Rishi Sunak tries to shake off panic as gloating Nigel Farage overtakes him
Rishi Sunak has tried to shake-off a Tory panic at being overtaken by Reform UK as he claimed the election was not a done deal.
A YouGov survey put Nigel Farage’s party at 19% to the Conservatives 18%, in a hammer blow to the Prime Minister’s flatlining campaign. But Mr Sunak claimed a vote for Reform would offer a “blank cheque” to Labour as he desperately sought to appeal to right-wingers deserting his party.
Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in Italy, he said: “We’re only halfway through this election right? So I’m still fighting very hard for every vote. I always say the poll that matters is the one on July 4 – but if that poll was replicated on July 4, it would be handing Labour a blank cheque to tax everyone.
“Tax their home their pension, their car, their family, and I’ll be fighting very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Asked if this election was “existential” for the Tories, he said: “I think at the end of the day on July 5, one of two people’s going to be Prime Minister – Keir Starmer or me – and this week the most important thing that happened was you saw both major parties manifestos that’s their programme for government if they were elected
“So now everyone has a very clear sense of what each of us would do and as you saw from our manifesto, as we were discussing yesterday, say what you want about it, but it’s a very clear plan, a detailed set of bold actions.”
Mr Sunak left the campaign trail behind to jet to Puglia for the G7 summit on Thursday, for what could be his last major global gathering as PM.
He told reporters yesterday that he was “definitely not” down in the dumps after a bruising TV leaders debate in Grimsby on Wednesday night. A snap poll after the Sky News clash handed victory to Mr Starmer.
The YouGov poll which revealed Reform had overtaken the Tories put Labour in the lead on 37%, with the Liberal Democrats at 14%, the Greens at 7%, the SNP at 3%, Plaid Cymru at 1% and others at 2%.
Mr Farage told BBC Breakfast that the poll was “phenomenal”. He said: “We may not get the number of seats we deserve, but are we going to win seats in Parliament? Yes. How many? We don’t know. We’ve got momentum behind us“
Mr Farage spent Thursday evening gloating on an ITV debate, telling Conservative frontbencher Penny Mordaunt that Reform UK is now the UK’s main opposition. In an ugly spat between the right-wingers, Ms Mordaunt said: “Nigel is a Labour enabler. He is enabling no cap, no target, and no plan.” Mr Farage responded: “I don’t believe a single word that you say, you have deceived us in the last four manifestos. I don’t believe you at the fifth.
“And as for being a Labour enabler, we are now ahead of you in the national polls. A vote for you is actually now a vote for Labour.”
In a further blow, damning polling reveals almost six out of 10 Tory voters believe Rishi Sunak’s party is “in crisis” as it plunges new depths of unpopularity. Damning polling by Savanta, carried out after the PM’s D-Day blunder, found 58% of those who voted Conservative in 2019 believe the party’s in turmoil. And that rises to 69% across the wider public.
Just 18% of people believe the Tories aren’t in crisis, Savanta found. Mr Sunak is expected to slump to a humiliating defeat on July 4, and has even had to bat away speculation that he might quit before polling day.
The Savanta research found that 85% who plan to vote for Reform think the Tories are in crisis. Just 13% were undecided. Emma Levin, associate director at the polling firm, said: “When senior Government ministers are having to confirm that their leader will definitely still be around by polling day, it’s unsurprising that the voters have picked up a sense of crisis enveloping the Conservative Party.”
“Our research suggests that some of Rishi Sunak’s key target voters – namely those currently saying they’re going to vote for Reform UK – are some of the most likely to say the Conservatives are in crisis.”
