Rishi Sunak appears to have given the game away that No. 10 is preparing to run a “presidential-style” General Election, where they focus on presenting voters a choice between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, rather than on Conservatives versus Labour.
The game plan, if successful, would allow Rishi Sunak to distance himself from the chaotic few years of Tory infighting, and build on his personal ratings which remain higher than those of the Conservative Party.
It would also allow greater focus on the personality of Sir Keir, rather than his party’s policies, reminding voters of his support for Jeremy Corbyn, frequent attempts to thwart the result of the Brexit referendum, and questionable actions while working as Director of Public Prosecutions.
The rumoured tactic has already led to warnings that 2024 could prove the most divisive General Election in recent history, so much so that the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a warning to political leaders to remember their opponents are fellow human beings.
This morning the campaign group Who Targets Me, which focuses on highlighting political advertising and social media transparency, flagged a key metric that appears to support the reports of a presidential-style election campaign.
In the last week, Rishi Sunak has spent £31,500 on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) advertising, a figure they describe as “unprecedentedly large” for outside an election period.
Another key metric shows that over the last 30 days, the Conservative Party has spent £74,100 on Meta adverts from Rishi Sunak’s personal page.
However during that same period, the party hasn’t spent a penny advertising from the official Conservative Party account.
The timing of the ad spend could also pour petrol on the fire of rumours that Mr Sunak could call a snap election earlier than expected, and go the country in May.
Despite the reports Mr Sunak is planning a presidential campaign, this morning a Tory source pointed out the strategy stands to work in only a tiny number of constituencies.
They cited a Sunday Times poll from this weekend, which showed Sir Keir Starmer to be the preferred party leader in hundreds of constituencies – including Rishi Sunak’s own safe seat in North Yorkshire.
A seat-by-seat analysis found that the Labour leader beat Mr Sunak in 390 constituencies on the question of who would make the best Prime Minister.
The Tories, however, will be focusing on the less-reported finding from the poll – that 29 percent of voters remain unclear about their preferred Prime Minister.
In 238 constituencies, “don’t know” came out on top.
This morning the Times claims Mr Sunak’s preferred presidential tactic was partly inspired by a new friendship with former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Despite rumours that Mr Romney was set to speak at last year’s Conservative Party conference coming to nought, the pair shared phone numbers and a source praised him as having “such a wealth of experience”.
Responding to the revelations about Mr Sunak’s spending on advertising, Labour MP Sarah Champion said it is “typical that he’s building his own brand rather than the Tories’ or the UK’s”.
