Starmer's presidential pitch to be Labour's heir to Blair

Leader launches personal campaign to become the next PM

- DAVID MADDOX

Sir Keir Starmer is set to make a presidential pitch to become prime minister, drawing inspiration from Tony Blair in what is being billed as Labour's general election campaign launch. In a strategy that deliberately echoes the winning New Labour battle plan from 1997, Sir Keir is betting on himself to front Labour’s push to return to power after 14 years in the wilderness.

Later on today, the party will unveil its most expensive advertising campaign since the last general election alongside a modern version of Blair’s “pledge card”, which will feature Sir Keir’s face and his personal six first steps for an incoming Labour government.

After Rishi Sunak said in his own keynote speech earlier this week that the election should not be fought on the basis of “Starmer versus Sunak”, Sir Keir has made it clear that he wants it to be a personal battle between the two men, centred on which of them is better able to run the country.

While Mr Sunak made his pitch around defence and security, highlighting the threat of nuclear war, Sir Keir hopes to strike a more personal tone. At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, he lampooned his opponent as “a jumped-up milk monitor” for his party’s efforts to ban civil servants from wearing rainbow lanyards.

It comes as Mr Sunak struggles to find a winning strategy, with Labour 24 points ahead in the polls and leading pollsters warning the prime minister that his focus this week on culturewar issues “will not save the Tories”.