Keir Starmer has vowed to clear the NHS backlog within five years if he becomes PM.
The Labour leader pledged to put on an extra two million hospital appointments a year funded by taking on tax dodgers. As he took part in a BBC Question Time election special, he criticised Rishi Sunak for failing to deliver on his pledge to bring down NHS waiting lists. The backlog now stands at 7.5million.
“He blames the NHS staff,” Mr Starmer said. “We will never do that because I know how hard you work all of the time.” He pledged that the party would put on the extra appointments at evenings and weekends. “Over the course of the Parliament, we’ll get it down and clear the backlog completely,” he added. “We did it last time we were in power.”
Mr Sunak, Sir Ed Davey of the Lib Dems and the SNP’s John Swinney also appeared on the programme.
The Prime Minister was confronted over his decision not to suspend two Tory candidates who are being probed in a betting scandal. Craig Williams and Laura Saunders are being investigated by the Gambling Commission over alleged bets on the timing of the General Election.
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Mr Sunak said he was “incredibly angry to learn of these allegations”. “It’s a really serious matter. It’s right that they are being investigated properly by the relevant law enforcement authorities,” he added.
But pressed on why the two candidates have not been suspended, he said: “These investigations are ongoing. If anyone is found to have broken the rules, not only should they face the full consequences of the law, I will make sure that they are booted out of the Conservative Party.”
In the spin room following the debate, Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth said Mr Sunak’s decision not to act showed he was a “weak leader”.
The audience laughed at Mr Sunak as he suggested young people could have their driving licences or bank cards taken away if they refuse to do National Service. The PM was grilled on how he will punish 18-year-olds who fail to take part in his scheme that will see them choose either a year of military service or 25 days on community projects.
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He said: “Well you’ll have a set of sanctions and incentives, and we’ll look at the models that are existing around Europe to get the appropriate mix of those.” Pressed to give examples, he said: “There’s all sorts of things that people do around Europe, whether that’s looking at driving licences, other access to finance, all sorts of other things.”
But host Fiona Bruce interrupted: “Access to finance? So if people don’t want to do National service you take their bank cards away? They can’t get a loan?” The audience began to laugh at this point. Mr Sunak said: “There’s lots of different models around Europe – this has been done in multiple countries in Europe.”
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After the PM suggested he could withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights, audience members shouted “shame on you”.
Sir Ed admitted he’d made “big mistakes” as he was challenged over his role in the Post Office scandal. The Lib Dem leader has been criticised for not doing more to help wrongly-convicted subpostmasters when he was Postal Minister between 2010 and 2012.
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As he was grilled by the audience, Sir Ed said he regretted initially refusing to meet Alan Bates. He said he wished he had not been taken in by the assurances given by the Post Office at the time. “I’m sorry for not seeing through those lies,” he said. “There were many ministers of all political parties during this 20-year period who didn’t see through those lies.”
A student called Violet challenged the party’s decision to abandon its promise to abolish tuition fees when it went into the Coalition with the Tories. “How can my generation trust you?” she asked. Sir Ed said: “I understand why your generation lost faith in us. It was a difficult government to be in.” He said the loss of trust in his party after that period was “very scarring”. “You shouldn’t promise what you can’t deliver… it was the big lesson I learned,” he added.
The Lib Dem leader defended his election campaign stunts after he was warned that he couldn’t be taken seriously. So far he has gone on a water slide, fallen in a lake while paddleboarding, made sand castles and taken part in a wheelbarrow race. He responded: “I take your concerns and the concerns of voters very, very seriously. And if you look at our manifesto, we’ve got some very well thought through policies to try to do things like rescue the NHS. But I don’t think politicians should take themselves too seriously.”
Mr Swinney was grilled on the chaos in the SNP that has seen him become the third First Minister of Scotland in 18 months. “I think the honest answer is that we’ve had a very tough time as a party in the last couple of years,” he admitted. “It has been a turbulent time.”
The showdown came ahead of a final head-to-head showdown between the PM and Labour leader that will be aired on Wednesday on the BBC. A Question Time special with Nigel Farage of Reform UK and Adrian Ramsay of the Green Party will be shown next Friday evening.