Wedge issues and elephant traps – Tory tactics Sunak hopes will bamboozle Labour

From the ‘war on motorists’ to the trans debate, the Tories used this conference to drive a policy wedge between themselves and Starmer’s Labour Party. It’s an old trick, says Sean O’Grady, but not likely to work if the electorate have already decided to sack Sunak at the next election

Rishi Sunak delivers his keynote speech in Manchester (PA)

Wedge issues. Clear blue water. Dividing lines. If the Conservative Party conference was about anything, it was defining differences with Labour, forcing the opposition to define itself  in contradistinction.

Speech after speech laid down challenges that were consciously designed to put Sir Keir Starmer on the spot and disrupt Labour’s own conference. There are plenty of questions to be answered about where the parties stand.

Is this a new phenomenon?