Families at gunpoint, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak awake in a bed and a red carpet being rolled out for illegal migrants.
With only days to go until the British election, the parties’ campaigns are becoming increasingly bitter and intense.
– “Desperation” is the right word to describe the Tories’ campaign right now, says political scientist Nicholas Aylott.
On Thursday, the British go to the polls. Everything points to a change of government after 14 years of conservative rule and in recent days Rishi Sunak and his party Tories have upset the atmosphere in the election campaign.
In an interview with The Telegraph says the Prime Minister that voters must now “save the country” from Social Democrat Labour’s tax increases. And recently the party published pictures of families, pensioners and children who appear to be at gunpoint with their arms outstretched. One of the pictures reads: “Don’t abandon your family’s future to Labour”.
Rishi Sunak has also portrayed Labor as a threat to national security, saying Russia’s Vladimir Putin would celebrate a social democratic victory.
“Indicates desperation”
Nicholas Aylott, program manager for the Europe program at the Foreign Policy Institute and associate professor of political science at Södertörn University, believes that Tories’ message indicates desperation. At the start of the election campaign, the Tories came out with promises of tax cuts and sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. As the opinion figures have fallen, the messages have changed.
– Now they have switched to another strategy which is much more defensive and which is about scaring voters. It is about messages that a Labor government could be dangerous and gain unhindered power – “and you know what has happened in history when socialists have got it”, sort of.
Right-wing nationalists influence
A specific video from the Tories has received a lot of attention and met with massive criticism, not least because it was published on World Refugee Day. It shows a red carpet being rolled out on a beach and ends with a text message saying Labor welcomes illegal migrants with open arms.
Nicholas Aylott believes that the increasingly hard-line messages about immigration have to do with the success of the right-wing nationalist party Reform UK in public opinion.
– It is a party that likes to provoke, and the Tories want to compete with them.
Attacking Rishi Sunak
Labour’s campaigning is also becoming increasingly hard-line. The party has targeted smears by Chief Minister Rishi Sunak. The latest part of the campaign consists of a picture of a newly awake Rishi Sunak in a bed with the text: “Don’t wake up to another five years with the Tories”.
– It is not surprising. Already a year ago, Labor made particularly crude attacks on Rishi Sunak’s personality.
The question then is whether the Tories’ defensive strategy and message of intimidation resonates with voters.
– There is no indication of that, at least if you look at how it looks in public opinion, says Nicholas Aylott.