"Unpredictable" And "Scattergun" Conservatives Head Into Final Week Of Campaign Against "Risk Averse" Labour
3 min read
The last week of the General Election could see a more “unpredictable” and “scattergun” approach from the Conservatives, while Labour will likely continue to be “risk averse” as they approach the finish line, according to one political expert.
By this time next week, the election campaign will be over, and if the polls are correct, Labour leader Keir Starmer will likely be moving into Downing Street having won a comfortable parliamentary majority.
But between now and then, the parties will be focussed on mobilising their base - "getting out the vote" - and perhaps an “intensify[ing] of the strategies the main parties have been deploying over the last five weeks," Dr Will Jennings, a professor at the University of Southampton has said.
On Wednesday night, Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak went head to head in the final television debate before polling day. The 75-minute-long discussion, hosted by the BBC, covered everything from the economy, to migration and whether both are up to the job of being Prime Minister.
Sunak was on the attack from the start, and on numerous occasions asked the voting public to not “surrender” to Labour and their plans.
Speaking to PoliticsHome on Wednesday afternoon, Jennings predicted that this type of “hammering” on the negatives of Labour would be a feature of the Tories’ campaigning in the final week. However, he questioned its effectiveness.
“I wonder about the wiseness of that strategy of talking about a supermajority, asking ‘do you really want to wipe us out?’
“The problem is the electorate are like ‘yeah, we’re quite comfortable for you to be wiped out’.”
Jennings does not think that this particular strategy of “scare tactics” has worked for the Sunak campaign so far, and there could now be a more “unpredictable” final few days of the campaign.
“We might see a more scattergun approach over the final week as they pulled every lever during the campaign and nothing has worked, and so it’s almost unpredictable quite what they’ll do .”
Now into the last week of campaigning, Jennings said there is a “very strange status” to the fight at the moment, as “in one sense, nobody really thinks that the election outcome is going to change”.
Polls are still indicating a significant Labour lead at the Conservatives’ expense with the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK also performing strongly in certain parts of the country.
Labour will be looking to protect their position and continuing their more “risk averse” approach to the contest that has been seen so far, “carrying that ming vase more and more carefully to the finish line,” Jennings - an expert on polling and elections - predicted, while the Conservatives could go “harder and harder as they reach the finish line and try to seal the deal with particular voters.”
However, he was sceptical as to their prospects of securing more support: "The feeling is that it’s very difficult for them to make a mark on an electorate that’s just stopped listening to them really."
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