Update: 07/06/2024


** 27 days to go - Here’s what you need to know.
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It was never going to be easy for Rishi Sunak. The third in a shameful carousel of embattled Conservative PMs, he’s now got to make an electoral case for one of the least popular and most scandal-prone governments in modern British history. Somehow, his campaign seems to be going even worse than anyone expected.

Yesterday, Sunak opted to depart from a D-day commemoration ceremony early, giving a short speech and missing key photo ops with his fellow Western leaders. His absence was a massive (and very avoidable) self-inflicted wound for his campaign prospects. It was aptly symbolic of the PM’s own Brexit Britain, a nation in absentia, voluntarily excluded from the community it helped create.

Despite his meagre apology ([link removed]) this morning, Sunak seems to losing key support across the British right and centre, with even the right-wing tabloid rags disparaging him (the debacle led Guido Fawkes to inquire whether Sunak was now working for the Labour party). Moreover, he’s undermined his own messaging on National Service – it’s hard to espouse patriotism and national duty while simultaneously neglecting the heroes of one of Britain’s proudest historical battles.

We don’t know what’s brewing inside CCHQ, but they seem to have entered full panic mode. Data analysis from Who Targets Me revealed ([link removed]) this morning that all paid digital ad campaigns from the Conservative party across the country have now been completely turned off. That’s unprecedented, quite literally unheard of so close to an election. Are they resetting their messaging in lieu of yesterday’s fiasco? Transferring spending to a third party? Or have they simply given up?

Time will tell.

In other news…
* Conservatives have announced plans to expand the child benefit to higher-income households, a move criticised for handing money to families less likely to need it.
* Yesterday, Keir Starmer pledged to recognise Palestine in the party’s manifesto (expected middle of next week) before the end of the peace process, presumably in an effort to shore up support from young Labour voters and the party’s left-wing faction.
* Rishi Sunak’s ‘£2000 tax rise’ lie about Labour has been officially criticised by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) as misleading – that’s significant coming from the UK’s main statistics watchdog.
* The Conservatives managed to hold on to a formerly safe seat in Wellswood (Torbay) at yesterdays’ by-election, but a massive Lib Dem surge of over 40 points puts them at risk of losing it at the upcoming general.
* The first multi-party debate is airing on the BBC at 7:30pm tonight. Grab your beverage of choice and tune in!

Thanks for reading.

All the very best,

The Open Britain Team
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