All change? Labour hopes a simple message will chime with vexed nation

Change. The word was emblazoned on the lectern as Keir Starmer responded to Rishi Sunak's rain-soaked speech last Wednesday and, lest there were any doubts about Labour's key campaign message, he said it eight times in his brief address.

- Heather Stewart

A one-word slogan has the merit of being simple and clear - and Labour believes that "Change" will chime with the public's widespread sense of exasperation at the state of the country.

In a recent YouGov poll, when asked about the prospect of a general election, 58% of respondents including more than a third of those who voted Tory in 2019 - said it was "time for a change". Starmer clearly hopes to mirror that back at the electorate.

Pared-down political slogans also allow voters to project on to them their own meaning.

Barack Obama's run for the White House in 2008 became closely associated with the much-imitated red and blue poster bearing his image and one word: hope.