Starmer’s plan shows Labour are focused on election campaign – but Sunak didn’t get the memo
It’s mid-May, we have just completed the local and mayoral election races and the Prime Minister, to all intents and purposes seems to be going for an election anytime from October onwards.
And yet on a drizzly Thursday morning, I found myself on a train heading to Essex for a Labour campaign rally that I wasn’t entirely expecting.
When I got to the giant hanger venue, somewhere near Purfleet station, and walked into a hall with pledge banners, placards, Labour activists, the entire shadow cabinet and a tieless Sir Keir Starmer with his sleeves rolled up, I knew Labour – probably totally fed-up with the Prime Minister keeping them waiting (it is up to Rishi Sunak alone to decide the date of the election) – had decided to kick off their general election campaign.
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And that is what Starmer did, with a six-point “first steps” pledge card making concrete promises to voters that are either vague enough, or low ambition enough, for him to deliver.
I put it to him that he was watering down his missions for government – be it having all electricity generated by renewables by 2030 or having the fastest growing economy in the G7 by the end of the decade – for fear of failure.
He told me his “mission” promises still stand and his six-point plan is a “downpayment” on what a Labour government will do if elected in those first 100 days.
On Electoral Dysfunction this week we talk about the long election campaign launching – be it Starmer with his glitzy rally in Essex, or Rishi Sunak with his rather more drab speech in an airless office of Policy Exchange think tank in central London (to be fair that was a scene setter).
The short campaign is the period between the dissolution of Parliament and the date of the general election where we have a few weeks of pure campaign.
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Starmer accused of ‘scaling back ambition’
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Hot-footing it back from Essex to record the pod, we discuss Starmer’s pledge card launch and I get to show it to Jess for the first time. Ruth goes through it line-by-line as she talks about the possible Conservative attack lines, linking what Starmer is promising now to what he’s said in the past.
From Starmer, we swing to Sunak as Ruth talks about Sunak’s speech on Monday, in which the PM sought to spell out why the country was safer under him, in a winding journey that cut across so many policy areas – defence, health, tech, education – it was hard to find a clear thread.
Ruth is very clear – to paraphrase – the Conservative party election guru Lynton Crosby, who helped Cameron and Johnson to victory, that her party needs to “scrape the barnacles off the boat” – focus – and clean up the message in the long campaign to get ready for the short.
“You can’t fatten a pig on the way to market,” says Ruth, quoting Crosby. “You cannot, in the last week of a campaign, introduce something. You’ve got to lead it out 12 months before, six months before, two months before, one month before. Starmer, it seems, has got the memo, Sunak has not.”
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Politics
Thousands of farmers to descend on Downing Street to protest against inheritance tax changes
Thousands of farmers from across the UK are expected to gather outside Downing Street today – in the biggest protest yet against the government’s changes to inheritance tax rules.
The reforms, announced in last month’s budget, will mean farms worth over £1m will be subject to 20% inheritance tax from April 2026.
Farmers say that will lead to land being sold to pay the tax bill, impact food security and the future of British farming.
The Government insists it is “committed” to the farming industry but has had to make “difficult decisions”.
Farmers from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England will arrive in London to hear speeches from agricultural leaders.
Sky News understands TV presenter and farm owner Jeremy Clarkson, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey will also address crowds.
Protestors will then march around Parliament Square.
A sign in a field by the M40 near Warwick, protesting the changes to inheritance tax rules in the recent budget. Pic: PA
‘It’s really worrying’
“It’s unfortunate, as Labour had originally said they would support farmers,” said fourth-generation farmer Will Weaver, who is attending today’s rally.
His 500-acre cow and sheep farm in South Gloucestershire has been in his family since 1939.
“We’ve probably buried our head in the sand a little bit. I think, back of a fag-packet rough estimates, tax is going to be north of half a million [pounds].”
The government is keen to stress that farmers will get a decade to pay the bill – but that comes as little comfort to Will: “It’s more than our profit in any year that we’ve had in the last 10 years. Dad’s saying we’ll have to sell something. I don’t know if we’ll be able to raise that sort of money through a mortgage. It’s really worrying.”
As anger grows, there continues to be disagreement between the National Farmer’s Union and the Government over how many farms will actually be impacted by the change.
The Treasury says only the wealthiest estates, around 500 of them, will have to pay under the new rules – claiming 72% of farms won’t be impacted.
But farmers say that calculation is incorrect – citing that DEFRA’s own figures show 66% of farms are valued at over £1m and that the government has undervalued many estates.
At the same time as the rally, the NFU is addressing 1,800 of its members in Westminster before they lobby MPs.
More on this story:
Farmers warn of food price hikes
Minister downplays risk of empty shelves if farmers strike
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The president of the National Farmers’ Union says farmers are feeling
‘Understanding has been betrayed’
Max Sealy represents the NFU Dairy Board in the South of England.
“We have a detailed job to do to explain why this is wrong not just for farming, not just for the countryside and not just for our families, but for the economy in general,” he said.
“This is a bad tax – it’s been badly implemented because it will affect growth productivity in the country.”
He told Sky News Labour made promises to farmers ahead of the election.
“Both Steve Reed and Keir Starmer came to our conference two years ago and told us farming wasn’t a business like any others and that he understood the long-term nature of farming – that understanding has been betrayed,” he said.
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And the government say:
In a joint statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed said: “Farmers are the backbone of Britain, and we recognise the strength of feeling expressed by farming and rural communities in recent weeks. We are steadfast in our commitment to Britain’s farming industry because food security is national security.
“It’s why we are investing £5bn into farming over the next two years – the largest amount ever directed towards sustainable food production, rural economic growth and nature’s recovery in our country’s history.
“But with public services crumbling and a £22bn fiscal hole that this Government inherited, we have taken difficult decisions.
“The reforms to Agricultural Property Relief ensure that wealthier estates and the most valuable farms pay their fair share to invest in our schools and health services that farmers and families in rural communities rely on.”
A Met Police spokesperson said it was “well prepared” for the protest and would have officers deployed to ensure it passes off “safely, lawfully and in a way that prevents serious disruption”.
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