THE Government can turn its fortunes around despite the row over the 45p tax rate U-turn, according to US polling guru Frank Luntz.
He said: “The warning is that what goes up can also come down. And the fact that you saw an almost 20-point shift in a matter of ten days – it can go in the other direction as well, but I’m focused on what happens over the next 36-48 hours, 72 hours.
“Does the party have the ability to pay attention to shift their messaging? In the end, this is about explaining, informing, and educating.
“For example, calling it supply side economics – why do you do that? Why do you use a term that the rest of the country doesn’t know?
“I asked MPs last night over some drinks how do they explain supply side and their answer was, ‘I don’t know’. And that’s what the leadership needs to hear from this conference.
“It is not necessarily the policies that the public turn against. What it is, is that they simply don’t understand them.”
Speaking to Bev Turner on GB News, he said: “Number one, you have to empathise, you have to demonstrate to people that you understand the challenges of their day-to-day life, that you understand the pressures of inflation. And, by the way, it’s cost – not inflation, or affordability, or cost of living.
“Second, is that they expect a detailed plan of action, not a manifesto and not something that changes based on the political winds.
“Third is that you have to personalise, humanise and individualise, so that people see the difference as in that they understand what it means to them.
“Fourth, is that you have to give them some factual information. In the end, this is not just about communication. In the end, it is about specific policies that will have specific results.
“And fifth, is that they need to see the future, they need to see how things will be six months from now and six years from now, and I haven’t heard that yet.
“I don’t think this government is in trouble at all, if it makes those changes. And if it doesn’t make those changes, this is a sign of things to come.”
Mr Luntz added: “The public wants to know how it’s going to impact them individually, personally, their families, day to day.
“One of the things that I don’t understand is they had the time. They knew the challenges they were facing. And I thought that they would be much more explicit and much more personal and visual and impactful in their messaging.
“But they, in the end, they chose a traditional rollout. And I’m not sure if I would have done it that way and we can see the consequences of it now
“But I want to emphasise there are a lot of people who are trying to dismiss the Conservatives’ hopes, to say that the election is already over. Just as things can, frankly, go to hell, they can come back.
“It’s not just what you think of the Conservative approach, it’s what you think of a comparison between Conservatives and Labour and Lib Dem. And it is in that comparison that the Conservatives have the best opportunity for success.”
