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Chris Mason: Labour is still blaming the Conservatives

A year ago today, Rishi Sunak called the general election.

I think the suit I was wearing that day is still a bit damp now.

Standing in Downing Street in the driving rain, with a lectern and a script but no coat and no umbrella, Sunak said the country would elect a government on 4 July.

Labour went on to win and win big, but the going in government got tough and got tough quickly.

Today, 12 months on, we can expect a blizzard of news.

Some in government are trying to dress this up as what they are calling “legacy Thursday” – their latest attempt to blame the Conservatives for what they are now having to do.

Take the handover of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean – the signing ceremony for which is happening today.

Labour sources say the last Conservative government held multiple rounds of negotiations on the future of the military base on Diego Garcia, because its future was threatened, but failed to agree to a deal.

The Conservatives now argue this deal is a big mistake, not least because it will involve British taxpayers paying to rent back something it until now had owned.

The second example the government is pointing to is the sentencing review, which the government asked the former Conservative minister David Gauke to compile.

At the core of this is the bald truth that the previous government and this one have each come remarkably close to running out of prison places.

Labour blame the Conservatives for failing to build enough new prison places and claim the reason Sunak called the election when he did – rather than serve another six months or so, as he could have chosen to do – was because his party wanted to “cut and run” from the problems that were stacking up.

It is an interesting strategy, not least because I wonder at what point diminishing returns kick in when Labour is kicking out at its predecessor, when it’s approaching the first anniversary of taking office itself.

As part of this blizzard of news, there is an eye-catching idea from the Ministry of Justice that it wants to castrate sex offenders – using chemicals.

The Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is exploring whether the approach could be mandatory, rather than voluntary, although such a step appears a long way off.

Then there are the net migration figures, the latest numbers on legal migration and new data is expected on the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, some public sector pay deals are expected too.

Ministers are seeking to flex the muscles of government to try to show what it has and is trying to achieve.

Little wonder: they have had a bumpy start, with a tricky economic backdrop and a wildly competitive and splintering political landscape and shrivelling opinion poll scores.

Being able to demonstrate delivery is their central hope for clawing back some popularity.

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