Labour will use comments made by Liz Truss about British workers not having the “graft” of those from abroad to help them win back voters who switched to the Tories at the last election.
The party will tomorrow launch an advertising campaign in so-called Red Wall seats which will allow people to listen to her remarks, which she made while number two at the Treasury.
In a leaked recording published last month by The Guardian, the new prime minister said: “We say it’s all Europe that’s causing us all these problems. It’s all migrants that’s causing problems.
“But, actually, what needs to happen is, you know, bit more graft. British workers produce less per hour, and that’s a combination of, kind of, skill and application.
“If you look at productivity, it’s very, very different in London from the rest of the country. Essentially, it’s partly a sort of mindset and attitude thing.”
Labour billboards with a QR code allowing voters to listen to Truss’s comments on their phone will go up in Red Wall seats tomorrow.
A Labour source told HuffPost UK: “The audio is utterly damning - it’s the sound of a smug Westminster elite behind closed doors mocking people who don’t live in London or who voted for Brexit. It goes down like a bucket of sick on the doorstep.”
Truss will officially become prime minister tomorrow after an audience with the Queen at Balmoral.
She defeated Rishi Sunak by 57 per cent to 43 per cent following the bitter, 12-week Tory leadership contest.