With his nasty attack on Sunak, Starmer has paved the way for dirty tactics to be used against him

In 2016, Michelle Obama produced her most memorable phrase: “When they go low, we go high”. She was talking about the Republicans’ vicious, personal and largely mendacious attacks on the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. That, as we all know, didn’t end well. Donald Trump lied and bullied his way to the presidency. He is at it again, as he prepares for his next assault for the White House in next year’s elections.

At some point in 2024, probably a couple of months before the Americans, the British will go also go to the polls. After what will be 14 years in the wilderness, almost as long as during the Eighties and most of the Nineties, Labour is desperate for power again. It will do whatever it takes to win. After all, those around Keir Starmer ask (not unreasonably), as those around Tony Blair did (and there is considerable crossover between the teams): what is the point of holding the moral high ground if you don’t hold power?

They are right. Politics is not for the faint hearted. It is all very well for Jacinda Ardern saying that “you can be strong, and you can be kind”, but in New Zealand, as everywhere, it simply isn’t the case.

Which brings me to the extraordinary attack advertisements launched by Labour over the past few days, claiming that Rishi Sunak does not think child sex abusers or gunmen should go to prison.

They are deeply tasteless and boorish. But, as a thought experiment, let’s cast aside for one moment all questions of ethics and look purely at the task at hand. Will they help Labour win over the kind of voters it needs to propel Starmer into Downing Street?

“Keir and his team are determined to win the voters in the seats we need to gain. Your role as a candidate is to also build a relationship with those voters and win their trust,” one Labour regional director wrote to election candidates. “For too long we have told the electorate that we disagree with them. That will no longer happen”.

This recent memo helps to explain not only the thinking behind the attack ads, but Starmer’s more general thinking. And it is deeply depressing. Don’t bother trying to discuss anything remotely complicated. Just pander to people’s basest instincts.

Don’t ever mention Brexit, no matter how incontrovertible the evidence is that it has been an economic disaster, for fear of alienating the few that continue to shout loudest that Britain has “taken back control”.

Don’t ever try to discuss law and order in a sensible way, just tell people you’ll lock up criminals and throw away the key.

As for the “small boats”, one Labour candidate in Yorkshire tells me: “This is all people are talking about on the doorstep.” He’s been out and about, whereas I haven’t, so he’s almost certainly right. And it’s necessary to have a robust immigration and asylum policy, but it needs to be based on facts (the number of so-called economic migrants on these dinghies is incredibly small) rather than instinct.

Perhaps I’m being too effete. After all, the Conservatives are at it all the time. Sunak, for all his nicey-nicey demeanour, has apparently decided that he is the perfect person to take on and beat the “culture warriors”, telling a meeting of survivors of sex-grooming gangs: “The reason the victims were ignored was due to cultural sensitivity and political correctness”.

Given that Labour is aping the Tories not just on Brexit, but on a large swathe of domestic policy, expect more as the election nears. Yet what is the point, one might ask, between the one who is competent and rich and the one who is competent and dull? Voters need hope, and differentiation, too; and they have seen precious little of it in Labour’s messaging so far.

These deeply unpleasant and counter-productive tactics give Starmer nowhere to hide. They leave the door open for the Conservatives to attack him with impunity. The Labour leader hated it when Boris Johnson made his false claim that, as director of public prosecutions, Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Labour is still streets ahead in the polls, but the margin is narrowing. There is still time for Sunak to claw back the deficit. Yes, politics is tough, and Tony Blair’s henchmen resorted to dirty tactics whenever they needed, to win power and stay there.

But an increasingly anxious Starmer is drawing all the wrong conclusions. He will not win over young voters with repellent language. He will not enthuse his MPs and candidates who have been conspicuous in their silence in recent days. He will not win back “red wall” voters by sounding like a fake Tory headbanger.

A country that has the worst performing economy in the developed world, that is reeling from industrial unrest, and is suffering social strife and poor public services, needs far better than this.

John Kampfner is the former editor of the New Statesman