Inside the REAL election campaign as Sun team take you behind scenes – from awkward gaffes to Rishi’s favourite snack

THEY say a week is a long time in politics – and during an election campaign it is that on steroids. 

Both Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have hurtled out of the traps to cram in dozens of events spanning all four corners of the United Kingdom. 

PA

PA

There have been countless stump speeches, gaffes, scandals and slip-ups already as the candidates vying to be Prime Minister make their opening pitches to voters. 

Our reporters have been alongside them to cut through the spin and give Sun readers a peek behind the curtain of what you don’t see on telly…

On the road with Starmer

By JACK ELSOM, Chief Political Correspondent

SIR Keir Starmer has got his election script – and he is bloody well sticking to it. 

“The country is crying out for change after 14 years of Tory chaos, and the good news is you don’t have to put up with it anymore!”

If I had a pound for every time I’d heard a version of that phrase over the past week, I could buy a fair few pints.

Often spotted with his sleeves rolled up and top button undone, the Labour leader has an inventory of well-rehearsed lines to deploy.

They are dutifully lapped up by well-drilled activists who wave their placards and burst into applause. 

When pressed by members of the public, or travelling political journalists, he knows the lines to take.

Small boats? “Nobody but nobody should be making that journey.”

Antisocial behaviour? “I don’t want to hear another person tell me this is low-level crime.”

This safety-first approach means that – unlike the Tory campaign – there has not been any especially jazzy announcements. 

Even when doing one of his new “ask me anything” routines with the staff of whatever employer he is visiting, he stays religiously to the lines.

Anything left-field he cannot answer, rather than taking a punt he asks the questioner to email “one of my team” who will come back to them. 

PA

The Sun

The Sun

These events drag on for ages, with aides having to wave frantically at him to wrap up, while some clock out entirely and take the chance to go through their emails. 

Rinse and repeat: From Sussex, to Derby, to Worcester, to Wales, to Scotland. 

After just four days on the road with Labour, I was growing weary of all the travel (and I’m a bit younger than 61-year-old Sir Keir.)

But any sign the Labour leader was experiencing burnout was dismissed as he did his level best to rubbish Tory “Sir Sleepy” claims. 

“Hello again! How’s the bus? Are you being looked after?” he would say with a rictus grin when coming over to us for a post-speech “huddle”.

The bus in question is a grey coach used to shuttle journalists around the country for the next Starmer stump. 

Probably sensibly, Starmer has given it a wide berth, instead either getting the train or his secure Range Rover, while aides follow behind in a spacious caravelle. 

The only politician who has stepped foot on the bus is Labour’s ever-enthusiastic Jonathan Ashworth, who gave us a 6am Sergeant Major-style pep talk to mock Sunak’s national service plan.

But despite declining a lift with the press pack, Starmer seems intent on pressing the flesh with the crowds he addresses.

After most speeches, aides block out a good 10 minutes for “mingling” with the audience.

At a medical college in Worcester, he was literally mobbed for selfies.

But if he thinks life on the road is all about being a political rockstar, Sir Keir was quickly brought back down to earth by the rumbling row over Diane Abbott. 

The scandal is clearly bothering him, and he almost seemed irritated answering questions about it over the past few days. 

He might have travelled hundreds of miles, but Starmer knows it’s still a long and bumpy road to Downing Street.

On the road with Sunak

By NOA HOFFMAN, Political Correspondent

THE PM settled into life on the road more smoothly this week.

After un-intentionally kicking off the Tory’s campaign with a string of embarrassing gaffes, events were far more stage-managed from Monday.

Like his rival, you could see Sunak was determined to stick to the election script.

In leafy Amersham, Buckinghamshire, he told activists at a local rugby club that Labour’s plan to slap VAT on private schools will be a hammer blow to posh parents in the area – and will heap pressure on the struggling state system.

In Stoke-on-Trent after painting plates in a china factory the PM told workers to be ready for an influx of illegal migrants under a Labour government.

The Sun

The Sun

And in a tank factory in Devon the PM boasted about being a true patriot ready to take on foreign tyrants while Sir Keir refuses to hike defence spending.  

At all his campaign events Sunak honed in on his flagship pledges to introduce National Service and give OAPs a tax break.

And you could see among wide-eyed attendees that the topic was a talker.

At every event at least one member of the public wanted to know more.

And the PM enjoyed that – even where questions were sceptical.

Overall, Sunak was relatively upbeat across the week – or at least good at putting on a brave face.

Before being grilled by reporters across the country, he’d have a go at some 30 second banter, trying to display he’s got six weeks worth of fight in him.

In a small and smelly rugby club hall he greeted reporters by gloating about the small snack selection available to them.

“Hi everyone look at this great snack selection,” he said.

“Look at these great biscuits! Mind if I steal some? It’s going to be a great six weeks!”

But compared to Sir Keir at his major events the PM didn’t hang around long to bask in campaign glory.

As soon as a speech finished he’d be whisked away by aides, far from the reporters and the crowds who came to see him. No time for mingling.

And you could see that once the cameras and Dictaphones switched off, there was almost a massive sigh of relief.

Like a light bulb he would switch from on-screen showman Sunak to a bit more of a tired guy ready to be ushered to his next commitment.