That's the challenge though I suppose. The Tories have gained ground by leaning heavily on social conservatism, as fiscally they've probably been the most left-leaning Tory government ever. That was enough to win them the red wall, but there are strong signs of them losing their southern base as they've been thumped in recent by-elections where the constant culture-warring and immigrant bashing doesn't go down as well.
Labour has a similar balancing act to pull, as their metropolitan voters are pretty different from the red wall voters, especially on social matters. The Tories won in large part because the southern base was so put off by Corbyn that they held their nose and went with the Tories as the least bad option. I wonder if Labour will do similar with their metropolitan base.
It is pretty unedifying but we're in an essentially two-party system so whoever wins will inevitably have to cover a pretty wide area ideologically, and that's just among their supporters.
I spoke to someone internally, involved in politics a couple of years ago, who said that Johnson and Starmer were trying to inhibit the same space, and it was a question of who would blink 1st.
With Johnson gone, the scandals associated, and Tory candidates trying to out jump each other on who can be more austere/tax cutty, it's fair to say Starmer has won on that terrain.
I think the other calculation Starmer makes, is that this government is so loathed, standard Labour voters will be willing to forgive a lot more, in order to vote for them.
For the Tories, the big concerns they would have, would be in a context of Priti Patel as home Sec and planes flying refugees to Rwanda, it made no dent to the polls and people deserted them. It suggests that people are either growing immune to that messaging, or that they are not capturing the mood.
