Labour have released a video contrasting the David Cameron of 2009-10 – who thought televised debates were the best thing since sliced bread – with the David Cameron of 2014-5 – who has absolutely no intention in taking part in the debates.
The party badly needs the issue to stay in the news if they’re to have any hope of securing the debate that the Labour leadership believe will allow Ed Miliband to overcome the public’s negative perceptions of him. But in the absence of a particularly striking third-day angle for the story, it seems likely that the Prime Minister will get away with sabotaging the debates.
That might not be as bad news for Labour as either Team Miliband or Downing Street suppose. Yes, some of the public opprobium towards Miliband is due to a hostile media. But the some of it is down to Miliband and his team. It wasn’t the fault of the Sun that Miliband was unable to name the price of a weekly shop, something that, in the words of one Labour strategist: “I would never let even a council candidate leave the office without that information” or the malice of the Mail that caused Miliband to claim he “feels respect” when he sees a white van. The danger for Labour in the debates is it is easy to imagine Miliband beating Cameron heavily – but it’s equally plausible that he could self-destruct.
As for the Conservative campaign, yes, the messaging is disciplined and the campaign is slick. But the polls don’t seem to be moving, their only plausible coalition partner is flatlining, they have realistic hopes of making Labour gains in just five seats, and will certainly lose at least twice that to Labour. A lot of the narrative around the Tory campaign is based on the idea, as I say on this week’s podcast, that when the voters see the whites of Miliband’s eyes, they will vote Conservative. If that doesn’t happen, CCHQ’s campaign will go down in history as a bore-a-thon that was too scared of Ed Miliband to take him on directly.
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