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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
John Crace

With a lust for freebies and hobbled by infighting, Labour look like the Tories 2.0

Keir Starmer and Simon Harris laugh while standing behind people in a stadium
Keir Starmer and the taoiseach, Simon Harris, at an Ireland v England football match in Dublin this month. The PM has taken free tickets to Arsenal, free suits and designer glasses. Photograph: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street

During the last election campaign it was hard to escape the impression that, whatever his other faults, Rishi Sunak just wasn’t very good at politics. The charge sheet included getting drenched announcing the election and leaving D-day veterans on the beaches. And insisting that black was white: that he was stopping the boats, that the economy was in good shape, that the Tories were on course for victory.

Just a couple of months later, it very much feels like Keir Starmer and Labour are saying: “Hold my beer.” Keen to prove that they, too, are amateurs at the political PR game. It’s almost as if there is something about being in government that makes fools of everyone. Though few would have imagined that Labour could manage it quite so quickly. A period of grace would have been more fitting.

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