General election 2024: Sunak claims Labour will raise taxes as Starmer calls on voters to ‘stop the chaos’ on 4 July – UK politics live | General election 2024
Sunak claims Labour would raise taxes as he speaks at Tory election rally
Rishi Sunak is speaking now.
He says the figures out today show he has delivered on his first priority, to drive inflation back to normal.
His plan is working, he says.
But with this hard-one stability comes a choice: who do you trust?
He says the only certainty with Labour is that it will raise taxes. He cited the Tory analysis – that has been dismissed as untrue by Labour – purporting to show Labour would raise taxes by £2,000 for families.
Key events
Rishi Sunak pictured at the Tory rally at the ExCel in London
Sky’s Darren McCaffrey is back on air. He tells viewers that, not only was he excluded from the room at the ExCeL centre in London where Rishi Sunak was speaking, he was thrown out of the whole building. (See 8.08pm.)
Sunak claims Labour would raise taxes as he speaks at Tory election rally
Rishi Sunak is speaking now.
He says the figures out today show he has delivered on his first priority, to drive inflation back to normal.
His plan is working, he says.
But with this hard-one stability comes a choice: who do you trust?
He says the only certainty with Labour is that it will raise taxes. He cited the Tory analysis – that has been dismissed as untrue by Labour – purporting to show Labour would raise taxes by £2,000 for families.
James Cleverly claims Starmer is weak, indecisive and contradictory, as he opens Tory election rally
Rishi Sunak is about to address a Tory election rally. Most or all members of the cabinet are there.
James Cleverly, the home secretary, is introducing Sunak.
He says elections are about choices, and the Conservative party will present the voters with a choice.
He says he does not know which of the “various Keir Starmer entities” is running in the campaign.
He says Starmer has gone from backing Jeremy Corbyn as leader, running for leader himself on a Corbynite platform, to distancing himself from the left, to now trying to ingratiate himself with the left again.
He says the choice is between a leader with a plan, and a “weak, indecisive, completely contradictory Keir Starmer” who heads a Labour party “beholden to the left”
John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, has said that the decision to hold the general election on 4 July, after Scottish schools have started their summer holiday, is disrespectful to Scotland. The BBC has the story.
Rishi Sunak is about to speak at a rally in east London. Sky News has just broadcast a clip of their reporter, Darren McCaffrey being escorted out by security guards. He was told he was not allowed in because a pool camera is filming it for broadcasters.
Holly Lynch, the Labour MP for Halifax, has announced she is stepping down at the election. Lynch has been in parliament since 2015 and is currently deputy chief whip. Aged 37, she says she has a young son, is expecting another baby, and is finding it “increasingly difficult” to combine the work of an MP with family life.
And this is what Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr about why Rishi Sunak is holding an election now.
I was talking to a former cabinet minister this evening, we know why Rishi Sunak’s called the election now – it’s because he knows there’s a summer ahead of small boats arriving and proof his Rwanda scheme won’t work, he knows there’ll be an NHS winter crisis with more strikes ongoing that he’s still failed to resolve and he’s got no plan for the winter.
Despite the music backdrop in Downing Street today, things will only get worse – and Rishi Sunak is hoping that on the basis of one day’s inflation figures, the country will suddenly forget 14 years of calamity.
Mujtaba Rahman, a political analyst, has posted a succinct explanation for why Rishi Sunak may have decided to call the election now. He had been expected to leave it until the late autumn, in line with the usual pattern where prime ministers who are on course to lose tend to delay the election until the last possible minute.
Was in Westminster all day. Understand there’s 5 major reasons for @RishiSunak July 4 election gamble
1/ Key aides told PM inflation is now at its “election sweet spot” – 2.3% was today’s print – & warned it may rise again by autumn
2/ No fiscal space for NI cuts in Sept 1/
— Mujtaba Rahman (@Mij_Europe) May 22, 2024
Was in Westminster all day. Understand there’s 5 major reasons for @RishiSunak July 4 election gamble
1/ Key aides told PM inflation is now at its “election sweet spot” – 2.3% was today’s print – & warned it may rise again by autumn
2/ No fiscal space for NI cuts in Sept 1/
3/ Concern legal challenges will further delay/block flights to Rwanda taking off
4/ Mess in the English Channel with small boats during the summer months
5/ Nigel Farage hasn’t yet decided whether to front Reform UK, so snap poll may boost Tory prospects
If the Conservatives lose the election by a large margin, as polling suggests, Sunak’s decision may end up looking like a terrible mistake. But because we will never know for sure because it will be impossible to know what might have happened under the counterfactual scenario (an autumn election). For reasons Rahman explains, you can argue that Sunak’s prospects in November would be even worse.
Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and NI’s first minister, said her party’s candidates would be campaigning as part of an “island team”. In a statement she said:
The Tory government has been a disaster for the people in the north – bad for the economy, bad for public services and bad for workers and families as the cost of living soared putting them under pressure.
It is time for change.
The Westminster election on 4 July is an opportunity to send a clear message. That you want decisions about your life and your future to be made here in Ireland, and not in London …
Sinn Féin MPs as part of an an island team will stand up for your interests.
Let’s seize the opportunity to return the strongest Sinn Féin team in this Westminster election.
Plaid Cymru says it will fight for Wales in the election campaign. In a statement Rhun ap Iorwerth, its leader, said:
Only a vote for Plaid Cymru will put Wales’ best interests first in this election. We are ready to take this fight to the London parties to demand the fairness that Wales both needs and deserves.
The Tories have crashed the economy and hard-working people are still paying the price of high bills. Labour, on the other hand, just take Wales for granted. None of the London parties will put Wales first.
Plaid won four seats at the last election, and is on course to win four seats again, according to some projections.
The Green party’s co-leaders have welcomed Rishi Sunak’s decision to call the election.
Carla Denyer, the party’s candidate in Bristol Central, said:
At last. This is the moment the country has been waiting for, the chance to vote for a different vision of what our country can be. We are urging voters to elect at least four Green MPs to parliament.
And Adrian Ramsay, standing in Waveney Valley, said:
We are ready. Across the country, people will have the chance to vote for a Green candidate offering voters hope and practical solutions to the cost-of-living crisis, supporting people into warm, affordable homes, protecting our NHS and cleaning up our toxic rivers.
As well as Bristol Central and Waveney Valley, the other two Green party target seats are Brighton Pavilion, where Sîan Berry hopes to replace Caroline Lucas, the party’s only MP, and North Herefordshire.
