Labour have to explain to voters how and why Jeremy Corbyn would make a good PM – otherwise they are doomed
The Conservatives have said very little on adding new policies but are further ahead in the polls
LABOUR have been very busy.
In the last week, they have promised to build a million homes, guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in Britain, and give us all four extra holidays a year.
It is as though the party think a policy a day will sweep Theresa May away.
The Conservatives, in contrast, have had very little to say.
No new policies.
Just indecision and vacillation on both pensions and tax.
“Least said, soonest mended,” seems to be their motto.
Yet during the last week the Conservatives have managed to pull even further ahead in the polls.
They now put the party as much as 21 points ahead.
Of course, there may be a simple explanation.
Labour’s policy ideas are unpopular, too left-wing, too extremist for most voters’ tastes.
Yet the pollsters tell us this is not true.
Some of the party’s ideas, such as raising the minimum wage, free school meals for all primary school children, and raising the top rate of tax, are backed by most voters.
And doubtless few of us would turn up our noses at the prospect of four more bank holiday days a year.
So, what is Labour getting wrong?
Simple. Jeremy Corbyn seems to think elections are just about ideas.
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They are not.
They are also about people – and that includes him.
Voters want a Prime Minister who they think is up to the job.
After all, who knows what difficulties the country will face in the next five years?
And voters are just not convinced that Mr Corbyn and his colleagues can run the country effectively.
Mr Corbyn is trounced every time pollsters ask whether he or Mrs May would make the better Prime Minister.
Most voters think Theresa May and Phillip Hammond can do a better job than of running the economy than the Labour leader and Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell.
And even many of those who voted to stay in the EU are doubtful about Labour’s ability to handle the Brexit negotiations.
Meanwhile, although they may have little to say about policy when it comes to leadership the
Conservatives do have something very clear, and very simple to say.
Time and time again Mrs May and her colleagues promise us “strong and stable” leadership – to be contrasted, as Boris Johnson colourfully put it in Thursday’s Sun, with Labour’s offer of a “mutton-headed old mugwump”.
At the same time, voters have told the pollsters that what they think of the party leaders matters more to them now than it did two years ago.
The message for Labour is clear.
They need to talk about personality, not policies.
They have to explain to voters how and why Mr Corbyn would make a good Prime Minister.
Otherwise, they are doomed.
- John Curtice is Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University.