to get tough on crime, Bridget Phillipson is looking to start free breakfast clubs and bring in mental health workers in all schools. Wes Streeting has not been specific about reforming the NHS but has admitted that it needs root and branch changes.

A handover of power is healthy for democracies and the polls show that the electorate wants it, but voters will need to know more and fast about Labour’s real plans for government. 

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