Sir Keir Starmer brands Rishi Sunak ‘desperate’ and says ‘of course there will be TV debates’
Sir Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of “sounding a bit desperate” after he accused him of chickening out of TV debates.
The Labour leader told Sky News that “of course there are going to be TV debates” and they are “part and parcel of the election cycle now”.
“I obviously want to spend as much of my time talking to voters directly”, he added.
General election latest: Labour and Tories clash over energy
Sir Keir said he could do “100 debates with Rishi Sunak but I know what he’s going to say”.
“He’s going to say everything is fine, the cost of living crisis is over, the health service hasn’t got any problems.
“And that is all he ever says.
“Of course there are going to be debates, but he is sounding a bit desperate now.”
Sir Keir Starmer
However, Sir Keir would not commit to Sky News’ leaders event in Grimsby, one of our election Target Towns, saying that there will be “negotiations into what exactly we’re doing”.
It comes after Sir Keir was accused of “chickening out” of weekly showdowns during the election campaign and even branded “spineless” by his political opponents.
Mr Sunak last night challenged him to take part in six TV clashes debating issues like tax, the cost of living and security.
But Labour said Sir Keir would not agree to “tearing up” the format established in previous elections “just to suit this week’s whims of the Tory party”.
They indicated Sir Keir would be willing to take part in two debates – with the BBC and ITV.
TV election debates took off in the UK in the 2010 general election when Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg took part in three debates, on ITV, Sky News and the BBC.
Rishi Sunak speaks with brewery workers at Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in Barry, Wales
Realistically, TV schedules in June and early July are packed with the group stages and knock-out matches in the Euro 2024 football tournament – with England the favourites – meaning six election debates are highly unlikely.
In his interview with Sky News, Sir Keir went on to defend a series of policy U-turns, saying they are the “practical reality of Tory damage to the economy”.
Sir Keir has been criticised for rowing back on many pledges he won the Labour leadership on, such as scrapping university tuition fees and bringing utilities into public ownership.
He said the state of the economy meant he had to prioritise other issues, such as NHS waiting lists.
“I did advocate getting rid of tuition fees, you’re absolutely right about that,” Sir Keir said.
“Now, damage has been done to the economy, we’ve got to make a choice.
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“We’ve got (NHS) waiting lists that are the best part of eight million – the money is not available to do both.
“In the end, if you can’t do both, you have to make a decision. I’ve taken a political choice.”
He added: “It’s the practical reality of the damage that the Tories have done to the economy”.
Sir Keir is in Scotland today to launch the party’s General Election campaign north of the border.
Labour will need to win back many seats in its former traditional heartlands if it wants to secure a majority when voters go to the polls on 4th July.
Sir Keir will promote his plan for a publicly owned clean energy company, which will be headquartered in Scotland.
Meanwhile Mr Sunak will be in Northern Ireland for the fourth leg of his whirlwind tour of the UK.
The European elections have formed a new EU Parliament that will rule for the next five years.
Politics
General election: Nigel Farage ‘terrorising’ Tories and Rishi Sunak too afraid, says Lord Mandelson
Nigel Farage is “terrorising” the Conservative Party and Rishi Sunak is afraid to take him on, Labour grandee Lord Mandelson has told Sky News.
The former cabinet minister and spin-doctor, who masterminded Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide win, argued the job of the Tory leader should be to stand up to Mr Farage and Reform UK rather than seeking to appease them.
Trying to outflank Mr Farage had only served to embolden the maverick politician and make him stronger, the peer said as he appeared on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
The decision of the former UKIP leader to contest a Tory-held seat at the election and take the reins at Reform UK has exacerbated Mr Sunak’s electoral woes, threatening to split the vote and the party.
Fresh polls gave an even bleaker outlook for the Conservatives, with one indicating the party on course to pick up just 72 seats.
A separate survey on Thursday night put Reform ahead of the Tories for the first time with 19% of the vote, compared with 18% for the Conservatives.
It led Mr Farage, who is set to launch Reform’s manifesto on Monday, declare his party was now the opposition to Labour.
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Conservatives: We’re fighting for every vote
Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper has repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour “a very large majority” and a “blank cheque” in office.
As well as failing to distance himself from his predecessors – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – Mr Sunak had made an error in vying to “outflank” Reform UK, argued Lord Mandelson.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The peer said: “He’s doing so by appeasing them, by sort of throwing red meat, to Farage, which is not outflanking him. It’s just making him bolder. It’s just making him, frankly, stronger than Sunak. And therefore the tactics, the strategy has been got wrong, in my view, by Sunak, right from the beginning.
“But I think the reason he doesn’t take on Farage is because he sees him as a stronger politician and frankly, he’s afraid to take him on.”
Read more on Sky News:
Tories heading for ‘warfare’, Farage predicts
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On Mr Farage himself, Lord Mandelson said: “I think he terrifies the Conservative Party. I mean, he terrified David Cameron into conceding a referendum on our membership of the European Union, and now he’s doing the same, to Sunak. He terrorises them.
“Now you, you’ve got to stand up to terrorists you know, in this world and including in, in British domestic politics.”
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He added: “But Farage is an effective politician. There’s no point in denying it. He has a clear message. It’s not one that I happen to agree with in any respect at all.
“I think that Farage is much better at, you know, taking people down and destroying things than he is in offering a constructive, clear alternative.
“But be that as it may, the job of the leader of the Conservative Party is to take that on and show an alternative to the right, not to appease it.”
He later clarified: “I’m not saying he’s literally a terrorist. I’m saying he’s terrorising the Conservative Party.”
Politics
General election: Nigel Farage ‘terrorising’ Tories and Rishi Sunak too afraid, says Lord Mandelson
Nigel Farage is “terrorising” the Conservative Party and Rishi Sunak is afraid to take him on, Labour grandee Lord Mandelson has told Sky News.
The former cabinet minister and spin-doctor, who masterminded Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide win, argued the job of the Tory leader should be to stand up to Mr Farage and Reform UK rather than seeking to appease them.
Trying to outflank Mr Farage had only served to embolden the maverick politician and make him stronger, the peer said as he appeared on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
The decision of the former UKIP leader to contest a Tory-held seat at the election and take the reins at Reform UK has exacerbated Mr Sunak’s electoral woes, threatening to split the vote and the party.
Fresh polls gave an even bleaker outlook for the Conservatives, with one indicating the party on course to pick up just 72 seats.
A separate survey on Thursday night put Reform ahead of the Tories for the first time with 19% of the vote, compared with 18% for the Conservatives.
It led Mr Farage, who is set to launch Reform’s manifesto on Monday, declare his party was now the opposition to Labour.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Conservatives: We’re fighting for every vote
Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper has repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour “a very large majority” and a “blank cheque” in office.
As well as failing to distance himself from his predecessors – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – Mr Sunak had made an error in vying to “outflank” Reform UK, argued Lord Mandelson.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The peer said: “He’s doing so by appeasing them, by sort of throwing red meat, to Farage, which is not outflanking him. It’s just making him bolder. It’s just making him, frankly, stronger than Sunak. And therefore the tactics, the strategy has been got wrong, in my view, by Sunak, right from the beginning.
“But I think the reason he doesn’t take on Farage is because he sees him as a stronger politician and frankly, he’s afraid to take him on.”
Read more on Sky News:
Tories heading for ‘warfare’, Farage predicts
How much would a Labour government change football?
Eyewitness: Behind the scenes of covering the election campaign
On Mr Farage himself, Lord Mandelson said: “I think he terrifies the Conservative Party. I mean, he terrified David Cameron into conceding a referendum on our membership of the European Union, and now he’s doing the same, to Sunak. He terrorises them.
“Now you, you’ve got to stand up to terrorists you know, in this world and including in, in British domestic politics.”
👉 Click here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts 👈
He added: “But Farage is an effective politician. There’s no point in denying it. He has a clear message. It’s not one that I happen to agree with in any respect at all.
“I think that Farage is much better at, you know, taking people down and destroying things than he is in offering a constructive, clear alternative.
“But be that as it may, the job of the leader of the Conservative Party is to take that on and show an alternative to the right, not to appease it.”
He later clarified: “I’m not saying he’s literally a terrorist. I’m saying he’s terrorising the Conservative Party.”
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