Sunak should launch ‘indirect’ personal attacks against Starmer, says Tory pollster

Rishi Sunak should pursue a more “negative” campaign against Sir Keir Starmer, a leading Tory pollster said after senior Conservatives urged the Prime Minister to “go for the jugular”.

Several Cabinet ministers have called for Mr Sunak to take a more aggressive stance by attacking the Labour leader on his policies and his previous backing of Jeremy Corbyn.

It comes as the Tories continue to lag behind Labour in the polls. Last week, the party dropped below Reform UK for the first time, prompting Nigel Farage to claim: “We are now the opposition.”

Lord Hayward, the Tory peer and polling expert, said he would not recommend direct personal attacks but believed Mr Sunak would benefit from taking a more “negative” line.

He told The Telegraph: “It’s interesting, people always say we don’t like negative campaigning. But the reality is that, actually, it does have an impact. There’s no question.

“I couldn’t cite you polls which prove that, but my natural inclination is to say that yes, it does have an impact because it reminds people of certain things. Because after all, negative campaigning includes identifying that there are tax threats or that there are job loss threats, or whatever.”

Lord Hayward said Mr Sunak should look at “indirect” attacks, focusing on inconsistencies in Sir Keir’s record rather than direct criticism of the Labour leader’s character.

“Taking something that’s close to my home: one minute, we’re going to abolish the House of Lords, and the next minute we’re just going to get rid of everybody who’s over 80,” he said. “And therefore there is a degree of inconsistency.”

David Jones, a former Cabinet minister, also said Mr Sunak should hold Sir Keir to account on the “deficiencies” in his plan, claiming the Labour leader has kept “such a low profile” that “he’s almost been invisible in this campaign”.

“This is an election and the point is that you do have to address the deficiencies in the other side’s policies. He should certainly be doing that,” he told The Telegraph.

He said Sir Keir “does need to be held to account, especially on his support for Jeremy Corbyn and serving in his shadow Cabinet”, adding: “Rishi Sunak also needs to look at Starmer’s previous record too — where did he stand on defence, for example? There’s a lot there that he has got away with so far.”

It comes after several Cabinet ministers and senior Tories told The Times that they would like to see Mr Sunak take a more aggressive approach.

One Cabinet minister said: “Rishi is a really nice and deeply honourable guy. I’m not sure whether he’s uncomfortable instinctively with the personalised attacks, but it has been more generalised so far.”

Pointing to Sir Keir’s “uncomfortable” interview with Beth Rigby on Sky News last week, in which he was questioned about his endorsement of Mr Corbyn in 2019, the minister added: “We need to learn from that and be much more explicit in our approach. This guy has never maintained a consistent position.”

Another senior Tory said: “Starmer has been given a relatively easy ride. The core problem with Starmer is that he is untrustworthy. He is a grifter who has changed his position when it suits his career. Rishi needs to go for the jugular.”

But Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, suggested on Monday morning there was no need for Mr Sunak to take a more aggressive approach, telling Times Radio: “All I think is actually required is to remind people that Keir Starmer is the only other person who can walk into Downing Street.

“He twice supported Jeremy Corbyn, urged us all to vote for him, and worse than that has plans to increase everybody’s taxes.”

Responding to reports, Sir Keir said: “That’s all they’ve got left after 14 desperate years. You get to to the last weeks and their only thing they’ve got left is to attack me personally, I think that tells you everything.

“If they had a record to stand on, they would go into the final two weeks saying these are the brilliant things we’ve done –but they haven’t got a record to stand on, and if they said they’d done brilliantly people would laugh at them.”