Rishi Sunak Will Insist He's Better Trusted On The Economy Than Keir Starmer

With 2024 almost certain to be an election year, an unofficial campaign has already kicked off, and the Tories are set to employ their old faithful argument that they are the only party who can be trusted with the economy.

Keir Starmer, meanwhile, is all too keen to point to recent evidence to the contrary, with regular references to the fiscal antics of Rishi Sunak's predecessor Liz Truss, and is asking voters to give Labour a chance to turn Britain's fortunes around.

Having sought to defuse repeated calls for a May election with comments that it was his "working assumption" the poll would be held in the second half of the year, Sunak is now preparing to use the coming weeks and months to put forward an economic case for why the country should keep him in Downing Street.

The Prime Minister's core pitch to the nation will be as follows: with inflation falling, the government is now in a position to cut more taxes at the Spring Budget, scheduled for 6 March. Pointedly distancing himself from Truss, he will argue that this is thanks to his sensible stewardship of the nation's finances since entering No.10 in October 2022, and promise a tax-cutting, economic competence that he — not Starmer —  is best placed to deliver.

Sunak will take this message on the road with him next week as he continues a tour of his preferred format of question and answer sessions with members of the public. He is expected to hold what No.10 calls a "PM Connect" event on Monday, following trips this week to Mansfield in the East Midlands and Stockport in the northwest. He will no doubt be hoping for a better reception that he got in the latter, however, where members of the public booed and shouted "resign" as he hurriedly made his way from a café to