Tories hammer Starmer on safety after gaffe-laden begin to marketing campaign

The Deputy Prime Minister has claimed that a Labour government would threaten the country’s national security – as he says the Tories will roll out ‘bold new ideas’ to bring stability to the nation.

Oliver Dowden warned of Keir Starmer‘s plans to halt exploration of the North Sea and defence polices – saying he is putting Britain’s military security, economic security and energy security at risk.

Adding that overseeing ‘the structures that keep us safe’ in his government role has made him ‘acutely aware of the threats facing our country’, he slammed the Labour leader, saying: ‘Labour simply don’t have a plan’.

It comes as Rishi Sunak has been under fire for a gaffe-laden start to his election campaign – being told yesterday that Conservative candidates ‘deserve better’ after a series of mishaps in the first two days of campaigning ahead of the 4 July vote.

Today, the opposing parties are set to fight it out over the economy as Starmer centres Saturday’s campaign on the cost-of-living crisis while the Conservatives hint at tax breaks for high earners. 

Writing for The Times, Mr Dowden said: ‘In an increasingly uncertain world, we need bold action to give our country the security it needs. But Labour would undermine that security. Whether it’s conventional security, economic security or energy security; Labour simply don’t have a plan.’

He continued: ‘While Rishi Sunak is bringing stability to the economy and to the country, the threats from abroad are increasing. We need a leader who is prepared to act decisively, and has the right priorities for the UK. 

‘One who has a fully funded plan to boost our defence spending to 2.5 per cent by 2030. And one whose commitment to Nato has never wavered, unlike Starmer, who backed Jeremy Corbyn, but won’t match our defence spending commitment.’

The Prime Minister will take the campaign trail back to Yorkshire after completing a whistlestop two-day tour of the four home nations.

But the election effort has not got off to the dream start many were hoping for – after he was hit by a series of gaffes in the first days of his appeal.

In the latest setback, Mr Sunak was delayed by pro-Palestinian protesters picketing the final stop of his two-day tour of the UK.

A crowd of demonstrators carrying placards and Palestinian flags this afternoon took position outside the venue in the West Midlands where the PM was expected to hold another campaign visit.

Mr Sunak had earlier visited the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which prompted reporters to ask him whether he was ‘captaining a sinking ship’ in the election.

At another event, he was also mocked for building a Red Wall as he was taught how to lay bricks and mortar.

It came after the teetotal premier yesterday visited a Welsh brewery where he awkwardly asked workers if they were looking forward to the Euros – despite Wales not having qualified for the upcoming football tournament.

Thursday also saw two men dressed in high-vis clothing at a warehouse event, who appeared to be normal voters asking questions of Mr Sunak, later exposed as Tory councillors.

On Wednesday, the PM stunned Westminster by announcing the date of the general election on 4 July – much earlier than most MPs had expected – in a downpour as his address to the nation was interrupted by campaigners playing New Labour anthem ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson expressed anger at the bumpy start to Mr Sunak’s election campaign.

She posted on X/Twitter: ‘The deluge launch drowned out by D:Ream. A brewery visit with a teetotal PM, so no chance of a piss up.

‘Now a site visit to something famous for sinking. Is there a double agent in CCHQ, and were they a headline writer in a previous life? Our candidates deserve better.’  

On the first day of the general election campaign, the PM was quizzed by what seemed to be ordinary workers at West William Distribution in Ilkeston, Derbyshire.

Mr Sunak’s grilling at the biscuit distribution centre went well as two of the group asked unchallenging questions of the Conservative leader.

Yet it later emerged how they are both Tory councillors in what Labour claimed is evidence the PM is ‘running scared’ of the British electorate.

Mr Sunak’s bumpy start to the six-week election campaign, ahead of the 4 July vote, began in Ilkeston when he stood in the centre of a group dressed in high-vis.

Two men who asked questions of the PM were later found to be Conservative politicians – with one of them also from a different county.

Erewash councillor Ben Hall-Evans and Leicestershire councillor Ross Hills were first identified by the Byline Times.

Mr Hills, who describes himself on social media as a ‘part-time dentist’, told the website he had been asked to appear at the campaign event.

During the Ilkeston event, Mr Sunak picked Mr Hall-Evans to ask him the first question, which saw the PM quizzed about what ‘sets you apart’ on improving people’s finances.

Mr Hills was picked by the PM to ask the third question, which saw Mr Sunak thanked for attending the event as he is a ‘pretty busy guy right now’.

He was then asked by Mr Hills about his Rwanda deportation plan and whether it would ‘see results and stop the small boats coming’.

Neither of the men mentioned in their questions that they were Conservative councillors.

A Labour spokesperson said it showed that Mr Sunak was ‘running scared’ of the electorate.

‘Rishi Sunak spent months dodging the verdict of voters and even now, he’s still running scared,’ they added.

‘The reality is that 14 years of Tory chaos have cost the country dearly and have left working people worse off.’

A Conservative source: ‘We do not control who asks questions – anyone can try and ask one.’

Labour included Mr Sunak’s encounter with the two councillors in a mocked-up ‘Rishi Sunak’s Campaign Diary’ video.

The 48-second clip also included footage of the PM’s awkward meeting, later on Thursday, with workers at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in Barry, South Wales.

Mr Sunak asked whether they were looking forward to the football later this summer as a potential source of revenue, despite Wales not qualifying for the Euro 2024 tournament.

There was an awkward pause after Mr Sunak asked: ‘So are you looking forward to all the football?’

One brewery employee answered: ‘We’re not so invested in it,’ to which another responded: ‘That’s because you guys aren’t in it’.

The PM nonetheless insisted that ‘it’ll be a good summer of sport’.

The Labour video also mocked Mr Sunak for his rain-sodden address from Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon, in which he announced the general election on 4 July.

The PM himself took a light-hearted view of his soaking during his visit to Derbyshire yesterday by posing with an umbrella, quipping: ‘Better late than never!’

‘I’ll never play fast and loose with your money’: Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves says Labour will be guided by Thatcher-style commitment to ‘sound money’ as she turns her back on the party’s past profligacy with public finances

By Jason Groves

Rachel Reeves vows today that she will never ‘play fast and loose with your money’ – and insists Labour‘s tax-and-spend binges are a thing of the past.

The Shadow Chancellor uses her first intervention in the election campaign to make a direct appeal to Daily Mail readers.

Writing in this newspaper, Ms Reeves says she will be guided by a Thatcher-style commitment to ‘sound money’ if she becomes Britain’s first female Chancellor in July.

Turning her back on the profligacy of Labour’s past, she writes: ‘I will never play fast and loose with your money… I believe in sound money and public spending that is kept under control.

‘I know how important it is that whoever is running the public finances has an iron grip on them.’

Ms Reeves explicitly rules out a return to a traditional Labour tax-and-spend approach – and even hints she could eventually cut taxes for ‘working people’.

The former Bank of England economist insists that Labour will not try to soak successful businesses and crush entrepreneurship, arguing that the private sector is the key to generating the economic growth Labour needs to pay for its plans.

Ms Reeves savages the Tories’ economic record since 2010, and warns that giving them another term would be like ‘giving a box of matches back to the arsonists who burnt the house down’. 

She also hints that Labour is preparing a major package of welfare reform to tackle the epidemic of worklessness that has seen the number of people inactive because of ill health soar to 2.8 million. It comes as:

• Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom has joined an exodus of Tory MPs, with a record 78 declaring they will stand down at the election;
• Boris Johnson predicted the election will be ‘much closer than currently forecast’ as voters take fright at the idea of electing ‘the most dangerous and Left-wing Labour prime minister since the 1970s’;
• Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was expelled from the party after confirming he will fight his Islington North seat as an independent;
• Labour education spokesman Bridget Phillipson hinted that the party could increase university tuition fees from their current level of £9,250 a year;
• Sir Keir Starmer vowed to press ahead with a controversial tax raid on private schools ‘straight away’ if Labour wins;
• Sir Keir said he was seeking ten years in power to push through a programme of ‘national renewal’;
• Rishi Sunak said he was ‘pumped up’ for the election campaign after a whirlwind tour of the four nations of the UK.

The Conservatives have targeted the economy as the key election battleground, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt saying Treasury analysis has identified a £38 billion black hole in Labour’s spending plans, potentially leaving the average working household facing a £2,100 tax bombshell over four years.

Labour has so far announced only modest plans for raising taxes, including levying VAT on private school fees, increasing the windfall tax on the energy giants and a tax raid on private equity firms. Mr Hunt said tax would be the ‘big dividing line’ at the election, with the Tories committed to cutting them and Labour raising taxes ‘as sure as night follows day’.

Mr Sunak is expected to use the Tory manifesto to pledge further tax cuts, including a long-term ambition to abolish National Insurance, which Mr Hunt has already slashed by a third, delivering a £900 tax cut to the average worker.

Sir Keir yesterday refused to rule out further tax increases if Labour wins the election. Asked to confirm there would be ‘no additional tax rises’, the Labour leader said: ‘To be clear, where there are tax rises, we’ve set that out and we’ve also set out what the money will be used for.’

Treasury minister Bim Afolami accused Sir Keir of using ‘his first media round of the campaign to confirm that Labour would raise taxes’.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said tight public finances meant that whichever party wins the election will have to impose deep cuts in public spending, raise taxes or both.

Director Paul Johnson said: ‘Money is tight. Public services are creaking, taxes are at historically high levels, and both parties are hemmed in by their very clear pledges to get debt falling. It is only falling, marginally, on current forecasts, because tax rises and spending cuts are already baked into baseline forecasts.’