Extensive vetting and a battlebus: Labour ready to hit campaign trail

Bruised by Rochdale, party is racing to fill up to 100 seats but is confident of no skeletons in closets

For Rishi Sunak, one of the advantages of calling a summer election was the idea of catching Labour off-guard.

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When the prime minister announced he was going to the country on 4 July, he caught almost everyone – Labour and Tory – by surprise. Labour had just relaxed its restrictions on staff members taking holidays over the coming weeks as the prospect of an election before the autumn appeared to fade.But behind the scenes the party had been putting plans in place for the prospect of a snap poll for several months, including lining up candidates in key seats, pulling together its manifesto and testing campaign messages. It also launched Keir Starmer’s six core pledges – his first steps – last week.

It meant Starmer was ready to launch his campaign slogan hours after the election was called on Wednesday night, a single word that his strategists believe captures the mood of the country: “Change”.

“The message is change – time to turn the page on 14 years of Tory chaos,” a senior party source said. “Last week we launched our ‘first steps’ and that will be something we will taking across the country … We’ve always said we were ready for the election as soon as it came.”

Labour, like the Conservative party, is now scrambling to select candidates in 80 to 100 seats, some of which it is projected to win if it maintains its polling lead.

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This led to concerns that some candidates would be selected without proper vetting. But Labour insiders said the shortlisting process was completed back in January by the party’s national executive committee (NEC), after an intensified vetting process after the Rochdale byelection.

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