‘Nice guy’ Rishi Sunak told it’s time to fight dirty

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is being urged to ‘go for the jugular’ and launch more direct personal attacks against Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Rishi Sunak during a visit with Microsoft founder Bill Gates at Imperial College University, in central London, in 2023. Ministers believe that Mr Sunak cannot win the July 4 election and say that the priority now should be one of ‘damage limitation’. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is being urged by cabinet ministers and senior Tories to “go for the jugular” and launch more direct personal attacks against Labour leader Keir Starmer.

With 2½ weeks before polling day, ministers are increasingly concerned that the present ­approach is too “generalised” and failing to shift Labour’s lead in the polls.

Ministers believe that Mr Sunak cannot win the election and say that the priority now should be one of “damage limitation”.

One said that a “good result” would be retaining between 140 and 180 seats, which still hands Labour a significant majority.

They want Mr Sunak to target Sir Keir over his support for former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, his decision to campaign for a second referendum on Brexit and his work as a human rights lawyer. The campaign has so far focused predominantly on claims that Labour will raise taxes if it wins the general election.

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.”

The minister said that one of Sir Keir’s most difficult moments during the election campaign came when a Sky News presenter questioned him over his endorsement of Mr Corbyn as a potential “great prime minister”.

“He was really uncomfortable,” the minister said. “We need to learn from that and be much more explicit in our approach. This guy has never maintained a consistent position.”

The source said that Sir Keir’s record meant it was “credible” to claim that he would rejoin the single market or allow free movement, adding: “He will sign a deal with the French, he will undo Brexit, he will rip apart our institutions. The guy’s a socialist, and there’s a real chance people will give him a free rein if they back Reform.”

Labour has said that it will not rejoin the single market or reintroduce free movement if it wins the election.

A senior Tory added: “The core problem with Starmer is that he is untrustworthy. Rishi needs to go for the jugular. His natural instincts are not to go for the jugular. That can be useful. But it’s not useful when you’re in a fight to the death.”

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage in central London. Picture: AFP

The pressure for a change in tactics came as Nigel Farage said that there would be a “realignment” of the right after the British general election because the Conservative Party has destroyed itself by moving to the left.

At the weekend David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, used an interview in The Times to warn that Mr Farage was intent on destroying the Tories. He said Mr Farage’s “inflammatory language” and “dog-whistle” politics should be rejected, arguing that there was no room for the Reform party leader’s “incredibly divisive” approach.

Mr Farage said Mr Cameron’s comments “have convinced me I’m doing the right thing”. He added: “The Tories have moved to the left on every single social and economic issue and Cameron set the tone and pace for it.

“Rushing headlong into net zero regardless of the cost, the fifth manifesto in a row promising to reduce migration when it has exploded. He changed the Conservatives into a socially democratic, high-tax, big-state party. If anyone has destroyed it, it’s him.”

Last week Reform overtook the Conservatives in a YouGov poll for the first time. Although the result was within the margin of error, experts said it highlighted the threat the party posed to Tory leader and Prime Minister Sunak.

Mr Farage was to launch Reform’s manifesto on Monday (Tuesday AEST) in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, a traditionally Labour seat that backed Brexit at the EU referendum.

The central measures are designed to appeal to voters who backed the Tories in 2019. They include “net-zero” migration, huge cuts to income tax and a pledge to end NHS waiting lists within two years.

Mr Farage rejected Mr Cameron’s criticism of his rhetoric.

He said that his claim that Mr Sunak did not understand “our culture” was not “dog-whistle” politics but rather a criticism of him for being out of touch. “He’s completely out of touch, it’s a class thing, not a race thing,” he said.

On the decision to launch the Reform manifesto in Wales, Mr Farage said: “Schools are worse than in England, NHS waiting lists are longer than in England, Covid restrictions were even tighter than in England and now Welsh motorists are being soaked by literally hundreds of speed cameras to enforce the deeply unpopular new 20mph blanket speed limit in towns and villages.

“If you want a picture of what the whole country will be like with a Starmer government and a feeble Conservative opposition, come to Wales and then hear us unveil a better future for all of Britain.”

The Times