Labour is to launch more “provocative and aggressive” adverts attacking Rishi Sunak this week by blaming him personally for crashing the economy and for soaring mortgage and council tax rates.
The party is doubling down on its controversial strategy of claiming the prime minister is responsible for prosecution and sentencing and will expand its remit to economic and health policies.
Further adverts by Labour this week, seen by The Times, will claim that Sunak thinks it is “acceptable” for council tax to rise above £2,000 and that he “thinks it’s right” that people are having to pay higher housing costs and mortgage rates.
Labour is to launch more “provocative and aggressive” adverts attacking Rishi Sunak this week by blaming him personally for crashing the economy and for soaring mortgage and council tax rates.
The party is doubling down on its controversial strategy of claiming the prime minister is responsible for prosecution and sentencing and will expand its remit to economic and health policies.
Further adverts by Labour this week, seen by The Times, will claim that Sunak thinks it is “acceptable” for council tax to rise above £2,000 and that he “thinks it’s right” that people are having to pay higher housing costs and mortgage rates.
The party believes it will be hard for Sunak to hit back because he will have to place the blame for economic chaos on Liz Truss, his predecessor. However, the strategy is seen as risky as it could backfire by exposing Labour’s lack of tax-and-spending policies.Labour is also planning even more “controversial and disruptive” adverts this month that will return to the issue of crime, accusing Sunak of “effectively decriminalising rape”. They will be launched for “maximum impact” days before local elections on May 4.
An ally of Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said that the initial adverts were “only the start of things to come”, adding: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” The party is facing a backlash after releasing a Twitter poster last week that claimed Sunak did not think child sex abusers should go to prison.
Starmer defended the advert, saying that Labour was right to attack the Tories for overseeing low prosecution rates and soft sentencing. “I make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt about this. I stand by every word Labour has said on the subject, no matter how squeamish it might make some feel,” he wrote in the Daily Mail. “When 4,500 child abusers avoid prison, people don’t want moreexcuses from politicians — they want answers.” A shadow cabinet minister said of hostile adverts: “The Tories do this every election — they smack us around the face and we lie down, but this time we’re not going to lie down, we’ll smack them back harder.” Allies of Starmer have hailed the success of the attack ads so far. One of the Labour insiders involved in creating them said: “It was a deliberate plan to be provocative and disruptive and, to be honest, I don’t think anyone thought it would work this well.