Labour bids to be seen as able and competent, not bold and radical | Larry Elliott

  • Date: 24-Jan-2021
  • Source: The Guardian
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Middle East
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Labour bids to be seen as able and competent, not bold and radical | Larry Elliott

Big economic shocks tend to do for prime ministers. Jim Callaghan was finished after the winter of discontent, and the writing was on the wall for John Major once the Bank of England lost its fight with George Soros and his fellow speculators on Black Wednesday. Gordon Brown would have had a decent chance of beating David Cameron had it not been for the financial crash.

Brown's defeat in 2010 was the start of a run of four election defeats for Labour, something that last happened between 1979 and 1992. Since it became a party of government in the 1920s it has never lost five in a row.

A year ago, in the immediate aftermath of its worst showing since the 1930s, that looked highly likely. Even now, the chances of Sir Keir Starmer becoming prime minister are probably no better than 50-50. That, though, is progress.

The pandemic has clearly helped, even though the hit to the Conservative party's support has been far less severe than in the aftermath of Black Wednesday.

That might have something to do with voters being reluctant to blame Boris Johnson for a crisis that was not of his own making or it may be that the public