Keir keeps his top spot framing Labour as a competent alternative government with his national missions, Forbes fumbles her campaign in Scotland, and Barclay battles strike action! Read about it in this week's Who's Top, Who's Not!
Flying High: Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer held the limelight yesterday and outlined five “national missions” that will drive his 2024 election manifesto with the caveat that they will take up to a decade to deliver.
Starmer wants the U.K. to achieve the highest sustained economic growth in the G7 “by the end of Labour’s first term”, his other missions include making Britain a “clean energy superpower,” with zero-carbon electricity by 2030.
The missions were big on rhetoric but little on substance, offering little in terms of detailed policy. But there is still plenty of time to unveil policy to flesh out these missions. And in truth, Starmer spent the first 2 years of his leadership unveiling reams of policies that had little impact on the public.
These missions are a framing device; providing some clarity on Labour’s priorities. They are the beginning of a narrative about what a Labour government will do for the UK, and they will be able to build upon that story in the coming months.
Middle of the Road: Kate Forbes
Fumbling Forbes launched her SNP leadership campaign controversially by stating she would have voted against gay marriage had she been an MSP in 2014. She also said she believed that having a child outside of marriage was “wrong”. There was speculation about whether or not Ms Forbes would continue the race after several MSPs withdrew their backing.
However, Forbes fights on! She'll be enjoying that Friday feeling with a sigh of relief as she remains popular with voters and leads the first poll conducted by the BIG Partnership. The poll found that 28 percent of voters supported Forbes, compared with 20 percent who backed Yousaf and 7 percent Regan.
Forbes’s strategy was clearly to be upfront about these opinions in the hope that she could then move on to areas with which she is more comfortable like the economy and independence. But momentum matters in a campaign and right now it doesn’t seem like the supposed frontrunner has it.
Slowly sinking: Steve Barclay
The Secretary of State for Health, Steve Barclay, is getting headaches from further strike action. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is threatening its biggest walk-out to date, a 48-hour strike next week in England, the pressure is on to reach an agreement with the RCN leader Pat Cullen to end the stand-off over pay.
It gets worse, junior doctors in England have voted in favour of strike action in their bid to also get more pay. Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) are expected to take part in a 72-hour walkout, potentially early as mid-March. The union said junior doctor roles had seen a pay cut by 26% since 2008 once inflation was taken into account. Furthermore, ambulance staff in the Unite and GMB unions have additional strikes planned.
This doesn’t bode well for the Government and Sunak’s pledge to reduce NHS waiting lists and get people the care they need more quickly. The NHS elective surgery waitlist, A&E and ambulance wait times are at all-time highs and strike actions will only exacerbate the situation. Sunak is determined to halve inflation which means he will continue to take a strong line on public sector pay negotiations, but he has also pledged to cut waiting lists and exasperating a depleted NHS workforce by not meeting pay demands isn't going to help. Something’s gotta give.