Claire Ainsley, who was Sir Keir Starmer’s policy chief when he was in opposition, is now overseeing a project on centre-left renewal at the Progressive Policy Institute, and her advice is to grow the “seeds of doubt” about Reform in the electorate’s minds in the three years between now and the election.
She believes that while people are happy to cast a protest vote, they currently question whether Reform are really a government in waiting – so challenging them on whether their policies hold together, or whether their numbers add up, is a way of undermining their support.
But it does also mean doing more to tackle the core issue. She says the party leadership realised “the previous set of answers on immigration were not going to wash with the British public that want to see action”, and says she was encouraged by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s promise that “nothing is off the table” in tackling illegal migration.
But tackling Reform isn’t just about immigration. Ms Ainsley says it’s about people feeling worse off and not feeling they have got a fair deal on the economy, and a sense that other people are getting treated better than them.
