Body blow for Sunak as snap ballot finds Starmer received Sky election present

Rishi Sunak was hit with a body blow tonight as a snap poll found Keir Starmer came out on top in a crucial TV election grilling.

YouGov found viewers thought the Labour leader performed better in the Sky News special by 64 per cent to 36 per cent.

Mr Sunak repeatedly faced mocking laughter from the audience as he was hammered over leaving D-Day commemorations in Normandy early last week, repeating his grovelling apology. And he was left pleading that he ‘appreciated people’s frustrations’ the government had not ‘got everything right’. 

On the stage beforehand, Sir Keir did not get an easy ride – squirming as he was challenged on why he now condemns Jeremy Corbyn after arguing he would make a ‘great PM’ five years ago.

Sir Keir wriggled as he was asked on Sky News how people could ‘trust’ him, arguing that he only endorsed Mr Corbyn because he was ‘certain that we would lose’. 

He also squirmed as he was pushed by presenter Beth Rigby on whether he would rule out all tax rises – sticking to his line that income tax, national insurance and VAT would not be touched. He would not completely deny that council tax or fuel duty could increase. 

As the campaign reaches the halfway point, the Labour leader and the PM were both being interrogated and taking questions from a live studio audience in Grimsby.

Allies had been hoping the programme could be a turning point for Mr Sunak, who is trailing far behind in the polls and under threat from Nigel Farage‘s Reform.

Mr Sunak commentated on Sir Keir’s turn on social media, to underline the fact the Labour leader would not go head-to-head again.

He swiped: ‘Does anyone know what Keir Starmer actually stands for?’ 

In other key moments:

• Sir Keir defended adding VAT to private school fees after being confronted by a parent who would have to pull his daughter out;
• He went on the attack against Mr Sunak saying that parties that left everything worse than when they came to power ‘should be booted out’;
• Sir Keir said his biggest worry about being PM was the impact on his son and daughter, admitting his wife Victoria did not want him to enter politics after stepping down as Director of Public Prosecutions;
• Sir Keir struggled to find words as an audience member accused him of being a ‘political robot’;
• Mr Sunak defended progress against his five missions and denied he had called the election early because he knew he would not hit the goals soon;
• The premier was berated over huge levels of legal net migration, running at 685,000 a year, with Rigby saying people in Grimsby who voted for Brexit would be furious. ‘Why should anyone believe what you say on immigration?’ 
• Mr Sunak admitted numbers were ‘too high’ but argued they had been coming down since he entered No10;
• The PM was attacked over tax as he dodged acknowledging that the overall burden will keep rising, even with his latest tax cut pledges; 
• Mr Sunak was hit with laughter as Rigby asked whether Tory infighting meant he was not certain to be PM in a year even if he wins the election;
• The premier was grilled on Partygate and his own fine for breaching Covid rules, saying he ‘regretted what happened’ and ‘apologised for it at the time’;
• Mr Sunak was assailed by a former Tory local association chair who said she felt unable to support the party after the D-Day row and Covid lockdowns.   

Pressed on his shifts in position over core issues, Sir Keir was asked whether there was a trust issue.

He said: ‘No because what I would say is this – I decided it must be country first so every decision after that I judged previous decisions, previous positions and I said ‘Is this truly country first, party second’; if the answer to that was ‘no’ then I changed the position and dragged my party back to the service of working people.’

On his previous support for Mr Corbyn, Sir Keir said: ‘I was certain that we would lose the 2019 election.’

He added: ‘I did campaign for Labour, of course I did, I will openly say I campaigned for Labour, I wanted good colleagues to be returned into the Labour Party.’

Sir Keir repeatedly said he was ‘certain’ Labour would lose in 2019 when challenged over his support for Mr Corbyn.

Sir Keir was given a round of applause as he insisted: ‘The Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises.

But he struggled on the detail of his own proposals, after Mr Sunak demanded he match Tory vows to rule out tax increases. 

‘We’ve got the highest tax burden for 70 years and I think working people shouldn’t pay more tax. We will not raise their tax.

‘What we need to do is get the economy going – there’s a reason that taxes have gone up so much in recent years and that’s because the economy is flatlining.’

Sir Keir insisted that the Labour manifesto being unveiled tomorrow – no tax surprises, there’s going to be no need to raise tax on the plans we’re setting out.’

On whether there would be a review of council tax banding in England, Sir Keir said: ‘Council tax is too high for many people, it’s been going up, it went up again this year, but that’s because the Government lost control of the economy.’

Pressed on a review, Sir Keir said: ‘I am not wanting to raise tax, I think people are taxed too much already.’

Sir Keir also wobbled on whether he would continue with the fuel duty freeze.

He said: ‘That has to be decided budget-by-budget, but my track record is we’ve supported the cap on fuel duty every single time it has come up, but I want to do things differently.

‘If we just do things in the same way that we’ve done for the last 14 years, we’ll end up in the same mess. I’m not prepared to do that.’

On whether he would increase capital gains tax – another Tory accusation – Sir Keir said: ‘That’s not in our manifesto, that is not a choice we’re making, that will not be unveiled tomorrow, there’s no surprises in our manifesto.’

Sir Keir came under fire from a father who was worried he would have to pull his daughter out of private school if VAT was added to fees.

The Labour leader said: ‘I have nothing against private schools, I absolutely recognise that many parents work hard and save hard to send their children to private schools because they have aspiration for their children.’

But he received applause as he added: ‘I equally accept that every parent has aspiration for their children whether they go to private school or not.’

He said: ‘For those children in state secondary school who don’t have the teachers they need, that is not a one-year problem or a two-year budgeting problem it is lifelong problem because if they don’t get the qualifications they need at 15 and 16 they can’t go and do what they want.’

When the leaders switched places, Mr Sunak was asked why people should keep him in the job.

‘Well, I’ve got to say it hasn’t been an easy 18 months in general but what I’ve done though is just keep going to try and do my best for people and that’s what I’m doing in this campaign,’ he said.

Mr Sunak said he believes the country has ‘turned a corner’, adding: ‘We’ve got a clear plan for the future to make a difference to people – to cut their taxes, bring down immigration, to protect pensions.’

He added he will continue to ‘keep fighting hard until the last day of this election’.

On his early departure from D-Day commemorations, Mr Sunak reiterated his apology for his ‘mistake’ before saying: ‘I was incredibly sad to have caused people hurt and upset, that was the last thing that I wanted to do. I hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me.’

Mr Sunak said he has spoken to veterans about his party’s work to help them.

Answering questions about the five pledges he made in January 2023, Mr Sunak said: ‘The most important priority was the first one, because when I got this job, inflation was at 11 per cent and I think everyone knows the last few years have been difficult, the impact that was having on all your bills.’

He faced laughter when he said: ‘It (inflation) was always meant to come down over time.’

Mr Sunak also faced questions about rising NHS waiting lists, up to 7.54million from the 7.21million level when he made the pledge.

‘We’ve not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked,’ the Prime Minister said.

‘That was something that I was keen to do, and it has proved more difficult for a number of reasons, obviously recovering from a pandemic is not easy,’ he said.

He faced groans and boos when he said: ‘I think everyone knows the impact the industrial action has had, that’s why we haven’t made as much (progress).’

Mr Sunak was confronted with figures showing that the tax burden is on track to keep rising in the next Parliament due to frozen thresholds, despite his commitment to trim national insurance.

But he claimed he had not seen the analysis and refused to accept that taxes are set to keep rising, saying: ‘What our manifesto announced is the tax cuts for people at every stage of their life – for people in work, for people that are setting up small businesses, that are self employed, for those young people who wanna buy their first home, for pensioners and for families.’ 

The clashes come after another difficult day on the campaign trail for Mr Sunak. He had apologised for coming back early from D-Day commemorations last week to do an ITV interview, but footage has emerged showing him apologising that the events ‘ran on’. 

He also told the broadcaster that hardship in his childhood was going without Sky TV so his parents could afford to send him to elite public school Winchester. 

Some Tories are nervous that Mr Sunak is showing a propensity for blunders, with one gloomily observing it seems like ‘everything he touches turns to sh**’. 

The party veteran suggested Mr Sunak was in a doom loop where ‘nothing is a gaffe for Labour and everything is a gaffe for the Tories’. 

The Conservative website previously featured a big photo of Mr Sunak with a button asking voters to ‘join Rishi’. However, since the manifesto launch yesterday his images are much less prominent.

A YouGov survey today laid bare the scale of the task Mr Sunak faces, with Labour 20 points ahead. Sir Keir’s outfit were supported by 38 per cent of voters, with the Conservatives on just 18 per cent.

The Tory vote share was the joint lowest since 2019 and only one point ahead of Reform UK (17 per cent) and three points ahead of the Lib Dems (15 per cent).

The PM is expected to hammer home his tax-cutting plans on the Sky News programme this evening, after unveiling the Conservative manifesto yesterday.

If he stays in power, he has promised to oversee another 2p cut to National Insurance to reduce the tax to 6 per cent by April 2027.

The PM also pledged that NICs will be abolished altogether for four million self-employed over the next Parliament, as part of his £17billion of tax cuts.

Last week’s ITV debate between Mr Sunak and the Labour leader saw the political rivals clash over tax in fiery head-to-head exchanges.

Labour figures were left fuming at the PM’s ‘lies’ about their tax plans, after Mr Sunak berated Sir Keir for plotting to hike the tax burden for Brits by £2,000.

The PM was dealt a blow ahead of tonight’s Sky News programme as the UK economy was shown to have flatlined in April, according to latest figures.

The Office for National Statistics reported that growth domestic product (GDP) was flat during the month following growth of 0.4 per cent in March.

The data will present a headache for the PM, who told voters the economy had ‘turned a corner’ after it emerged from recession in the second half of last year.

Mr Sunak is also facing a fresh row over D-Day after it was revealed how he blamed the late-running commemoration events for his delayed arrival to a TV interview.

The PM has suffered days of outrage after he skipped a major international ceremony with other world leaders in Normandy last week.

The row deepened when it later emerged Mr Sunak had conducted an ITV interview on his return from northern France last Thursday.

In a clip of that interview now released by the broadcaster, the PM has been shown apologising for his late arrival – suggesting he wanted to leave Normandy earlier.

‘Very nice to see you, sorry to have kept you,’ Mr Sunak said to journalist Paul Brand, adding of the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations: ‘It all just ran over.

‘It was incredible but it just ran over… so apologies for keeping you.’

Mr Sunak’s political opponents seized on the ‘insulting’ exchange to claim it showed how the PM viewed D-Day as an ‘inconvenience’.