Labour plans to use Union Flag & veterans to rebrand as patriotism party
LABOUR wants to rebrand itself as the party of patriotism, leaked plans reveal.
Leader Sir Keir Starmer must use the Union Flag, veterans and events such as Remembrance Day to win back voters in the party heartlands, the report said.
But Tory MPs in the old Red Wall seats said it would take more than flying a few flags to lure supporters back.
Tory MP Dehenna Davison, whose constituency of Bishop Aukland was rock-solid Labour since the 1930s before she won it in 2019, slammed Labour.
She said: "If Labour think a few flags are going to help them win back seats in the Blue Wall, then they are seriously deluded.
"The fact the Labour Party has had to run extensive focus groups to come up with this idea shows just how out of touch they are with the very people who used to be their core voters.
“These are people who have pride in our country, who fly the Union Jack at times of national celebration, and who have the utmost regard for our veterans.”
And in a blow to the plans, Sir Keir was forced to deny he wanted to scrap the monarchy after old comments of him talking about being a republican resurfaced.
Labour MP Clive Lewis explosively said that by embracing the flag the party was pandering to the hard right.
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He said: “It’s not patriotism; it’s Fatherland-ism. There’s a better way to build social cohesion than moving down the track of the nativist right.”
The report said: “The use of the flag, veterans, dressing smartly at the war memorial etc give voters a sense of authentic values alignment.”
It also warned voters wanted him to stop sitting on the fence and come up with his own policy ideas
The Sun Says
KEIR Starmer has made himself a laughing stock in his desperation to persuade Britain to forget his past and his true beliefs.
He is the man who, with the People’s Vote brigade, spent years scheming to negate the Brexit verdict of 17.4million mainly working-class people.
And who, for all his claims of patriotism, supported to the end Jeremy Corbyn, the Marxist fool who would fly a hammer and sickle before a Union Jack.
Yesterday Labour’s struggling leader tried to claim he hadn’t backed Britain staying in the European Medicines Agency, despite being filmed doing so.
This matters. Because had we followed his advice — plus that of other Labour Remainers to join the EU vaccine programme — our rollout would be as lethally sluggish as theirs.
Starmer finally apologised once his denials were proved worthless. But he will apparently say anything, no matter how insincere or plain false, in his bid to win back former Red Wall seats.
Trouble is, voters have bigger brains and longer memories than he gives them credit for.
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