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

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.

On Thursday, Starmer was to target the prime minister’s predecessor Boris Johnson for failing to deliver on his much-touted levelling up pledges.

The only policy content for the launch billed in advance was a reiteration of Labour’s previous commitment to devolution, which Starmer was to say would give mayors more powers over areas such as transport, energy and planning.

In her speech, Rayner was to condemn what she called “politics which centralises power, takes decisions away from the places and people that know best, and hoards the profits of growth at the centre, away from those who first created it”.

The Conservatives are likely to face a difficult time defending incumbencies that were won in 2021 – the normal four-year cycle was disrupted by Covid – amid a bounce in Tory poll ratings after vaccines were introduced.