We may be in an era when elections are fought with TikTok memes and Instagram reels, but one thing has stubbornly refused to give way in the digital age: the good old battle of the campaign buses. On Saturday, Rishi Sunak unveiled the Conservatives’ bus that will tour the country during the 2024 election, emblazoned with the slogan: “Clear plan. Bold action. Secure future.” It is – arguably – a slightly snappier version of John Major’s bus in 1997, which bore the words: “You can only be sure with the Conservatives.”
It may seem surprising, but a lot of thought goes into these slogans, which are “road-tested” in focus groups and argued over endlessly by election strategists. In 2017, the Tories got theirs disastrously wrong – the slogan was: “Theresa May: For Britain.” But during the campaign, the country then suddenly turned against May. The personalisation of the campaign around her backfired and almost certainly contributed to the Tories losing their majority. After much head-scratching in recent days, Labour got its slogan choice for this election down to a short and unrisky one word of six letters. In Uxbridge, west London, on Saturday, Keir Starmer revealed his bus with “Change” written, large and small, 15 times on its sides. There was also another difference between the two parties at Saturday’s launches – one that has been increasingly evident at campaign and media events over recent days. Starmer was accompanied by two big names in his shadow cabinet: the party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, and its chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Everyone noticed that “Ange” was part of Change. In some photos, Rayner was striding ahead of Starmer.
But with no members of Sunak’s cabinet either alongside the prime minister or battling on his behalf across national media, no such collective loyalty and togetherness in the heat of battle was on display. Where were they? With no disrespect to Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley, who was with the prime minister in the north-east on Saturday, and the local MPs and candidates who have been by his side at events, they are not household names or really big-hitters at national level who catch the eye on TV. Labour is noticing and pointing to the absence of the likes of Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, Grant Shapps – all three are seen as potential leadership candidates if the Tories lose and Sunak goes – from the prime minister’s side or the national airwaves. The foreign secretary, David Cameron, has been on holiday in Italy, while Michael Gove has gone into the background, having announced he is stepping down. “Rishi does cut a very lonely figure,” said a senior Labour frontbencher on Saturday. “Whether they have not been asked or they have chosen not to [be with the prime minister], it is very striking. We have heard from Jeremy Hunt and Mel Stride, but that is just about it as far as I can recall.” Sir Charles Walker, the retiring Tory MP for Broxbourne, said he thought Sunak was fighting a “really energetic campaign – better than I expected, actually”. He added: “Maybe this is just the campaign they want to fight: maybe they want it to be the young Rishi with lots of fight in him against the later-middle-aged man. I don’t know, but that might be what they actually want to do.”
According to Labour, which is trying to track what it calls a cabinet “missing in action”, Badenoch has hardly been pictured out campaigning or in the media since the start of the election campaign. The only cabinet members Sunak has joined up with have been David TC Davies in Wales, Chris Heaton-Harris in Northern Ireland and Mel Stride in Devon. “It’s not the lineup of big names he would have wanted to kick off the campaign,” said a Labour figure. The Tory party has managed to fill the airwaves with middle-ranking or junior ministers and staunch Sunak allies. Last Monday, Foreign Office minister of state Anne-Marie Trevelyan was sent out on the broadcast round, while Tuesday was the turn of work and pensions secretary – and Sunak supporter – Stride, before minister of state for schools Damian Hinds was asked to appear on radio on Wednesday morning and Question Time on Thursday evening. Hunt was the only front-rank “big beast” to go out to bat for Sunak, appearing on the Today programme and BBC Breakfast on Thursday. To round off the week, Stride made a second appearance on the Today programme. If ever there was a week in which the Tories needed to come together and start closing the gap with Labour, it was the last one. Their disastrous launch – Sunak in a soaking suit outside No 10 when he kicked the campaign off in pouring rain was the image that has stuck – got them off to the worst possible start. Since then, the Conservatives have had their chances. In recent days, Labour, more than the Tories, looked to be in difficulties. The chaotic handling of whether Diane Abbott should be allowed to stand again as a Labour MP left Starmer under real pressure, looking, as one senior figure in his party put it, “indecisive and vindictive all at the same time”. Senior Labour figures were furious until Starmer eventually decided Abbott could stand after all. “It has been appalling,” said one former cabinet minister. “We are supposed to be all about discipline and yet we allow this to happen.” Even grandees in the party were left in the dark as to what was going on, and they were seething. “Not good,” said one senior figure. “In fact, bloody terrible.” At the same time, with Labour somewhat light on new policy offers, the Tories suddenly seemed brimful of them. A new form of national service might not have proved universally popular but it gave the impression that the Tory campaign was at least alive. Then came more help for pensioners through an enhanced triple lock and plans to get rid of what the party calls “bogus degrees”. During a campaign event at Niftylift – manufacturer of mobile access platforms – near Milton Keynes on Thursday, Sunak and the Conservatives avoided the blunders of the previous week and pulled off a quick, quite slick event. Sunak said the big question for voters and the workers at the company who were listening in was: “Who do you trust” to take the country forward. “Labour will increase your taxes by £2,000 per household,” he said, before claiming Starmer “is going to release all the illegal immigrants”. It was a dangerous world in which only the Tories would offer security. Two of those who were there, Ian Emmington, an e-learning developer, and Mark Whiley, a technical author, were undecided before hearing Sunak – and no clearer after. “He is smooth, yes,” said Emmington after listening to the prime minister’s Q&A. “But it is all just rhetoric. We have heard it all before and things never change. Who are you supposed to believe?” But this weekend, after a tough few days for Labour, the polls still appear to be going in the wrong direction for the Conservatives. Sunak needs some serious “buy-in” to the campaign from senior figures in his party if he is to make progress, which at the moment appears to be lacking. On Tuesday, the prime minister and Starmer will clash in the first television debate of the campaign on ITV. Sunak really needs a clear win, otherwise – buses or no buses – the election campaign could begin to look like one-way traffic.