There are really only two possible election campaigns. It is either time for a change or it is better to stick with what we have. Evidently aware, because how could he not be, that the mood for change is clear, Rishi Sunak has inherited the job of Prime Minister in a position of perilous weakness. Forming an electoral appeal is not going to be easy for him, as interest rates go up and living standards come down, but in two successive outings at Prime Minister’s Questions we have seen the rudiments of his argument and rudimentary it most certainly is.
Sunak seems set to argue that Keir Starmer is as good as a regenerated Jeremy Corbyn, or perhaps as bad as a regenerated Jeremy Corbyn, depending on your point of view. Starmer, says Sunak, served as the shadow Brexit secretary under Corbyn and argued, implicitly if not explicitly, that Corbyn ought to be made prime minister, which casts doubt on his integrity and judgement. You can see why it irritates the Tory leadership that, not long ago, some of the Labour frontbench advocated a putative government that would have been led by a man they did not really regard as fit to hold high office. But it’s never going to work as an argument, and not just because it is more than a bit rich (richer even than Rishi Sunak) for the Conservatives, who have gone through five prime ministers in six years, to accuse anyone else of being volatile.
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