May will mark the beginning of the end of a “Tory era of politics as performance art”, Keir Starmer will say at the launch of Labour’s local election campaign, accusing ministers of having utterly failed on levelling up.
The Labour leader will join his deputy, Angela Rayner, and Richard Parker, the party’s candidate for West Midlands mayor, to argue that the Tories had given voters false hopes in their apparent mission to reduce regional inequalities.
The choice of a West Midlands launch will be seen as a sign that Labour hopes the big shift in the polls in its favour since the last parallel set of elections could see it remove the high-profile Conservative mayor of the region, Andy Street, although one Labour source called this “a stretch”.
It is among 10 mayoralties that will be contested on 2 May, along with more than 2,600 English council seats and police and crime commissioners’ posts in England and Wales. Any heavy Tory losses are likely to place renewed pressure on Rishi Sunak.
On Thursday, Starmer was to target the prime minister’s predecessor Boris Johnson for failing to deliver on his much-touted levelling up pledges.
“People say to me the worst thing you can do in politics is prey on people’s fear,” he was to say. “Yet in some ways, preying on their hopes is just as bad. That’s what the Tories did with levelling up. It is a good ambition for Britain. But it requires, not just a new plan, also a fundamental shift in how we govern.”
Saying he had been hoping to launch a general election campaign for May, Starmer was to say Sunak had “bottled it” and “wants one last drawn-out summer with his beloved helicopter”.
Starmer was to present the local elections as a prelude to removing Sunak from power in a general election, saying: “The Tory era of politics as performance art is coming to an end. But to get Britain out of this hole, we all need to roll up our sleeves, because national renewal is a partnership.”
“We’re going to have to use these local elections to send [Sunak] another message and show his party – once again – that their time is up,” Starmer was to add. “The dithering must stop, the date must be set, because Britain wants change, and it’s time for change with Labour.”
The only policy content for the launch billed in advance was a reiteration of Labour’s previous commitment to devolution, which Starmer was to say would give mayors more powers over areas such as transport, energy and planning.
“The argument is simple. Democratic decisions are better made by local people with skin in the game. And devolution is absolutely essential for taking on regional inequality and unlocking that pride.”
In her speech, Rayner was to condemn what she called “politics which centralises power, takes decisions away from the places and people that know best, and hoards the profits of growth at the centre, away from those who first created it”.
The Conservatives are likely to face a difficult time defending incumbencies that were won in 2021 – the normal four-year cycle was disrupted by Covid – amid a bounce in Tory poll ratings after vaccines were introduced.
