Labour takes inspiration from Australia with Sunak attack ads – but they need more to pull off a proper ousting
Compare and contrast the following.
Exhibit A – “over the next four weeks, this campaign will be shining a relentless spotlight on Scott Morrison‘s failures as Prime Minister”.
Exhibit B – “we are going to be ruthless in showing how 13 years of Tory government has broken our systems and held everyone back”.
Nearly half of Starmer’s top team haven’t shared controversial attack ads – politics latest
The first is an email from an Australian Labor party director during Anthony Albanese’s successful 2022 election campaign.
Former Australian PM Scott Morrison was on the receiving end of a similar campaign
The second is from an e-mail sent by a UK Labour official and leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper this weekend.
So no prizes for guessing where Sir Keir Starmer’s team took inspiration from for their latest close focus attack campaign.
But after all, Labour here are trying to pull of the same trick as Labor there.
A leader generally accepted as honest, but frequently accused of being bland, trying to overturn a party whose lengthy spell in government has been beset by chaos, scandal and incompetence.
There’s one key difference though.
While Australia’s Labor party had the unpopular Scott Morrison to take chunks out of, Keir Starmer finds himself pitched against a man with similar attributes to himself whom the public like more than the Conservative Party he leads.
One of Labour’s ads attacked the Tories’ record on jailing child sex abusers
As Tory peer and pollster Lord Hayward puts it: “What the Labour Party seem to be trying to do is making sure that the Conservative Party is not dragged up to Rishi Sunak’s level, as he is polling better than the party.”
But while the prime minister’s poll rating and persona could be the motivation for this campaign, it may also be its undoing.
“For it to work, it’s got to be aimed at the right sort of person…Scott Morrison was a certain sort of individual who you could attack and the population wouldn’t mind, if they’d been going at Boris then people wouldn’t have reacted in the way that they have done,” said Lord Hayward.
Policy and the polls matter here too.
The coming 18 months will likely see Rishi Sunak attempt to divorce his premiership from the 13 years of preceding Conservative rule, culminating in a pitch for the British public to hand him his first full term as prime minister in next year’s general election.
There’s some evidence he is already making his way down this path, as a handful of polls throw up reduced leads for Labour following progress made by Number Ten on key policy issues.
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Sky’s Rob Powell explains row over Labour tweet
A new poll by Redfield and Wilton puts the gap at 14 points – the narrowest since Mr Sunak became prime minister.
Other pollsters give Starmer chunkier leads, but nevertheless Labour are trying to stop Mr Sunak airbrushing away the policy unpleasantries of the last decade by pinning on him any failure they can find – including ones predating his time in politics.
The trio of Easter attack ads – created in house at Labour – attempt to do this by borrowing heavily from the Vote Leave Brexit campaign.
‘Mission accomplished’ for Labour
The strategy goes like this: put out content that is so controversial it generates coverage and carries your core message further than it would otherwise have travelled.
As one Labour source involved in the campaign says, “it’s mission accomplished – we’ve dominated the news agenda and started a serious conversation about the Tories appalling record on crime”.
Read more:
Labour’s attack ad is straight out of Vote Leave playbook
Scottish Tory leader further muddies waters after tactical voting comments
The strategy doesn’t have universal shadow cabinet support though.
Several senior frontbenchers haven’t shared the attack ads on their Twitter feeds, with concern about playing fast and loose with the facts and the apparent politicisation of child sexual abuse.
Those on the left of the party have been most withering in their criticism, suggesting the strategy is a symptom of a moral and values-led vacuum at the heart of Labour right now.
But despite all that, we’re likely to see more of these ads.
Party sources confirmed the campaign would move onto the cost of living in the coming days with likely attempts to link Mr Sunak to Liz Truss’s disastrous time in office.
So the gloves have clearly come off, but most in Labour know they need to do more than poke holes to pull off an Australian-style ousting.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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