Labour warns election candidates to avoid talking about Boris Johnson’s handling of Covid pandemic

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer faced embarrassment last night after a leaked strategy document advised the party’s election candidates to avoid talking about Boris Johnson’s handling of the corona-virus pandemic – because it has been too popular with voters.

The ‘framing and messaging’ briefing, for candidates in May’s local elections, instead recommends they ‘connect to Labour’s brand strengths’ by talking about alleged Tory underfunding of the NHS and the award of public service contracts to ‘cronies’.

Sir Keir’s leadership has come under strain as the Tories have opened up a double digit poll lead over Labour on the back of the successful vaccine roll-out, causing concern among his MPs over the party’s prospects in the local elections.

The leaked strategy paper divides target voters into ‘settlers’, who are described as ‘older, more socially conservative voters’ who are attracted by the need to ‘protect core services’; ‘prospectors’, who are ‘younger, aspirational voters’ who want affordable housing; and ‘pioneers’, who are ‘socially-liberal, socially-conscious voters’ opposed to property developers and threats to the environment

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Sir Keir’s leadership has come under strain as the Tories have opened up a double digit poll lead over Labour

As an example of the sort of claims the candidates should place on leaflets, the document says: ‘The Conservative approach has run its course. 

‘They will increase council tax which will hit the poorest the hardest’.

It goes on to provide a suggested template: ‘XXX Conservatives are making the same mistakes – they’ve done XXX bad thing, YYY bad thing, and if they win power they will do BAD THING’.

The leaked strategy paper divides target voters into ‘settlers’, who are described as ‘older, more socially conservative voters’ who are attracted by the need to ‘protect core services’; ‘prospectors’, who are ‘younger, aspirational voters’ who want affordable housing; and ‘pioneers’, who are ‘socially-liberal, socially-conscious voters’ opposed to property developers and threats to the environment.