Expert analysis on the election pledges made by Labour and the Conservatives

Dr Steve McCabe with insight on the recent pledges made by Sir Kier Starmer and Rishi Sunak.

Transcript

00:00 Well, the view is that they're not exactly particularly ambitious.

00:06 There's nothing that would say that this is about a radical and socialist Labour government.

00:12 And indeed, the criticism of Stalmer is that compared to when he became leader in the aftermath

00:19 of the election in 2019, the December election, so of course this was very early on in 2020,

00:28 and of course we're then into the midst of the pandemic, his promises then was essentially

00:32 to very largely to continue the radical policies that had been set out by a certain Jeremy

00:40 Corbyn.

00:41 And of course, he is no longer a member of the Labour Party and won't be allowed to stand

00:44 at the next election.

00:45 So I think what we've got here is a combination of distancing yourself from some of the promises

00:50 that got him into power in the first place, or sort of become leader of the Labour Party.

00:55 And as of course, the prospect of sort of power becomes even closer, is not to sort

01:00 of to over promise and then be accused of under delivering.

01:03 So I suspect that there's a lot of sort of careful management going on here.

01:06 What I would say is that sort of whoever wins the next election is going to be faced with,

01:11 I suspect, the sort of the greatest set of economic and social challenges for a generation.

01:17 Whoever's elected later on this year, five years down the line, ending upon the majority,

01:22 it could be sort of even sooner than that if they sort of get a much slimmer majority,

01:26 which of course is the objective of the Conservative Party.

01:28 They will then have to face the sort of the voters and to sort of to account for their

01:32 actions.

01:33 And if people don't feel better, they're very keen to sort of to try something else.

01:37 So the difficulty is that politics aside, because it's always about politics, people

01:43 do want change and they want to feel better.

01:46 So I suspect that if Keir Starmer is indeed the sort of the next prime minister by the

01:51 end of this year, he's got a lot of work to do to sort of to make people feel, as I say,

01:57 that their prospects are going to improve in the next five years.