RISHI Sunak was clobbered last night over claims his inner circle piled in on bets on the General Election date.
Facing an angry BBC Question Time audience, the PM said any one found to have broken the rules “must face the full force of the law” and he would boot them out of the Conservatives.
BBCRishi Sunak was clobbered over claims his inner circle piled in on bets on the General Election date[/caption]
BBCAnd Sir Keir Starmer was cut up rough on his support for Jeremy Corbyn and his vague promises to tackle migration[/caption]
After a barrage of questions about ethics, Mr Sunak said he was “incredibly angry to learn of these allegations, it’s a really serious matter.”
In his own appearance Sir Keir Starmer was cut up rough on his support for Jeremy Corbyn, flip flopping on trans issues and his vague promises to tackle migration.
The two men vying for the keys to No10 both faced a tough audience who focussed on flip flops and trust.
Mr Sunak immediately came under fire as he was asked if he felt any embarrassment over leading the Conservatives after seven prime ministers.
He insisted that when he stood on the steps of Downing Street he acknowledged “mistakes had been made”.
In a thinly-veiled attack on his predecessor Liz Truss, he said: “In fact, you may remember I spent the summer before that arguing against the policies that my predecessor had suggested were right.
“I didn’t think they were right for the country, and I said so. But what I’d ask you to do is judge me on my 18 months that I’ve been in office.
“I came in with one primary job, and that was to bring back economic stability after the difficult few years that we’ve had.”
The PM said he was “incredibly angry” to learn about the alleged bets relating to the timing of the general elections.
He added: “It’s a really serious matter. It’s right that they’re being investigated properly by the relevant law enforcement authorities including a criminal investigation by the police.
“I want to be crystal clear that if anyone has broken the rules, they should face the full force of the law.”
In his own appearance Sir Keir Starmer was cut up rough on his support for Jeremy Corbyn, flip flopping on migration and his past confusion on whether women can have a penis.
But he attacked the Tories over their lack of service – citing No10 insiders betting on the date of the election.
In his appearance, Sir Keir Starmer was immediately hit with questions over why he campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn to be PM.
One viewer called Emma said it gave her extreme concerns about Sir Keir’s “integrity and trust.”
Sir Keir defended his support for Jeremy Corbyn saying “I have always backed the Labour Party.”
He accused Rishi Sunak of repeating Corbyn’s mistakes of including “unfunded commitments” in his manifesto.
And he repeated his claim that he didn’t think Corbyn would win the election, despite claiming he “would be a great PM.”
Fiona Bruce says “we all heard you” when he backed Jeremy Corbyn and said he would be a “great Prime Minister” in 2019.
I have always backed the Labour Party
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir, rather angrily, retorts: “Look, he would be a better prime minister… look what we got, we got Boris Johnson.
“I didn’t think we were in a position to win that election”.
But audience member Emma said she was “not convinced” by his answer saying she wanted “integrity and trust” from her politicians.
Yet the Labour chief doubled down, insisting that he was “glad” he campaigned for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.
He said: “I was a Labour politician. I wanted to be elected, reelected.”
Back in 2019, Sir Keir said: “I do think Jeremy Corbyn would make a great Prime Minister.”
Sir Keir once again refused to put a number on how much Labour would cut net migration despite saying he wants to “get it down significantly”.
Asked to give a figure, the Labour leader said: “Migration is at record levels at the moment under this Government. They’ve completely lost control. We need to get that number down.
“We need to get it significantly now. I’m not going to put an arbitrary figure on it because every single politician who has put a number on it has never met that number.”
And he insisted that he would push ahead with private schools’ tax breaks being taken away to pay for more teachers in the state system.
Sir Keir pledged he will clear the backlog of NHS waiting lists “completely” by the end the first term of a Labour government.
He said he would “make a start” on cutting waiting lists “straightaway”.
Pressed on when the public can expect them to come down to a reasonable level, he said: “We will be able to do two million a year on this model.
“That means that over the course of the Parliament, we’ll get it down and clear the backlog completely.”
Sir Keir was confronted about his flip-flopping views on gender and his treatment of Labour MP Rosie Duffield – a feminist campaigner.
The Labour chief, who once said it is wrong to say only women can have a cervix, said: “On the biology, I agree with what Tony Blair said the other day in relation to men having penises and women having vaginas.”
Migration is at record levels at the moment under this Government
Keir Starmer
But Sir Keir defended his stance back in 2021, insisting he was “worried” about the way in which the debate was being conducted because it “got very toxic, very divided, very hard line”.
On defence, Sir Keir insisted it has to be “the first priority of any Government” and that he will “always make the money available for it”.
But he refused to set a date for when he would put the extra cash in, simply saying: “We live in a particularly volatile world, so we will make the money available for defence.
“We will put that extra money into the NHS and I want to see our public services running properly.”
Sir Keir is asked about the election of several right-wing governments across Europe in the last two years, and how he, as a self-declared socialist, he’d get on with them.
He says: “I will always make that progressive argument. But in the end, we have to stabilise the economy, we have to get that investment in to secure the jobs of the future.
“If we’re able to get over the line in two weeks time, we’ll have a platform which is really important.
“I am genuinely worried by some of the political trends and moves that we see.”
Sir Keir Starmer is asked about bringing down huge NHS waiting lists.
The Labour leader says “we will be working evenings and weekends to get those lists down.
“We will pay staff properly to do it and I’m convinced we can do it.
“Some hospitals are doing it already.”
A member of the audience who works for the NHS in Shropshire says higher pay for hospital staff is crucial to sorting out waiting lists, as the health service struggles to recruit.
Asked about when the public can expect lists to significantly come down, the Labour leader responds: “We’ll get those operations going as quickly as we can with the staff.
“We’ll start on that, absolutely straight away. In five years the backlog will be cleared completely.”
Separately on the show Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey defended his time as Post Office Minister between 2010 and 2012 over failing to help wrongly-convicted subpostmasters – after initially refusing to meet newly-knighted Alan Bates.
He says: “I was the first Post Office minister to meet him (Sir Alan), and listen to his concerns. I took all his questions and asked my officials and the Post Office.
“They gave me a categorical assurance that the points Mr Bates was making were not true, that their system had been independently assured by IT.”
He also refused to rule out three times signing up to a coalition deal after a general election.
And SNP leader John Swinney even blamed the government at Westminster for not letting the SNP put the independence question to the Scottish people again.
He said: “We’re not being permitted by the UK government to put that question to the people… we think we should have the right to do so”.
Rishi Sunak will deliberately echo a speech made by Sir John Major today (Fri) ahead of his unexpected 1992 election win.
Mr Sunak will tell voters to look at the long term consequences of Labour even if they’re angry at the Tories – especially when the economy is showing signs of improvement.
Sir John made his comments just four days before the 1992 win, when he said: “You want to start recovery, stop Labour. If you want to stop recovery, start Labour.”
The Prime Minister is expected to say: “I know you are frustrated with our party, frustrated with me.
“But do not let Labour waltz into office without scrutinising them, without seeing what their policies would mean for our country and your family’s security. Do you really know what you are going to get with Labour?”
Meanwhile, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt yesterday told The Times CEO summit that a Tory victory isn’t “the most likely outcome”.
When asked if the party can win, he said: “It’s going to be very tough. I don’t think any of us would pretend that is the most likely outcome.
“We can certainly do a lot better than the polls are suggesting and we are working very hard to do so.”
His comments came after several polls indicated that the Tories face an electoral wipeout with a YouGov seat-by-seat poll on Wednesday showing a Labour majority of more than 200.
But a Redfield and Wilton survey yesterday (Thurs) had Labour on 42 per cent leading Reform by some 23 per cent. Nigel Farage’s party are one point ahead of the Tories.
But Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said the Tories could still defy the polls and come out on top in the July 4 ballot in a Trump-style win.
He said: “I would never ordinarily invite a comparison with Donald Trump, but Donald Trump was given I think, an 11 per cent chance of winning in the 2016 presidential election.
“And he won. So even a small chance is a chance.”
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves also spoke to bosses at The Times CEO summit saying the Budget would be at least ten weeks after the election – possibly being held in September.
Pressed on Labour’s plans to remove VAT exemption on private schooling – that could see pupils leave for the state sector – she said independent sector should be able to “make efficiences”.