Rishi has nothing to lose by being bold

AS THE General Election campaign cranks slowly into gear, is there anyone not breathing a sigh of relief that it will last only another 40 days?

So far, the battle has been marked by unilluminating interviews, dreary sloganeering and yah-boo opening shots.

But today the Mail carries agenda-setting articles from two voices on differing sides of the political spectrum: Boris Johnson and Rachel Reeves.

Mr Johnson, on typically swashbuckling form, tears into Keir Starmer with an eloquence and passion few can match.

He says Sir Keir would be ‘the most dangerous and Left-wing prime minister since the 1970s’. And he warns that Labour ‘will come for your pensions, your inheritances and your incomes’.

Meanwhile the Shadow Chancellor puts more flesh on the bones of Labour’s economic policies. Speaking directly to Mail readers, she invokes the fiscal discipline of Margaret Thatcher, vowing never to ‘play fast and loose’ with people’s money.

Suggesting she wants to lower taxes, Ms Reeves adds: ‘I do not believe you can tax and spend your way to growth.’

At first blush, this is music to every Tory’s ears. But when the inevitable demands for more money come from the unions, the public sector and Labour’s pet interest groups, will she be able to resist?

The undeniable truth facing voters is that this election is a straight choice between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.

The Tories, says the Prime Minister, have a clear plan to safeguard economic recovery and keep the nation secure in an increasingly volatile world. Labour’s mantra is that it is ‘time for change’. But change to what?

It is perfectly understandable that many people feel let down by, and weary of, the Conservatives after 14 years in office.

Mistakes have been made and, in recent years, the parliamentary party has appeared a disunited rabble.

But Mr Sunak has restored stability. And after a rain-drenched start to the campaign, the PM is making solid progress.

Families will welcome the Tories’ pledge to curb spurious green levies on fuel bills – in addition to the energy price cap plunging £122 on average.

Meanwhile, the party’s plan to reduce skyhigh immigration is working, the Rwanda deal is on the ballot paper and the economy is jolting into life. The direction of travel for the Tories is forward. The fear is that Labour will turn the clock back.

It is a political maxim that, between elections, voters focus on the weaknesses of the Government. But during them, they examine the opposition’s fitness for power.

If there is a glimmer of hope for the Conservatives, it lies in the fact that Sir Keir and his team are going to be put under the microscope as never before.

His interview on Radio 4 yesterday was telling. He was cautious and defensive, a man desperate to minimise political risk by saying nothing at all.

But if the country is in chaos, as he endlessly claims, then why is he so reluctant to spell out in detail how he’d change it?

Mr Sunak can counter the ‘time for change’ narrative by reminding disillusioned voters how much worse life could be with Sir Keir in No10.

First, by putting forward an inspiring, radical – and above all truly conservative – manifesto. And second, by exposing Labour’s militant Left-wing instincts, its ongoing obsession with wokery and Sir Keir’s untrustworthy flip-flopping on his pledges.

With the Tories so far behind in the polls, he has nothing to lose.