The centre just means cherry picking bits and pieces to appear more palatable to the key marginal seats wherever they are.
Anna Soubry is a Tory, her crocodile tears over constituents' livelihoods don't wash with me; her voting record says it all.
Marginals is all about retail politics, like locals are all about potholes and bins.
Right To Buy was a masterstroke for that, especially in a housing crisis. Labours always been poor at the Middle England retail stuff. Blair got it. Check the 5 pledges: smaller class sizes, more police, better NHS. That’s the bread and butter.
Today it’d have to have something about immigration, housing and as always the NHS. Problem is Labour did so badly at countering the “Labour crashed the economy” myth, that they can’t credibly promise spending increases, even though post Brexit (or any crash) that’s the same economic policy.
Minimum wage, ZHC, identity politics stuff isn’t going to win an election. But the Tory lie of “give our mates tax cuts and magically you’ll be better off” always does :/
And yeah, the state of all the Tory “rebels” voting record is shocking. Cameron just taught them how to put on a veneer.