Is there any evidence voters care that much about flip flopping or is it just a thing used to pin people to unpopular policy? Seems like a thing you’d bring up if you were otherwise unhappy but generally people seem pretty good at rationalising this stuff for politicians they support. I think it would take a major scandal at this point to seriously dent poll numbers, people are that sick of the Tories and the Tories are that bad at politics right now. I get the idea Starmer wants to grind them to dust and leave nothing to chance, but seems a little bit of tunnel vision. Can’t really judge until he actually starts doing stuff tho really.
Beg to differ, I suspect it's one of the few things that might cut through.
I don't think it will stop Labour getting into power, but I suspect it will start thinning down support.
In essence, it becomes a matter of trust. If you can't trust anything he says, why bother voting for him?
In a related way, people with genuine concerns about the environment might start switching to the Green Party if they sense that there's a lack of commitment from Labour. That's certainly where I'm heading.
That might not hurt them too much in this cycle, but a centre-right Labour party in that does nothing to improve things, might find itself quickly under pressure from both a refreshed Tory party on the right and a leftish/environmental front on the left.
Don't put it past the Lib Dems to position themselves accordingly, appearing to be to the left of the Labour convinced a fair number of progressives to switch previously.
Regardless of all of this, the true deficit is that there's no real change being offered by Starmer. Wait and see is hardly a great election mantra.