The Sun newspaper has officially endorsed the Labour Party just one day before the public head to the polls in a major victory for Keir Starmer.
The best-selling tabloid, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, announced “it’s time for a change” in an editorial published online.
This afternoon, the newspaper shared an early version of Thursday’s front page, complete with the headline: “As Britain goes to the polls, it’s time for a new manager (and we don’t mean Southgate).”
The paper has a track record of backing election winners.
It famously claimed to have swayed 10 million readers to vote for Tory John Major in 1992, leading to its well-known headline: “It was the Sun wot won it.”
It later supported Labour shortly before Tony Blair took the party into three election victories, only to move away from the party in 2009.
It stayed loyal to the Conservatives over the next 15 years – which is why today’s switch is a major win for Starmer.
The editorial admitted that PM Rishi Sunak “has many policies which we can support” such as the Rwanda deportation plan, and the pledge to drop National Insurance contributions for workers.
It also praised the “ban on teaching harmful gender ideology in schools”, “putting the brakes on the headlong rush towards Net Zero” and Sunak’s commitment to “our Brexit freedoms”.
However, the pro-Brexit newspaper said the party has become “a divided rabble, more interested in fighting themselves than running the country”.
The Sun said the party needs to be in Opposition to unite “around a common set of principles”.
It also stopped short of endorsing Nigel Farage’s populist party Reform, saying those his manifesto “has struck a chord with millions” it is “a one-man band” – and swiftly described the Liberal Democrats as “a joke”.
The editorial seems to come around to Labour through a process of elimination, saying while it was “still a work in progress” and there are “plenty of concerns” remaining, Starmer has pulled his “party back to the centre ground of British politics for the first time since Tony Blair was in No.10”.
The endorsement comes as all signs point to a landslide victory for Labour.
A Survation poll of more than 30,000 people predicted the party would take more seats than Blair did in 1997, winning 484 in total – leaving the Tories with just 64 MPs.
The Sun joined the Financial Times, the The Sunday Times, the Daily Mirror and the Guardian, along with The Economist, in backing the Opposition.
The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph have backed the Conservatives.