Politicians need to make the case for a better nation – not sling mud

Editorial: Dragging arguments into the gutter does a great disservice to voters, who should be trusted to judge policy on its merits

There should have been an admission from Labour that its tactics had gone too far (Getty/Labour Party)

If Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is trying to show the voters its vision for Britain’s future, it has a strange way of going about it.

Let’s be clear: the attack advert the party put out over Twitter, claiming that Rishi Sunak does not think sexual abusers of children should go to jail, has no place in politics. It brings the debate down into the gutter.

At a time when people all over Britain will be making tough decisions about their finances, thanks to high inflation and rising interest rates, the job of the opposition is to provide an alternative to the government’s thinking, and to set out how it would shape the country’s future.

After more than a decade in power, there are clearly areas of Conservative policy on which Labour can concentrate. The party is not wrong to suggest that improvements need to be made to our justice system. Or on immigration – the case of the hero Afghan pilot, highlighted by The Independent, demonstrates that. However, the way to do this is not by issuing personal attacks, but by showing how things can be changed.

On Friday morning, the shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, said that she stood by the message Labour’s social media post was trying to send, and that its tone was part of the “cut and thrust” of politics. The party then doubled down by issuing another advert in the afternoon, in the same style, albeit around a slightly less inflammatory subject. This was wrong. The first advert should have been withdrawn, and there should have been an admission from Labour that its tactics had gone too far.

The argument appears to be that the Conservatives did it first: The Independent’s John Rentoul points out that Sir Keir was subjected to similar treatment when Boris Johnson accused the former director of public prosecutions of “failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile”. But that is not an excuse. Two wrongs do not make a right. If Labour wants to highlight the Conservatives’ record on an issue, there are other ways to make the point.

The only way this leads is towards an accelerating race to the bottom, flinging mud to see what sticks. If Labour is so adamant that it wants to stand up for the people of Britain after 13 years of Conservative government, then it should trust those people to make a judgement when the facts are presented and the alternative plan is laid out. Personal attacks only prevent voters from taking a clear view, as the argument becomes about the accusation levelled rather than the policy. That is true of all parties, not just Labour.

Voters will forgive wrong political moves as long as the contrition feels genuine and the new path is seen as correct. Doubling down has become an all-too-common feature of UK politics. Labour should be acutely aware that adopting an entrenched position is exactly the type of behaviour for which the party admonished the governments of Mr Johnson and Liz Truss.

At its core, negative campaigning does a disservice to voters. As the British people look to their political leaders for a clear vision of how their lives can be improved, the country deserves far better.