Keir Starmer says ‘useless’ Rishi Sunak delaying election as he desires 2 years as PM

Keir Starmer has accused “vain” Rishi Sunak of delaying a basic election as he desires to be Prime Minister for no less than two years.

The Labour chief stated Mr Sunak is placing “vanity before country” if he’s aiming to attend to clock up two years in Downing Street earlier than letting the nation go to the polls. The PM stated on Thursday it was his “working assumption” that he would name a basic election within the second half of the yr. Mr Sunak turned PM in October 2022.

Mr Starmer stated he wished a basic election “to be as soon as possible” and that the “country is ready for it”. “I have to say, the Prime Minister is sort of almost taking himself out of this – the ‘working assumption’ is as if it is somebody else’s working assumption,” he informed Wilf Frost on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme.

“If he had a plan, he would set the date and he should set the date because at the moment it is very hard to see how him continuing in Government improves the lives of anybody in the country, so there is drift. I can’t help feeling that all he really wants to do is to get two years clocked up of his own premiership, and that means he is putting vanity before country. And so my challenge to him would be: if you’ve got a plan, set the date. If you haven’t got a plan, just get on with it as quickly as possible.”

As campaigning for a basic election yr will get underway, Mr Sunak final night time floated pre-election tax reduce giveaways. He stated any cuts will likely be made on the again of “difficult decisions to control welfare”. Mr Starmer stated Mr Sunak threatening to pay for tax cuts on the again of potential public spending cuts was an try and create a “dividing line” forward of a basic election.

“What you are seeing at the moment from the Prime Minister is he is floating tax cuts,” he stated. “But he is doing that in his own self interest. He has run out of ideas. They are desperately thrashing around and trying to find the dividing lines to go into the election.

“It will not be a part of a technique for rising the economic system, it’s merely selecting tax cuts that the Prime Minister thinks would possibly create a dividing line going into the election. That is the improper approach to govern. Whichever get together you might be in, it does not matter whether or not you might be Conservative or whether or not you might be Labour, to easily go down the street of desperately selecting something that creates a divide reasonably than having a technique for the nation is attribute of what has gone improper over the past 14 years.”

The PM also claimed “taxes are going up” if Mr Starmer will get into No10. That is regardless of the Labour chief pledging in September that he wouldn’t increase taxes, and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves final week telling The Daily Mirror: “You won’t see will increase in taxes on working individuals below a Labour authorities.”

In an interview with the Mirror last week Mr Starmer told the PM to “bring it on” and warned voters can’t afford to wait any longer for a general election. The Labour chief stated voters can’t afford to attend for one more yr of Tory distress as mortgages rise and payments pile up. Mr Starmer stated the cowardly PM is operating scared from calling an election as “everyone knows he’s been an abject failure”.

“We’re ready. We’ve been working for four years for this. Working hard to change the Labour Party, to put ourselves in a position where we can change the country,” Mr Starmer said. “2024 is the year where we get the chance to change the country for the better. The power of the vote is hugely important and the chance for hope to prevail over decline”