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There is, thus far at
least, a polish to Labour’s campaign – an attention to detail borne of a
desperation to win and a desperation to avoid unforced errors. Every step of
choreography meticulously planned.
Labour takes comfort from
polling which suggests there is a significant desire for change.
But the very
same polling can prompt niggles of doubt for them too – that this desire doesn’t
translate for all into enthusiasm for Keir Starmer.
He blames that, at least in
part, on a wider anti-politics mood.
Starmer told me today he sees himself as
a socialist. For those scared of that label, he said he saw it as putting “the
country in the service of working people”.
Labour has already ruled out putting
up income tax and national insurance.
When I asked the Labour leader if that
meant the main rate of VAT could rise, he said “we have gone through all of our
plans, and none of them require us to raise taxes”.
For Rishi Sunak this bank
holiday weekend, the focus has been the big splash.
He’s the incumbent but also
the challenger, given those opinion polls – his National Service idea seeking
to seize attention.
These are but the early skirmishes of this campaign, the
Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats and others wanting to command
the conversation too.