general election

Tory Party spent ‘unprecedentedly’ high figure on Rishi Sunak Facebook ads in December

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/tory-party-spent-unprecedentedly-high-figure-on-rishi-sunak-facebook-ads-in-december/

The Tory Party has spent an “unprecedentedly large figure” in the last month on advertising for Rishi Sunak’s Facebook page leading to a huge surge in followers, a transparency organisation has found.

Political transparency group Who Targets Me said Rishi Sunak’s spending on his own Facebook page in December was an “unprecedentedly large figure for a UK politician outside of an election period”.

Sunak appeared to buy more adverts in the last three months than Keir Starmer has in the three years and eight months he’s been Labour leader, which Who Targets Me stressed was a reminder of how digital campaigns are set to influence general elections in 2024.  

Spending on Rishi Sunak’s Facebook page topped £42,000 in two weeks, with just over £9,000 spent on Meta adverts on 30th December alone and an additional £11,000 on New Year’s Eve.

According to Who Targets Me, the advertisements brought Sunak’s page a total of roughly 6 million impressions from December 25th to 31st. This has led to the page growing by nearly 100k in followers in the last month, making it now bigger than the main Conservative page, and Keir Starmers. However the official Labour Party page still has a fair hundred thousand followers more.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/tory-party-spent-unprecedentedly-high-figure-on-rishi-sunak-facebook-ads-in-december/

Continue ReadingTory Party spent ‘unprecedentedly’ high figure on Rishi Sunak Facebook ads in December

Morning Star: As the general election looms, the left has choices to make

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-left-and-election

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Stammer, December 27, 2023

2024 is almost certainly a general election year. Westminster rumours of a May poll are rife, but the autumn remains the more likely option for beleaguered premier Rishi Sunak.

An essential function of a democratic election is to offer the possibility of a change of government. The forthcoming contest, however, seems to offer little more than a shift in administrators of the same anti-popular policy.

The problem facing voters wanting significant change — the majority of the electorate one can assume — is the state of the Labour Party. On the most pressing international issues — Palestine and Ukraine — its policy is identical with the Tories: war and more war, as Washington directs.

Domestically its priority is sticking within the narrow parameters of Treasury orthodoxy. Anything involving spending public money is, even after 13 years of austerity, ruled out. So too tax rises on the rich.

The Green New Deal is diluted further by the day, and privatisation looks like extending its tentacles into the NHS.

Even more positive Labour policies, like extending trade union rights, are clouded by a scepticism as to Keir Starmer’s sincerity, given his well-earned reputation for dissimulation and double-dealing.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-left-and-election

Continue ReadingMorning Star: As the general election looms, the left has choices to make

Morning Star: The next election will allow no radical changes — in either direction

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Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at World Economic Forum, Davos.
Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at World Economic Forum, Davos.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/the-next-election-will-allow-no-radical-changes

THE battle lines are being drawn for the next general election — but guess what? There is no real battle.

The British people are living through a masterclass in the nature of bourgeois democracy — that is, a system with democratic forms but capitalist-class rule.

Such a regime can only allow choices within fairly limited parameters: the needs of capital accumulation and the maintenance of the rate of profit push all governmental decisions in one direction.

That is not to say that competing parties offer no choices at all. Priorities can be reshuffled within limits, and occasionally strategic questions — like Britain’s membership of the European Union — are thrown up for decision.

But the imperatives of the Establishment are, at any one given time, firmly set. Capitalists hate unpredictability more than almost anything else, and so a major change of course at the will of the electorate every few years cannot be countenanced.

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As a result, at the next general election, there will be no change in the main lines of government economic and social policy. Call it “Stunakerism” if you think this beast — public austerity in search of privately profitable growth — deserves a proper name.

Rishi Sunak has steadied the capitalist ship following the Truss squall; Keir Starmer has pledged that his Labour government will neither spend nor raise any more money.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/the-next-election-will-allow-no-radical-changes

Continue ReadingMorning Star: The next election will allow no radical changes — in either direction

Damning report projects this is worst parliament on record for income growth

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Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/damning-report-concludes-this-is-worst-parliament-on-record-for-income-growth/

Average income for UK workers will be worse in 2024 than 2019, think tank predicts

This parliament is the worst on record for income growth, a think tank has concluded after research into UK living standards revealed the average income for a UK worker is projected to be 4% lower in 2024 than in 2019.

A report published today by Resolution Foundation laid out the likely backdrop of living standards for a 2024 election, and, unsurprisingly, it does not look good for the Tory Government.

Although Rishi Sunak may meet his target of halving inflation by the end of 2023, the report lays out little sign of relief from cost of living pressures into the future, predicting three-years of income stagnation for UK workers, into 2025-26.

With a looming general election, this does not bode well for the Tories, with no example of a government ever managing to retain power with such a weak median income growth since comparable records began in the 1960s.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/damning-report-concludes-this-is-worst-parliament-on-record-for-income-growth/

Continue ReadingDamning report projects this is worst parliament on record for income growth

Sunak’s ‘inhumane’ anti-refugee plans are a distraction from Tory failures, campaigners warn

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/sunaks-small-boat-plans-are-inhumane-and-distraction-tory-failures

Government to launch bill to stop people arriving on small boats from claiming asylum

CAMPAIGNERS and MPs have hit out at Rishi Sunak’s plans to make asylum claims for those who travel on small boats inadmissible, calling it “inhumane” and a distraction from government failures.

The Prime Minister is expected to set out his government plans tomorrow which will also see migrants removed to a third country such as Rwanda and banned from returning or claiming citizenship.

Mr Sunak previously said that “stopping the boats” is one of his five key priorities.

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The government has made its hard-line approach on immigration known, with Home Secretary Suella Braverman last year describing the number of arrivals on the south coast as an “invasion” and that it was her “obsession” to see a deportation flight to Rwanda.

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Former home secretary Diane Abbott said that the PM “must know that policy will not work.”

The Labour MP tweeted: “It is simply a disgraceful ‘core vote’ strategy — because he has nothing else to fight the next general election with.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/sunaks-small-boat-plans-are-inhumane-and-distraction-tory-failures

Continue ReadingSunak’s ‘inhumane’ anti-refugee plans are a distraction from Tory failures, campaigners warn