Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Labour to change strategy with two weeks to go

The Labour Party is to re-shape its general election campaign strategy - particularly in Leave-voting areas - to try to turn around a stubborn Conservative opinion poll lead.

Insiders told the BBC that in the first half of the election campaign, a key error was that the Liberal Democrat threat had been overestimated, while the willingness of Leave voters to switch from Labour to the Conservatives had been underestimated.

In the last two weeks of the campaign, this will change.

Labour's strategy so far has been - in part - to emphasise that the election is about more than Brexit and to get voters to focus on issues which would unite Labour voters in Leave and Remain areas.

Labour's own polling suggests this has been a partial success - but there is a crucial flaw.


Home territory?

In some Leave-supporting areas, the defining issues for voters have become the NHS and the cost of living, with Brexit further down the list of priorities.

That should be good news for Labour - safer, "home" territory.

But, despite this, the party is still seeing its vote drain away in the very places that it needs to retain to deprive Boris Johnson of an overall majority.

So a new plan has been hatched and is about to be put in to effect.

It is designed to appeal to those who voted for Brexit, and to those who have other concerns but just don't think Labour is on their side.

In the next two weeks, if you live in a Leave area, you are likely to see a very different style of campaign.


Activists on the move

Labour will give a higher profile to shadow cabinet members who back a Leave deal rather than Remain.

There will also be a tour of Leave areas by the party chairman Ian Lavery, who ideally would rather leave the EU with a deal than remain.

The "honest broker" himself - Jeremy Corbyn - will be touring some Leave seats very soon too.

And more activists are set to be moved to Leave areas.

The message will be that Labour's Leave deal would offer voters a genuine choice - and that a new referendum will not be an attempt to remain in the EU by the back door.

There will be an attempt to explain the deal Labour is seeking to negotiate - and that it would protect workers' rights.

In other words, the party leadership is not opposing Brexit by opposing Boris Johnson's deal - it simply wants to find what it regards as a better one.

That may be a tricky argument, compared with the simplicity of the Conservative message of getting Brexit "done".

But it is felt that reassurance for Leave voters is necessary.

There will also be an attempt to challenge the Conservative narrative that a trade deal with the EU can be done in a year.

And there will be new initiatives around US President Donald Trump's visit to the UK next week, designed to highlight concerns around any post-Brexit trade deal with the US.

Beyond Brexit, there will be a new emphasis on "bread-and-butter issues", which some strategists think have been underplayed to the party's political cost, from extending free bus fares to boosting police numbers.

Labour's nationalisation programme will be sold, in part, as taking back control of key businesses from foreign ownership.

And in both Leave and Remain areas, there will be a stronger push on the NHS and a new emphasis on how Labour would make most people better off.

The party's line that 95% of people will not pay more in tax is under pressure.


What do the polls say?

The new strategy has been prompted by Labour's own polling, and was devised before the release of a YouGov poll on Wednesday. This new poll suggested the Conservatives would get a 68-seat majority, if the election was held tomorrow.

The YouGov poll, based on the views of 100,000 voters, applies national trends to individual constituencies - and predicts the Tories will pick up 44 seats from Labour, including in its traditional strongholds in the Midlands and North of England.

But it comes with a big margin of error and does not reflect local issues that can have an impact on polling day.

Another poll, by Savanta ComRes for the Daily Telegraph, suggests Labour is narrowing the gap on the Conservatives, with the Tories on 41%, down one point from the weekend, and Labour up two points at 34%, at the expense of the Liberal Democrats, who are on 13%.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×