British Labour Party lawmaker Rebecca Long-Bailey has said she would employ “ruthless” campaign tactics to lead the party to election victory against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his special adviser Dominic Cummings.
At a Labour leadership hustings in Brighton on Saturday, the shadow business secretary promised to “go toe to toe with the likes of Dominic Cummings.”
She said this would involve establishing a media rebuttal unit to fight back against “smears” and placing greater emphasis on digital campaigning.
Cummings was the architect of the Vote Leave campaign, whose success was attributed in part to its use of micro-targeted online and social media advertising.
Johnson also credited Cummings with coming up with the “Get Brexit Done” slogan used in the Conservatives’ election campaign last year in which they secured a landslide victory.
“We were nowhere near in this election campaign. They were targeting demographics — your hobbies, your income groups — and we were just putting out nice memes and videos, and that’s not good enough. We have got to be ruthless, forensic, and we have got to fight back,” Long-Bailey said.
Long-Bailey has published a list of reforms designed to flush out “vested interests” from UK politics and end the “gentleman’s club in Westminster,” accusing donors of attempting to influence government policy by giving large donations.
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