Dear John,

It’s week 4 of the election campaign and it's been a pretty big one, thanks to the release of party manifestos…some more successfully than others. So settle in, while we bring you all the top lines and more.

Closing the curtain on the circus: the Labour Manifesto

With Labour on track to win the Election, the release of their election manifesto in Manchester was the most hotly anticipated event of the week. 

Their plan, contained few surprises, predominantly focusing on the Party’s five key pledges. But then, that was the point, with Starmer quipping "Some people may say 'Where's the rabbit out of the hat?' If you want politics as pantomime, I hear Clacton's nice this time of year."

The only new major policy area in the manifesto centred on improving parliamentary standards; much needed after the scandal, squander and sleaze of the last 14 years. Pledges include reforming the House of Lords by scraping hereditary peers and bringing in an age limit, and new lobbying bans on ex-ministers. 

A car crash at Silverstone: the Tory Manifesto

The Conservative Party manifesto grabbed headlines before it had even been unveiled, and for all the wrong reasons. Hours before Sunak took to the stage at Silverstone race course there were reported rumblings of an alternate rebel rightwing manifesto being drawn up in case Sunak’s version fell flat. As our CEO Naom Smith remarked, “Sunak’s problem is that even his own party doesn't believe him, never mind the public.” 

When the 80 page document was finally revealed, it was, to the surprise of few,  lacking. Most obviously, in economic credibility. This was made clear by the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies - the two leading think tanks on public spending - both of whom said they were unconvinced the Party’s plans for tax cuts passed the plausibility test. This gave weight to the Labour interpretation of the Manifesto as “the most expensive panic attack in history.” 

For many, this was Sunak’s last chance to bring his party back from the brink of electoral oblivion, but, all in all, a bit of a car crash. 

Thrills and spills: The Lib Dem Manifesto

Elsewhere, the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey hoped to make voters scream with excitement, choosing to launch his Party’s manifesto at Thorpe Park. 

For those keeping up with the party’s policies, and the leader’s own personal story, the NHS and Social Care were right at the heart of the manifesto and Lib Dems also promised to “fix the UK’s broken relationship with Europe”, with a pledge to rejoin the Single Market and customs Union with a “longer-term objective” of rejoining the EU. There was also a promise for a Youth Mobility Scheme, something Best for Britain has been banging on about for more than a year now!

Despite the rollercoaster of electoral highs and lows that have been felt by the Lib Dems since 2010, the party hopes to mop up a number of seats from the Tories (specifically in the South of England) to once again become the 3rd largest party in Westminster.

The Green Party Manifesto

And last, but certainly not least, is the Green Party’s “Real Hope, Real Change” manifesto, which promised an ‘alternative’ to the other main parties. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, environmental policies was central with a pledge for net zero by 2040. Beyond this, the Party also made pledges to increase NHS investment, offer free social care to all those who need it, scrap tuition fees and raise taxes on the very wealthy. 

Like the Lib Dems, the Greens also made promises on Europe, describing themselves as “pro-Euroepan, and proudly so,” and pledging to rejoin the EU Customs Union, a speedy return to free movement and rejoining the Erasmus Programme. The latter is also one of 114 recommendations made by the UK Trade and Business Commission. 

Squawk Box

Another week, another round of television debates. On Wednesday, Sky News held a special event in Grimsby with a new format for this election. After fifteen minutes of robust questioning from Beth Rigby, both Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Suank then faced an audience keen to understand just what each party leader was promising for this election. 

Worthy of the circus he has led for more than two years, Sunak was laughed and booed as he struggled to communicate a coherent election narrative. This week, the ost debate polls suggested a comfortable win for Sir Keir Starmer by a margin of 64% to 36% and left what looked to be a very tired Rishi Sunak, to escape to the G7 summit in Italy.. 

On Thursday, ITV held another barely watchable 7 way debate Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt stepping in for Starmer and Sunak respectively (and Daisy Cooper for Sir Ed Davey). The debate itself wasn’t particularly groundbreaking but did have some rather odd moments captured effectively the Guardian has put together a pretty good clip of all the… odd moments of the debate.

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European Summary - Election results and France Meltdown

In another horrible Breixt milestone, the first European Parliament election without the UK took place this week. The hotly anticipated lurch to the far right across the continent didn’t quite happen, though the parties of Germany’s Chancellor Scholz and France’s President Macron took a solid beating by voters. 

Macron had a rather extreme reaction to Le Pen’s crushing victory in the Euro election and immediately called a snap election. Macron himself still has two years left as President but has been struggling without a majority in the National Assembly. He says he has heard the message of French voters and trusts them not to turn to the far-right, but he’s taken a massive gamble.

🫣 Cringe Column 😬

And that’s all from us this week. In the meantime, you can stay up to date with the latest election news and B4B commentary by following us on X/Twitter, Instagram or TikTok.

Have a great weekend,
The Best for Britain team and Eli Crossley, who were lucky to have in the office this week for work experience!

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