Rishi Sunak assaults Keir Starmer in closing BBC election debate

Rishi Sunak is going on the attack in the critical final TV election debate tonight as he struggles to avert a Tory meltdown.

The PM is accusing Keir Starmer of failing to be ‘honest’ with Brits as they go head-to-head on BBC One barely a week before the country goes to the ballot boxes.

Mr Sunak started off the exchanges by fending off a question about Tories being caught up in the betting scandal, while Sir Keir jibed that the premier had been fined for Partygate rule breaches. 

The PM hit back: ‘Keir Starmer talks about leadership and politics… I think leadership means being straight with people… 

‘He’s not being honest with everyone about his plans to raise their taxes.’ 

He pointed to a recording of shadow Treasury minister Darren Jones admitting that Labour’s Net Zero goals will cost ‘hundreds of billions’ of pounds. 

The primetime clash in Nottingham – which was dogged by noises from pro-Palestinian protesters outside – is seen as Mr Sunak’s last major opportunity to revive his fortunes after a nightmare campaign.  

But the scale of the challenge for the premier was underlined this evening, with more grim megapolls showing the Tories on track to get smashed – and one even putting them in third behind the Lib Dems.

We Think research conducted using the so-called MRP methodology suggested Labour could get a majority of 280 – the biggest in modern political history. 

That poll saw the Conservatives reduced to just 76 MPs.

But a Find Out Now survey carried out with Electoral Calculus projected an even more dramatic outcome. It found the Tories could be slashed to just 60 seats, behind the Lib Dems with 71. 

In that scenario, the Conservatives would not be the official opposition and Nigel Farage‘s Reform would have 18 seats. 

MRPs are now widely regarded as ‘gold standard’ in the polling industry, but they have been suggesting widely differing outcomes depending on assumptions such as likelihood to vote. They also take a longer period to conduct, meaning some of the research dates back weeks.  

The enormous win for Sir Keir is being predicted despite signs that he is deeply unpopular with Brits.

As another milestone is passed on the general election battle:

• James Cleverly has admitted the election betting revelations have ‘distracted’ from the Tory campaign but dodged on whether rules around gambling on politics should be changed;
• Mr Sunak waded into a bitter trans rights spat between the Tories and David Tennant today, branding the former Dr Who star ‘the problem’ after he told the Equalities Minister to ‘shut up’.

Mr Sunak is desperately trying to change his fortunes as the election betting scandal continues to rage.

He has also struggled to shake off the D-Day debacle.

Meanwhile, Tories fear that Reform will split the right-wing vote next week, opening the door for Labour to rack up seats.

Allies of the PM hope that messages about the danger of a Labour ‘supermajority’ is starting to hit home, while there have been tentative signs that Mr Farage’s surge might have peaked after he controversially claimed the West ‘provoked’ Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Find Out Now and Electoral Calculus said they had ‘calibrated’ results of their own polling to ‘match the average of recent national polls’, after it suggested the Tories were two points behind Reform.

The overall figures in that MRP are for a Labour landslide with a majority of 250 seats. That would be bigger than Tony Blair’s win, and only exceeded by the 1931 result.

The Conservatives’ tally would be the worst since at least 1900 – before universal suffrage.

Mr Sunak would be among a swathe of senior ministers to lose their own seats. 

Meanwhile, Reform would pick up 18, with Mr Farage finally entering Parliament alongside Richard Tice.

The wider picture is of apathy among the public. An Ipsos survey indicated that 75 per cent were dissatisfied with Rishi Sunak, with just 25 per cent satisfied.

But Sir Keir’s figures were not much better, with 52 per cent negative and 33 per cent positive about his performance.