Starmer's plan to please all voters will leave him without the support of anyone

Telegraph

05-02-2025

Relax: Labour have got this. There will be no 'far Right' surge of support on Keir Starmer's watch.
We know this because of two recent initiatives. The first is the creation of an informal caucus of MPs representing the 89 Labour-held constituencies where Reform came second at last year's general election. The group will lobby ministers to adopt more robust anti-immigration policies and rhetoric, and will advocate, for example, that ministers 'shout louder' about their success in removing unsuccessful asylum applicants, all in a bid to impress voters who might be considering voting for Nigel Farage's party.
The second plank in Labour's strategy to thwart Reform is a cunning one indeed: the party's new general secretary, Hollie Ridley, has told a meeting of the National Executive Committee that Labour intends to produce literature in future electoral contests aimed squarely at both Reform and the Greens, the latter of which Labour strategists are also unnerved by.
It is hardly necessary to remark how ingenious this latter strategy is. There is surely no downside to delivering bespoke, even contradictory messages to voters in different parts of the same country – perhaps even the same ward – reassuring them that Labour will focus on those voters' priorities.
Worried that the Government isn't doing enough to reach net zero? Fear not –
Job done! What could possibly go wrong?
Well, since you ask…
This sort of targeting of specific groups of voters has been going on for as long as there have been elections. Emphasise the bits of your manifesto that X voter will support, but don't even mention this other bit that they will be less keen on. It sounds cynical but it's an inevitable part of politics and all parties indulge in it.
The problem with the twin threats to Labour support from the Greens and Reform are that they are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, and their values and priorities are antithetical with nary a Venn Diagram overlap. Those voters who want to see the local hotel expunged of suspicious-looking new arrivals on our shores are the same voters who aren't just sceptical about net zero, they're positively hostile towards it and all those who support it.
Those nice, middle-class voters who happily voted Labour while Jeremy Corbyn was leading it but who find Keir Starmer's impression of a middle-management council official delivering a PowerPoint presentation on refuse collection protocols less engaging are turning to a party that would happily end all economic growth and doom Britain to economic penury in order to achieve zero carbon emissions, while advocating open borders to anyone in the world who would still want to live here and subject themselves to the Greens' new brand of virtuous austerity.
That Labour is confident of appealing to both sets of voters is ambitious and impressive, if a little hard to believe. It's just as well there is no such thing as social media or the internet, otherwise this clever strategy might be exposed before the polls even open.
While Margaret Thatcher reaped the political rewards of adopting the Martin Luther strategy – 'Here I stand, I can do no other' – forcing voters to respect her immoveable ideological positions, Tony Blair was the first UK politician to wield the political weapon of triangulation, seeking common ground between two opposing viewpoints or shifting the debate to a further point where the two sides could recognise a common interest. Neither strategy will work today.
Those
And unless Keir Starmer is about to unveil some previously hidden political genius for politics, he is not going to be able to appeal simultaneously to both the Right and the extreme Left. He can't defend Britain's borders and win the approval of immigration liberals. He can't stick rigidly by his party's commitments to net zero and convince car owners and domestic energy bill payers that there is no price to be paid for that ambition.
The Government cannot hope to generate the economic growth it needs to dig Britain out of its current economic hole without breaking a few eggs over the heads of naysayers who oppose every new housing development, road and airport runway.
Who could have guessed that politics would involve taking a stand in favour of one set of principles and opposing another? Certainly not Labour, by the sound of it. It seems determined to go into battle facing both ways, to the Left and the Right, reassuring everyone that whatever their priorities, Labour will meet them, even when those priorities are irreconcilable. Good luck with that.