Sunak’s No 10 is much better at keeping secrets than others | Politics News

Suddenly, at election time, political predictions become much more difficult and risky. Everything changes in a campaign, including the news cycle.

That’s my excuse, anyway, for not having predicted the general election announcement last week. Politics in Jack and Sam’s house.

There were some clues – and a masterful tweet from Financial Times journalist Lucy Fisher – but we were deaf to the signs.

Listen above and tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts

On this week’s Politics at Jack and Sam podcast, we reflect on how this number 10 – in stark contrast to the last two – is much better at keeping secrets.

But the moment an election is called, the way information is disseminated changes and everything becomes more complicated.

Latest general election: Conservatives attack Starmer ‘resistance’

Typically political news comes in many different ways. There is parliament. Government announcements. Questions, written and oral. MPs themselves, including ministers, wander the halls of the House of Commons, where journalists can stop to gossip.

All of this disappears at election time. Keeping things secret from the other side is much more important, while decisions and information are kept by a much narrower group of people.

That’s why it’s not really feasible to do a weekly political podcast about the future – and we’re responding daily. More details below.

Rishi SunakThe government’s allies are quite candid in saying that the timing of the general election was a well-balanced argument and that you can argue both ways.

One of the big things that motivated Sunak to leave now was that he was doing – in his opinion – great things; social care announcements, defense spending commitments, NHS workforce plan.

But they found that people weren’t listening and the polls weren’t changing. They weren’t “getting an audience.” What they attribute to the fact that people are disconnected from politics and apathy is high – and therefore the decision to call elections was motivated by this.

The other big consideration was that between March and early April they were getting domestic economic indicators, suggesting that economic conditions – things like inflation, interest rates – might be favorable enough that they could base a campaign on.

Interestingly, they say there was no “decision” meeting two months ago or even three weeks ago – the change was more like the tide slowly rising.

Although Work were caught by surprise – some staff had booked furlough, were confident nothing would happen this summer and the Labor campaign bus is not yet ready – the candidates say they are very happy with what has happened so far.

However, the biggest challenge over the next five weeks will be to see if they can respond to the pressure of a campaign and the incessant desire for more of everything.

Currently the narrative is that Sunak is off to a miserable start – in a few weeks’ time, photos of the PM in the rain could be a brave fighter fighting against all odds.

This seems unlikely at the moment, but having been through the 2017 campaign, we know anything can happen.