Starmer may have won day 1, but Rishi claimed day 2 victory thanks to Farage standing back – watch Reform’s numbers dive
SIR Keir Starmer probably won day one, but – with Nigel Farage’s decision to stand back – Rishi Sunak won day two of the election campaign.
The atmosphere is ripe for a Farage-led party to do serious damage to the Tories.
A J.L. Partners poll for The Sun just last week showed his comeback would be an extinction-level event for the Conservatives.
People on right and left are fed up with the usual politicians, and do not feel immigration has been properly tackled.
In Farage they see a plain-speaking strongman who speaks truth to power.
That – and his recent stint in the Australian jungle – is what made him more popular than the prime minister with 2019 Conservative voters.
TREVOR KAVANAGH: Brits who must now choose who to vote for might finally begin to scrutinise Starmer and his promises
By TREVOR KAVANAGH
BARELY a week ago, Rishi Sunak assured Sun columnist Jane Moore and her fellow Loose Women we were safe to book our summer holidays.
Hapless Tory MP Matt Warman was yesterday cleared by Downing Street to dismiss rumours of an early election.
Hours later, a rain-sodden PM startled the nation — including his own Cabinet and Tory MPs — by asking the King for a snap general election on July 4.
The only upside about going so early is that the downside of hanging on is so bleak.
How will that go down with millions of footie-mad punters as wall-to-wall Euros coverage is interrupted by political hustlers ringing their doorbells?
Sure, inflation — 11.1 per cent in October 2022 — plunged this week to 2.3 per cent, the lowest for three years, with more falls to come.
Interest rates and mortgage costs will follow suit.
UK growth is outpacing our European rivals.
But we will not see planeloads of illegal migrants flying to Rwanda.
Indeed boatloads are setting new records.
Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is an average 21 points ahead in the polls.
Reform has grabbed Tory votes.
The Greens and SNP will refuse to do business with Rishi, even if he scores a hung parliament.
There is one slender hope.
Voters who must now choose where to place their X on the ballot paper in challenging times might finally begin to scrutinise Starmer and his promises.
If so, some who have vowed never to vote Tory again might feel queasy about putting Labour in power.
Labour stalwarts admit there is no love for Starmer or his party, no manifesto and no plan for the economy.
Labour will be soft on immigration, ditching the Rwanda plan just as it takes off and dishing out visas to tens of thousands of illegals already here.
These are the battlefields for wavering votes over the next six weeks.
Polling guru Sir John Curtice last night hailed Rishi’s snap poll as “either very brave or very foolhardy”.
“We will discover in the early hours of July 5 which is correct,” he said.
Him deciding not to lead Reform UK is a clear win for Sunak.
Richard Tice just doesn’t have the same bite.
I asked a focus group of Reform supporters about their leader: all bar one did not know who he was.
Under his leadership the Reform vote will be easier for the Tories to squeeze.
They will say “vote Reform, get Starmer”, and it will work.
That does not mean the Tories have it plain sailing.
They are still facing an almighty electoral task: no other sitting PM has come back from such a bad position in the polls.
But Sunak can at least sigh a breath of relief today.
A serious threat on his right flank has been removed.
Expect Reform’s numbers to dive before polling day.
