Leaders and politicians of all parties are coming out swinging today as the general election campaign enters the final days.

Rishi Sunak is today saying that Labour would cause “irreversible damage within just 100 days of coming to power”, while his top lieutenants warn of the “danger” of a government led by Sir Keir Starmer.

With polls throughout the campaign showing the Conservative Party failing to make a dent in Labour’s 21-point lead, according to the Sky News Poll Tracker, the prime minister only has days to change minds across the country in his bid to retain power.

Meanwhile, the Labour leader is arguing that if the Conservatives are re-elected, “they will feel entitled to continue serving themselves, rather than putting the needs of our country first”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is continuing to promote his party’s proposals for the NHS, while SNP leader John Swinney is arguing that the Scottish public should “vote SNP to put Scotland’s interests first”.

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Sunak says Labour ‘cannot be trusted’

The Conservative Party is continuing its warning that a Labour government would see taxes rise, and the prime minister is arguing electing Sir Keir would do “irreversible damage within just 100 days of coming to power”.

Mr Sunak said that Labour’s plans to impose VAT on private school fees would risk “throwing thousands of families’ plans for the autumn term into chaos, with children wondering if they will have a desk at school to go back to”.

And he also claimed that Labour would make Britain the “soft touch migrant capital of the world” with “open borders” and an “illegal migrant amnesty”.

The prime minister added: “They cannot be trusted. We must not surrender our taxes, our borders and our security to them. Only the Conservatives will deliver tax cuts, a growing economy and a brighter, more secure future for everyone.”

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron went further in an interview with The Sunday Times, suggesting that a Labour government would be a threat to national security.

He told the newspaper that Sir Keir “is in danger of weakening Britain’s position and weakening Britain’s defences, all in a way that’s completely unnecessary”.

The ex-prime minister described Labour as “hopelessly naive about the dangerous world in which we’re living”, adding: “The last thing we need in Britain now is another liberal leftie lawyer running the country.”

But Sir Keir hit back, noting that the government has already given him “high level sensitive briefings, so much do they trust us on national security”.

“To now turn around and make this ridiculous claim just shows how desperate they have become going into this election,” he added.

Starmer appeals for ‘clear mandate’ to govern

The Labour leader and the potential next chancellor, Rachel Reeves, also spoke to The Sunday Times, and they talked about their goal of getting housebuilding ramping up “on day one” if they win the election.

The newspaper reports that at least three housing announcements are expected to be made within the first fortnight of a Labour government, saying that opportunities for young people from working-class backgrounds to own their own home “don’t exist”.

And in an article for The Observer, Sir Keir wrote that if voters elect Labour on Thursday, “the work of change begins” and they will “get to work on repairing our public services with an immediate cash injection, alongside urgent reforms”.

He also attacked the Tories’ record in power, saying if they are re-elected, “Britain will remain stuck in their low-growth, high-tax, declining public services doom-loop”.

“The unfunded splurge contained in their manifesto will unleash chaos into our economy once again. And they will feel entitled to continue serving themselves, rather than putting the needs of our country first,” he added.

“Frankly, should they win another five years after everything they’ve put us through in this parliament, they would surely think they could get away with anything.”

He appealed for a “clear mandate” to implement his plans, pointing to “chaos” under Mr Sunak and Liz Truss before him as examples of what happens when prime ministers seek to “govern without that mandate”.

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SNP ‘offers hope of better future’

Meanwhile in Scotland, the leader of the SNP is appealing to Scots to back his party as polls show that Labour could become the largest Scottish parliamentary contingent in over a decade.

John Swinney argued that while “the result in England is now inevitable”, in “most seats in Scotland it’s too close to call between the SNP and Labour”.

He hit out at the Labour Party, saying a Starmer government “plans to impose £18bn of cuts to public spending – after years of austerity, Brexit and the ongoing cost of living crisis”.

To avoid that, he said, and to “ensure that decisions about Scotland are made in Scotland, then you’ve got to vote SNP”.

“The SNP offers Scotland the hope of a better future – but you have to vote for it. This Thursday, vote SNP to put Scotland’s interests first,” he added.

Tories have ‘failed’ to support families in grief

The Liberal Democrats are continuing to unveil policies, focused on the NHS and reversing “heartless Tory cuts” to bereavement payments.

On the latter as it stands, a bereaved family where a spouse or partner has died receives a lump sum of up to £3,500, followed by a monthly payment of up to £350 for 18 months.

The party is calling for this period to be extended, and is pledging to inject an additional £440m a year into the system by 2028-29 to fund it.

Sir Ed Davey said in a statement: “Rishi Sunak’s government has failed to ensure families are not left struggling to pay the bills at such a difficult period of time.

“The Liberal Democrats would treat families and children who lose a loved one with dignity and provide the support they deserve.”

He also reiterated his party’s pledge to give people a legal right to see a GP within a week and start cancer treatment within two months, with Sir Ed saying that his party has “put health and care at the heart of our fair deal for the country”.

Farage goes on the attack

Meanwhile, Reform UK is on the offensive after facing a slew of racism allegations over recent days.

The party yesterday withdrew support for three candidates, and it came on the heels of Channel 4 news airing footage filmed undercover that showed Andrew Parker, an activist canvassing for Mr Farage, using the racial slur “P***” to describe the prime minister, describing Islam as a “disgusting cult”, and saying the army should “just shoot” migrants crossing the Channel.

Nigel Farage has gone on the attack, with the party saying it has reported Channel 4 to the elections watchdog for alleged “scandalous… interference” over what the party claims was a fake rant planted by the broadcaster.

Mr Farage also hit out at the BBC, saying he would refuse to appear on their flagship Sunday morning show until they apologise for their “dishonest” audience during a BBC Question Time special on Friday, accusing the broadcaster of having “behaved like a political actor throughout this election”.

He will hold a vast rally in Birmingham later today, after speaking to Sky News from Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips at 8.30am.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will be joining Sky News’ Trevor Philips from 8.30am this morning on his last programme before the election – along with Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden, and SNP leader and Scottish First Minister John Swinney.

A “massive search” for British teenager Jay Slater will get under way in Tenerife today, almost two weeks after the apprentice bricklayer went missing.

The Civil Guard said they would step up their search for the 19-year-old after appealing for volunteer associations, such as firefighters, and individual volunteers with experience in navigating difficult terrain to help them.

Police and volunteers will begin their search at 9am in the village of Masca, near Mr Slater‘s last-known location, and attempt to retrace his last-known steps.

In a statement, police said: “The massive search will be carried out on Saturday, 29 June from 9am.

“Bearing in mind that this is an abrupt, rocky area, full of unevenness and with a multitude of ravines, paths and roads, the collaboration of all those associations of volunteers who can help in this raid that is intended to be carried out in a directed and coordinated manner is requested.”

Sky’s North of England correspondent Shingi Mararike in Tenerife said the search “is perhaps a final push from the Civil Guard to make some kind of headway”.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared after trying to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus on Monday last week.

He was last pictured at Papayago, the nightclub hosting the end of the New Rave Generation festival, late on 16 June.

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Slater seen by cafe owner

After the event ended, he got in a car with two men, travelling to a small Airbnb in Masca, where a local cafe owner told Sky News he tried to catch a bus back to Los Cristianos, where he was staying.

Ofelia Medina Hernandez said she saw him at 8am on 17 June, and added: “He asked twice what time the bus came.

“He came back and he asked me again, and I told him again, at 10 o’clock. Later I got in my car, and I saw him, he was walking quickly, but I didn’t see him again after that.”

She said he was walking in the wrong direction.

Read more on Sky News:
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Last phone call

It comes after one of Mr Slater’s friends told ITV’s This Morning about his last video call with the 19-year-old.

Brad Hargreaves said he saw the missing teenager’s feet slide on rocks during a call at around 8.30am, saying that is how he knew Mr Slater was not on a road.

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He then said Mr Slater went down a “little drop” in one of his last video calls, and added: “He said, ‘look where I am’.

“He didn’t seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he was. I said, ‘put your location on’. He said: ’15-minute drive, 14-hour walk’.

“I don’t know if it’s accurate or not so I said to him: ‘It’s only a 15-minute drive, get a taxi’.”

Search teams coordinated by the Civil Guard have since mounted a huge manhunt using helicopters, drones and search dogs to scour mountainous areas of the island, but are yet to find the teenager.

In a corner of Tenerife, a winding, narrow road takes you towards a small village called Masca. At points on the route, the view of the sea below and the mountains above is breathtaking.

This place, with its handful of houses and cafes, nestled among ravines and rockfaces, is about a 40-minute drive from the parts of the island most British tourists know, but it might as well be a world away.

There isn’t the bustle of the resort towns in the south, with their clubs and bars. Instead, there are vast expanses of land that are arid and difficult to traverse on foot.

In the 13 days since the disappearance of Jay Slater, a 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire, the hikers and tourists who come to Masca have been joined by two more groups of people.

The first are the emergency services, including the civil guard, volunteer firefighters and mountain rescue teams carrying out the so-far unsuccessful search for Jay. The second group are journalists like me, trying to understand a case shrouded in speculation and questions.

Jay’s journey

Those questions begin with Jay’s journey which started at Papayago, the nightclub where he was last pictured enjoying the end of the New Rave Generation (NRG) festival late on 16 June.

The club is in Playa De Las Americas, not too far from Los Cristianos where he was staying. Full of British revellers and near the beach, the strip is an area Jay would have been growing familiar with, having been at the festival for two days.

But on the event’s third and final night, instead of going back to the accommodation he was sharing with friends, Jay jumped in a car with two men, travelling to a small Airbnb in Masca.

This is where the information about his movements and whereabouts begins to thin, aside from the testimony of one eyewitness we met on our first full day in Tenerife.

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Ofelia Medina Hernandez runs a cafe above the Airbnb and says she saw Jay at about 8am on 17 June.

“He asked twice what time the bus came,” she told us. “He came back and he asked me again, and I told him again, at 10 o’clock.

“Later I got in my car, and I saw him, he was walking quickly, but I didn’t see him again after that,” she added.

Despite the door to the Airbnb being just yards from a bus stop which would have taken him back down south, Medina Hernandez described Jay walking in the wrong direction.

Another key component of the timeline is a conversation Jay had with a friend on the phone at around 8.30am that day. He told them he was walking back after missing a bus – a journey that would take 11 hours on foot.

He also said he was lost, in need of water, and only had 1% charge on his phone.

His phone is believed to have been last located near an observatory around an 18-minute walk away, which is where the efforts of the emergency services were focused in the first week.

The search

That visible flurry of activity included emergency services using a helicopter, drones and sniffer dogs.

However, as the days went on, that sprawling search became a more tightly focused one, with smaller groups of officers looking at pockets of land, like ravines and caves.

Despite allowing us to film them at a distance, the teams, led by the civil guard, have refused to give much guidance on the ground, instead choosing to release updates and footage via WhatsApp.

With no news conference or formal interviews on offer, they’ve largely kept journalists in the dark.

‘I just want him back’

One group who are hoping for information and updates more than anyone else are Jay’s loved ones.

A small group of his friends and family have stayed in Tenerife, clearly struggling to come to terms with the void left by his absence and the prospect he might not return.

On the first Saturday after his disappearance, we met his dad Warren and brother Zak for the first time and their anguish was clear.

Speaking to us near Masca, after trying to retrace Jay’s steps, Warren said he was “just hoping that somebody has helped him off this mountain”.

“That’s all I want, that somebody has helped him get off this mountain. I just want him back and that’s it. He’s, my son.”

His voice then cracked and he walked away from the camera and repeated: “I just want him back and that’s it.”

Despite his visible pain, Warren has also to push this search forward in his own way. Two days later in the town of Santiago Del Teide, we meet him again.

Read more:
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‘My son went missing in Ibiza – I know how Jay Slater’s parents feel’

That afternoon he was tearful again – but determined, handing out flyers with a small group of friends.

Their reason for choosing the town, which is 7km away from Masca, was because of a grainy CCTV image that suggested Jay was last seen in the town’s square.

Online speculation

The family hinging so much hope on that information was an insight into how this case isn’t just about what’s happening on the ground, but also the narrative online.

A Facebook group called Jay Slater Missing – Only Official Group reached more than 500,000 members in less than a week and was inundated with speculation around the case, before comments in the group were restricted.

The noise on social media, coupled with the situation, have added to his family’s distress, something his mother Debbie Duncan who is also in Tenerife, alluded to in a statement.

“I have every faith in them down on the ground and the amazing searches they are carrying out along with more amazing guys up there,” she said.

“As a family we are in a living nightmare. We have no further updates other than Jay is still missing and we are just ignoring the social media side of things.”

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It’s clear though that social media has not only hurt the family, they also feel it’s helped them too, a point Debbie made when specifically thanking Paul Arnott.

A hiker from Bedfordshire, he has travelled from Fort William in Scotland to Spain and promised to stay however long it takes to find the teenager.

Never too far from the police search, Paul has been scrambling down ridges and climbing hills on his own while regularly updating his followers in TikTok.

Away from the small screen is the reality of the situation, as the search for Jay enters its 13th day.

It’s a period that promises to be pivotal, with the Spanish Civil Guard calling on volunteer agencies such as Civil Protection and firefighters, as well as “individual volunteers who are experts in rugged search terrain”.

In a case that has seen every twist and turn followed in places well beyond the rugged terrain of North West Tenerife, today feels like the beginning of one last push to try to find Jay Slater.