It had not gone unnoticed that we had not had an endorsement from The Sun in the run-up to the General Election 2024. Well, now we have. And the paper is backing Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party.
Under the headline “It’s time for a change…” the leader column praises Rishi Sunak and says his party has policies it supports. However, it adds:
Put bluntly, the Tories are exhausted. They need a period in Opposition to unite around a common set of principles which can finally bring to an end all the years of internal warfare.
The paper also describes right-wing party Reform as “a one-man band which at best can win only a handful of MPs and can never implement its policies.” It blasts the Liberal Democrats as “a joke – with a leader who has spent this most depressing of campaigns pulling ridiculous stunts.” (I’ve written about these stunts for The Spectator.)
Ultimately, The Sun leader declares that “by dragging his party back to the centre ground of British politics for the first time since Tony Blair was in No10, Sir Keir has won the right to take charge.”
General Election 2024 Backing Has Echoes of Blair
It is hard to tell how much influence newspaper endorsements still have. In 1997. Tony Blair and his spinner Alastair Campbell worked hard to secure the backing of The Sun. I’m not sure that Sir Keir will be as delighted with the endorsement. If the polls are anything to go by, his is set to win handsomely anyway, meaning The Sun has essentially decided to back the inevitable winner at the last moment.
Nevertheless, it has some significance. We will have to see if that backing continues after Sir Keir is in Downing Street after General Election 2024.
