Starmer reveals ‘worry’ for family if he enters No 10 as Sunak ‘excited’ for daughters to complete national service
Sir Keir Starmer has revealed the thing he fears the most about becoming prime minister is the impact it will have on his children.
Speaking to Beth Rigby during Sky News’ Battle For Number 10 in Grimsby, the Labour leader said it was “not the big decisions” he feared the most but the effect his job will have on his teenage children.
He said his children – a boy aged nearly 16 and a girl aged 13 – were at “difficult ages” and it would have been easier if they were younger or older.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak – who also underwent questioning by Rigby – defended his record in Number 10 after he was quizzed about “broken promises” he made in January 2023 when he became prime minister.
The prime minister was specifically asked about the tax burden, NHS waiting lists and immigration – which he admitted was “too high”.
He said he could understand people’s “frustrations” but argued the country has “been through two once-in-a-century shocks” – the first the COVID pandemic and the second Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Follow live: Starmer asked if he has ‘trust issue’ with voters
“I appreciate people want to see positive change, but you don’t get any change unless you’ve got a plan and you’re prepared to do bold things,” he argued.
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The prime minister also said he is “incredibly excited” for his daughters to do national service in response to a question from William, a student from Grimsby. “I think it will be transformative for our country”, he said.
And on migration, he was challenged about how he thought Brexit voters (in Grimsby 70% opted to leave the EU) – felt upon learning that the total net migration figure for the last three years was 1.9 million people.
He admitted the numbers were “too high” but insisted he had begun to bring them down since becoming prime minister.
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Sunak grilled over migration record
Asked why anyone should believe what he says given that David Cameron and Theresa May both promised to slash migration, he said: “I completely understand people’s cynicism about this,” before adding that numbers were now down 10% and the number of visas issued this year was also down by a quarter.
‘The thing that keeps me up at night is my children’
Sir Keir, who the polls predict will be the country’s next prime minister, said he “relished” the chance he may be given to change the country but that he feared for his teenage children.
“These are really difficult ages,” he said. “My only fear really is the impact it’s going to have on them.”
He said the reason they had not appeared publicly or in a photo shoot with him was to protect them and to ensure they have their “own lives”.
“I don’t fear the big decisions, in fact, I relish the chance to change our country,” he told Rigby.
“My only fear… the only thing that keeps me up at night is worrying about my children.”
‘I want to do things differently’
Sir Keir, who spoke before Mr Sunak took to the stage, also sought to distinguish himself from previous Labour leaders by saying he did not want to reach for the “tax lever” to sort out the country’s finances.
He said his “central mission was to grow the economy” and that he wanted to “do things differently”.
Despite persistent questioning over his tax plans, Sir Keir said there would be “no need” to raise taxes on working people in the party’s manifesto that will be published on Thursday.
“I want to do things differently,” he said. “I want to grow our economy.
“I accept that previous Labour leaders have sort of pulled the tax lever every single time and driven up spending.
“The manifesto tomorrow will be a manifesto, a plan for wealth creation.
“Now, you might not hear a Labour leader say that very often, but for me, that is the most important thing.”
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Awkward moments
After taking questions from Rigby, Sir Keir faced the audience who asked him about his plans to tackle child poverty, housing and the NHS.
He was also asked by one audience member whether he had changed since leading the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to resemble a “political robot”.
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Starmer accused of being a ‘political robot’
After an awkward pause, Sir Keir replied: “I’ve had this constant theme in my life of trying to serve the public. That’s why I took the decision to go into politics.”
Mr Sunak also faced laughter and boos from the audience when challenged about the five pledges he made after he replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister.
He faced laughter when he said inflation “was always meant to come down over time” and the audience expressed frustration when he blamed the lack of progress on cutting NHS waiting lists – which currently stand at 7.54 million – on industrial action.
And asked if he could provide the audience with any personal information that “make them like you a bit more again”, he replied: “People seem to think I have a very kind of healthy lifestyle and I go to the gym and session about my fasting, but I actually have an appalling diet because I eat an enormous amount of sugar, and I’m very unhealthy in that regard.”
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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