Labour pains as Starmer leaves it late to connect with local election voters

There is little leadership from the British government right now, and Labour have to use this election to fill that void with clear policies, ideas and goals that don’t start with ‘Boris is Bad’

Labour leader Kier Starmer, pictured with Boris Johnson, needs to put his focus back on the electorate. Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

The local elections in Britain on May 5 will be an anxious time for Conservative candidates, but it will also be an opportunity to assess just how Kier Starmer and Labour are connecting with ordinary voters.

The Partygate scandalrumbles on and any other prime minister would probably have resigned by now, but Boris Johnson has decided that his defence is to claim that he must ‘do better’ and win back the trust of the people. 

The leader of the Labour party is enjoying replaying his role as a prosecutor of errant Conservative MPs, but will he regret focusing on the many sins of Boris, instead of selling the Labour Party and his ideas to the voters?

Good political communication in any election is about achieving a number of things at the same time; creating understanding with the electorate of what you can realistically do for them, picking apart the offering of the other party, incentivising your own supporters to actually vote and discouraging your opponents’ voters from casting their vote if you can’t win them over.

Keir Starmer with local Labour councillor Beccy Cooper walking on the seafront in Worthing, East Sussex, during campaigning. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

On the last point, Labour probably don’t need to do much work. Many older Conservative voters are angry and disappointed with the way that one rule was applied to them and another to those in power during the pandemic. Their response, as documented during one vox pop on the BBC last week, is not to vote, rather than cast a protest vote elsewhere.

But what are Labour and Kier Starmer saying to their own, and floating voters, in their heartlands to energise them and get them out voting? 

The fear among many in the Labour shadow cabinet last week was that in this local election Labour has yet to connect with the most common issues that impact all voters — the cost of living, access to health services and economic uncertainty.

When launching the Labour Party Local Election campaign, the Labour leader called on voters to use this election to “Send a message to the Tories”. 

Voters are not messengers, they’re real people with problems who expect their politicians to lead them to better times. 

There is little leadership from government right now, and Labour have to use this election to fill that void with clear policies, ideas and goals that don’t start with ‘Boris is Bad’.

Boris is bad. Few voters doubt that. 66% of voters in a YouGov poll last week saw him as incompetent. That argument is won. But voters know that unless the Sue Gray report triggers the most violent act of self-preservation and the Tories replace their leader, Boris or the Tories are not going anywhere in the short term.

Boris demonstrates that, as a political leader, he can be held in poor regard and still drag his opponent down towards his level. 

Starmer’s continued obsession with getting Boris to admit he was wrong on Partygate is based on polling data that suggests it plays well with some voters. But entertaining voters by constantly kicking an already unpopular leader takes Starmer away from his most important role-selling his ideas and policies back to the voters.

There are concerns that many people will choose not to vote at all.

Starmer has a lot on his plate. He has done a remarkable job in the last few months of reorganising the Labour Party and controlling its most extreme elements. 

For example, when Russia invaded Ukraine, he immediately instructed his MPs that any criticism of Nato for precipitating the crisis would not be tolerated. This was unpopular with many in the party, but in terms of reading the public mood, it showed a leader in charge.

The problem for Labour in this election is that the feedback from their grassroots so far is that the leader has missed an opportunity to make the delivery and protection of local services a central pledge to those who most rely on them. 

The reality is that unless Starmer focusses in on the electorate next week, some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in Britain will not vote for Labour, or worse, not vote at all.

If that were happen, just a few weeks after an income tax rise that hit the poorest, it will be a sober reminder for the Labour leader that he needs to get back to communicating with the people looking up to him, instead of those Tories who look down on everyone else.

Barry McLoughlin is a senior consultant at The Communications Clinic