Put this on a poster, Rishi: the Tory message isn’t working

The Conservatives’ tin-eared new social media campaign bigging up tax cuts shows the party that swept to power with Saatchi & Saatchi’s iconic ‘Labour isn’t working’ campaign has forgotten how to talk to voters, writes Sean O’Grady

Social media ads for the Conservatives are a far cry from the election posters produced for it by Saatchi & Saatchi (@Conservatives /Twitter)

Even before his energetic “Ready for Rishi!” leadership bid, the prime minister displayed a taste for excessively exuberant propaganda, usually featuring him with rolled-up short sleeves and a dazzling grin – all inappropriately upbeat in a country struggling through permacrises.

Such hyperbole has been on display once again following the autumn statement. It’s becoming increasingly annoying, even by the crass standards of political propaganda.

Just look at some of the stuff being pumped out by Conservative headquarters and, more dubiously, paid for by the taxpayer on Treasury and Number 10 social media channels: ads with fist-pumping slogans like “We’re cutting taxes for workers”, “We’re backing our high streets” and “Biggest tax cut in British history”. You’d almost think that Britain was in the middle of some gold-rush style boom, rather than tiptoeing along the verges of recession, and that “Rishi!” was some sort of miniature messiah.

In the latest adverts on Twitter/X, we have “Rishi!” in a cafe, shaking hands with what we’re supposed to think are ordinary folk celebrating their £9-a-week bonus from the modest reduction in their National Insurance contributions. One mug I did recognise was that of the newish Tory MP for Uxbridge, Steve Tuckwell, and it looks very much like some of the gathering were party supporters on the morning of their famous by-election “victory” last July.

They are not, in other words, pilgrims giving thanks to the leader for his wise leadership and munificence. The slogan says “Largest tax cut for workers”, which sounds distinctly unlikely for those of us who remember the Lawson giveaways in the 1980s, and must not take account of inflation. In fact, the tweet has already suffered the indignity of having a “reader context” correction published next to it, pointing out that the tax burden will rise to the highest level since the Second World War under this Conservative government.

Which is correct. More and more people are paying a bigger overall proportion of their income in tax because the thresholds on the various rates have been frozen in cash terms since 2021 – and will continue to be left there until 2028.

For businesses, the new expensing rules to encourage investment have to be balanced by the hike in corporation tax, from 19 per cent to 25 per cent, which was introduced only last April. It was actually the first increase in the headline rate of tax on profits since 1974, and must be one of the biggest increases ever in peacetime. The fact is that the tax burden will be a touch lower than it might otherwise be – but by 2028, it will be the highest ever.

You wonder why the Conservatives persist with such propaganda that feels so at odds with people’s lives, and which is comprehensively debunked so rapidly. Maybe it’s all they’ve got. Maybe it’s just another symptom of how the Tories seem to have forgotten how to campaign and project clear and believable messages.

It’s no coincidence that Saatchi & Saatchi, the legendary advertising agency whose “Labour isn’t working” campaign helped bring down the Labour government in 1979 – has now allied itself with Keir Starmer. In her reply to the autumn statement, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves referenced The Independent’s story about the Saatchis no longer backing the Tories, and declared that “the ravens are leaving the tower”.

So what is “Rishi!” trying to say with his admittedly sunny and upbeat new ads? He’s got Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron back in his cabinet, so is he now a liberal, compassionate Conservative? Unlikely, because he seems to want to ignore the courts, deport refugees to Rwanda and break international law.

Saatchi & Saatchi – the British ad agency that helped Margaret Thatcher win the 1979 election with its ‘Labour isn’t working’ campaign – recently switched allegiance from the Conservatives to Labour, as revealed in The Independent (Getty/PA)

What happened to Rishi the competent technocrat, the antidote to Johnson and Truss? Is he still the “candidate of change”, as he claimed at his party conference, taking long-term decisions and breaking with the short-termist failures of the past three decades? Is he renouncing the Major, Cameron, May and Johnson administrations, or is he standing in their proud tradition? Is he a typical British Conservative in a rural seat, or a man who can’t wait to get back to California and renew his green card?

Who can tell? But the message, in this case, is very clear: the Tories have become pathetically bad at political communications.