Keir Starmer brutally told Rishi Sunak that he “might not be quite so out of touch” if he actually listened to voters in a brutal BBC deate.
The Labour leader handed the heavy blow as the PM resorted to shouting over him in the final head-to-head debate of the General Election campaign. During the 75-minute showdown, a desperate Mr Sunak repeatedly interrupted his rival as they clashed on tax, immigration and sleaze.
But Mr Starmer earned a round of applause as he told him: “If you listened to people in the audience across the country more often, you might not be quite so out of touch.” The bad-tempered clash also saw Mr Sunak accused of repeating lies about Labour tax plans.
Viewers at home accused Mr Sunak of acting like a child by constantly interrupting. The fired-up Labour leader warned that voters had simply had enough after 14 years of Tory failure. After an audience member called Sue Barclay spoke about how people are “dismayed by the lack of integrity and honesty” in Westminster today, Mr Starmer said if elected as PM he would “reset politics so that it returns to public service”.
Here The Mirror looks at the key moments from the head-to-head debate on the BBC.
1. Lawbreaking PM vows to kick out lawbreakers
Rishi Sunak has vowed that lawbreakers will be kicked out of the Tory Party – despite having himself been fined for breaking Covid laws and not wearing a seatbelt.
Mr Sunak was challenged by an audience member named Sue who said the public are “dismayed” by the lack of integrity shown by politicians. Mr Sunak told Sue: “I have been crystal clear anyone who has broken the law, broken the rules should not only face the consequences of the law, I would ensure that they are booted out of the Conservative Party.”
But Labour leader Mr Starmer was scathing, pointing out: “We saw Partygate earlier in this Parliament. The Prime Minister himself was convicted and fined for breaking the rules, which he brought in and imposed on everybody else. And of course, we’ve seen what happened with the Covid contracts and the huge amounts of money that were made. This takes leadership.”
2. Starmer applauded for branding the PM ‘out of touch’
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Keir Starmer told Rishi Sunak he “might not be quite so out of touch” if he actually listened to voters. The Labour leader delivered the brutal swipe as the PM resorted to shouting over him in the final head-to-head debate of the General Election campaign.
Mr Starmer earned a round of applause as he told him: “If you listened to people in the audience across the country more often, you might not be quite so out of touch.”
In a swipe at Mr Sunak, Mr Starmer added: “Part of the problem we have with this Prime Minister is that his lived world is millions of miles away from the lived worlds of individuals across the country, businesses and families they are trying to support. That is a problem.”
3. ‘That’s a lie and he’s been told not to repeat that lie’
Mr Starmer was clearly furious as Mr Sunak used his closing statement to claim Labour will hike taxes by £2,000. “That’s a lie and he’s been told not to repeat that lie,” he fumed.
Many will remember weeks back during the first head-to-head debate, Mr Sunak first floated the figure. He claimed at the time that it was the work of independent civil servants – but in reality it was based on figures devised by Tory advisors.
The PM asked: “Can you afford to pay at least £2,000 more in taxes? And why won’t Keir Starmer be straight with you about what he wants to do?”
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4. Starmer vows to get a better Brexit deal than the ‘botched’ Tory one
The Labour leader torpedoed Mr Sunak’s desperate claim that Labour would allow “free movement by the back doors”.
Mr Starmer instead said he would look to improve on the “botched” Tory deal with the EU. He said: “We are not going back into the EU, we’re not rejoining the single market or customs union, and we’re not accepting freedom of movement.
“I’m not a defeatist like the Prime Minister.” He was applauded as he said: “I know we can get a better deal than the botched deal that we’ve got and I’m going to go out and fight for it.
“Not going to have freedom of movement come back, not going to back to the EU, but going to fight for get a better deal so you can trade more easily, so our economy can succeed, because I believe in our country.
5. PM accused of being ‘bullied’ over betting
The Labour leader Keir Starmer hit out at the PM’s delayed action to suspend election candidates under investigation by the Gambling Commission.
He also linked the scandal to Partygate, when Mr Sunak was fined for busting lockdown rules. It came into response to the first question from a BBC audience member, who said people were “dismayed by the lack of integrity and honesty” amid the allegations of bets.
Mr Starmer said: “What I did, when one of my team was alleged to have been involved and investigated by the Gambling Commission, they were suspended within minutes, because I knew it made it really important to be swift.
“The Prime Minister delayed and delayed and delayed until eventually he was bullied into taking action.”
6. Sunak shamed over 50,000 small boat arrivals after ‘losing control’
Keir Starmer lashed out at the PM for “losing control” of the UK’s borders. Answering an audience member’s question the Labour leader said: “The biggest threat to our borders at the moment is the large number of people arriving by small boats over the Channel.
“And there are record numbers. Since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, 50,000 people have come across by small boats. And the government has effectively lost control of our borders.”
7. ‘Are you really the best we can do?’
In one brutal exchange for both leaders, an audience member asked if they were really the best the country could do.
He told the PM: “I think you make a fair job of being chancellor. But you’re a pretty mediocre prime minister.” But he went on to the Labour leader: “Sir Keir Starmer, I think that your strings are being pulled by very senior members of the Labour Party.
“Are you two really the best we’ve got to be the next Prime Minister of our great country?”
Mr Starmer responded: “I’m not surprised after 14 years of this that people feel this way because the country is in such a state. They’ve had loads of promises made in the last election about what will happen which haven’t been delivered on, that does beat the hope out of people.
“The very first question was about integrity in politics, and again people haven’t seen that integrity – they’ve had partygate, they’ve had breach of Covid rules, you’ve had the contracts for Covid – the instinct of some people to think the first thing in Covid i’m going to do is try to make money. So, this is an opportunity to restore that hope. I don’t think we can do that by making sort of grand promises of things that can’t be delivered.”
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8. Tories accused of stoking division
The Labour leader accused the Tories of fuelling divisions as he was asked about gender issues. He said: “The role of the leader of the country is to bring [us] together so that the country itself is less divided.
“One of the issues for me with sadness is the fact that over the last 14 years, there’s been this tendency on almost every issue to try to find the points of difference and division.”
9. Sunak ‘hasn’t learned lessons from Liz Truss’
Mr Starmer warned that Mr Sunak had “not learnt the lesson” of Liz Truss by making unfunded pledges on how he will bring down the record burden.
“Lots of promises, promises, promises, promises, but where’s the money coming from?” he asked. “We’ve got a cost of living crisis bearing down on people across this country, really struggling because the economy is broken. This is the chance at this election to turn the page and start to rebuild our country with a stable economy.”
When Mr Sunak suggested people on the state pension would pay less tax under the Tories, Mr Starmer said: “Pensioners are not going to be better off with a Prime Minister making promises that he can’t keep because they’re not funded.
“That’s exactly what Liz Truss got wrong. There’s one thing that we cannot repeat at this election. Please do not go back to Liz Truss with this Prime Minister because the same damage will follow.”