For Rishi Sunak, one of the advantages of calling a summer election was the idea of catching Labour off-guard. When the prime minister announced he was going to the country on 4 July, he caught almost everyone – Labour and Tory – by surprise. Labour had just relaxed its restrictions on staff members taking holidays over the coming weeks as the prospect of an election before the autumn appeared to fade. But behind the scenes the party had been putting plans in place for the prospect of a snap poll for several months, including lining up candidates in key seats, pulling together its manifesto and testing campaign messages. It also launched Keir Starmer’s six core pledges – his first steps – last week. It meant Starmer was ready to launch his campaign slogan hours after the election was called on Wednesday night, a single word that his strategists believe captures the mood of the country: “Change”. “The message is change – time to turn the page on 14 years of Tory chaos,” a senior party source said. “Last week we launched our ‘first steps’ and that will be something we will taking across the country … We’ve always said we were ready for the election as soon as it came.” Labour, like the Conservative party, is now scrambling to select candidates in 80 to 100 seats, some of which it is projected to win if it maintains its polling lead. This led to concerns that some candidates would be selected without proper vetting. But Labour insiders said the shortlisting process was completed back in January by the party’s national executive committee (NEC), after an intensified vetting process after the Rochdale byelection. In February Labour had to withdraw support for its Rochdale candidate, Azhar Ali, after a leaked recording of remarks he had made about Israel and Jewish people. “The regional directors in every region know who their candidates are. Every single one of them will be announced by the end of the week,” a Labour source involved in the selection process said. “All of them have had very extensive due diligence – incredibly thorough searches of everything they have ever said or done. Rochdale has made us very focused on making sure that candidates haven’t got any skeletons in their closets.” There are also a small number of Labour target seats and safe seats where current MPs have announced they are retiring and where the party will choose candidates. These decisions will be made by the NEC, which has the power to make speedy selections during election campaigns. Among the seats still lacking a candidate is Islington North, where Jeremy Corbyn is preparing to stand as an independent. Labour will also have to make a decision on whether Diane Abbott, who has been suspended for more than a year, will be allowed to stand for the party in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
Labour is holding a series of crunch meetings over the next 48 hours with MPs and staffers to thrash out its election plan. On Thursday and Friday, Labour staff were being allocated to either stay at its headquarters in south London or join campaign buses and regional teams. “They’ll basically fill HQ until people are piled on top of each other and the rest will go out on the road,” an aide said. Starmer is gathering his shadow cabinet for a meeting on Friday afternoon. Labour MPs who are political leads in their regions were due to have a meeting on Thursday evening to discuss campaign plans. Labour has leased its battlebus but has been keeping it under wraps in a garage. Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, is planning to spend much of the six-week election campaign travelling around the country on it. Labour insiders suggested the bus had already been painted red but was yet to be emblazoned with the party’s election slogan when the date was called. Until Wednesday Labour had been using the slogan “Let’s Get Britain’s Future Back”, but this was simplified after some critics suggested internally that it was too confusing. During the campaign Rayner is expected to make stops at dozens of marginal constituencies as she takes the fight to the Tories. She will be joined by Starmer for specific events. The bus is said to be a luxury coach with an area at the back for campaign meetings and media interviews, acting as a temporary broadcast studio. Labour insiders did not confirm suggestions it could be used for karaoke. Launching his campaign in Gillingham, Kent, on Thursday morning, Starmer pitched the election as a vote between “two different countries, two different futures” for the UK. He told supporters: “This election is about a choice: two different countries, two different futures. Decline and chaos continuing under the Tories, or rebuilding our country under Labour. The power of the vote is with you. If you want change, you have to vote for it.”