Tory ‘performance art’ nearly over, Labour to say at local elections launch

Keir Starmer expected to accuse Conservatives of failing on levelling up and ‘preying’ on hopes of voters

May will mark the beginning of the end of a “Tory era of politics as performance art”, Keir Starmer will say at the launch of Labour’s local election campaign, accusing ministers of having utterly failed on levelling up.

The Labour leader will join his deputy, Angela Rayner, and Richard Parker, the party’s candidate for West Midlands mayor, to argue that the Tories had given voters false hopes in their apparent mission to reduce regional inequalities.