With policy battle lines set, Sunak and Starmer prepare for TV combat | General election 2024

When the history of Keir Starmer’s resurrection of the Labour party comes to be written, one of the most important turning points will be the decision to start playing the man, not the ball, when it came to Boris Johnson and Partygate.

Rishi Sunak’s key weak spot in the leader debates this election is his career as a hedge fund partner at the time of the financial crisis. Labour believes the prime minister’s account of his past will be a fundamental test, given he has built his reputation on his economic competence.

The battle lines on policy have already been drawn for the debate on Tuesday with both sides building their defences as well as preparing their attacks. The Conservatives will want to focus on gender, defence spending and pensions – all areas where Labour has been challenged to match their commitments and has not done so. Labour has been doing groundwork on other key weak spots over the weekend – on bringing down net migration and on commitment to the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

But both sides are now prepared for things to start getting personal. Sunak is doing his debate preparations with Oliver Dowden. The deputy prime minister has been asked to play Starmer and Tory aides will be in a mock audience asking hostile questions. Sunak believes the debates are key to changing the narrative and that the audience will be watching him for signs of the underdog making a comeback.

Labour knows the debate is its to lose and wants to keep the number of these to a minimum, brushing aside Tory challenges to hold up to six head-to-head debates. In its debate prep, Tom Webb, Labour’s policy director, stands in for Sunak, continuing the role he has played during PMQs prep. Starmer will appear at one public event on Monday but will then turn his full focus to preparations.

Over the last few months, Starmer’s team have deliberately picked events which involve Q&As with groups of workers, with one eye on getting him debate-ready. “We know that people are quite cautious about asking difficult questions in front of their bosses, but there have been a few, and it’s good practice,” said one Labour source. “But we definitely haven’t drafted in any Labour councillors.”

Another added: “The debate will be a big moment. It’s the first time that many voters will have seen Keir and Sunak go head to head as they will only just have started paying attention to politics since the election was called. But we’re feeling confident. Keir is good at this stuff, and he’s well prepared.”

Internally, Labour also has a crucial week. On Tuesday the national executive committee will meet to finally approve all candidates for elections, the crunch point for any final complaints or resignations, but it is now seen as broadly a formality.

While Starmer is focused on debate preparations until Tuesday, the leader’s attention after that will be on the manifesto. On Friday, Labour will convene its pivotal “clause V” meeting, where its most influential figures will go through the manifesto line by line and thrash out any outstanding differences.

Those present will include the shadow cabinet, MPs on the parliamentary Labour party committee, the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, the Welsh first minister, Vaughan Gething, and 11 trade union general secretaries.

The “clause V” meeting is also designed to raise issues that are not in the manifesto – and to get broad agreement on all outstanding issues which is particularly crucial as the party prepares to enter government.

Labour insiders say it will be a slimmed-down and precision-targeted offering – there is no big new spending offer as a manifesto surprise. In this highly cautious operation, one of the best ways to avoid traps is to avoid having any rabbits.