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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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”.
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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
Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem
South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.
His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
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The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.
The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
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It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
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