Keir Starmer remains mute on key tax issues as Rishi Sunak receives a bruising during Sky News’ Battle For No 10
Whether it was the audience reaction, the overwhelming verdict in a snap poll or simply the crestfallen look of the PM as he battled to defend his record, it was clear which of the two leaders had the more challenging time on Wednesday night.
The Battle for Number 10 rigorously ran the rule over Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, with questions from a 100-strong Grimsby audience and a meticulous interview with political editor Beth Rigby.
It is the mid-point of the general election campaign, so the Sky News special programme came at a pivotal moment.
We saw a Labour leader trained to give as little away as possible – sticking to a script on tax which will allow for unadvertised post-election tax rises that the safety-first campaign will not take the risk of spelling out now.
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Whether it was fuel duty, council tax and capital gains tax, each the Labour leader said he has no plans to raise.
We also saw a Labour leader being forced to concede he has abandoned pledges and change position when he believes the moment demands, meaning real questions remain about exactly what will happen if – as seems likely – Keir Starmer enters Number 10 with a bombproof majority.
Starmer was questioned by the audience over likeability and whether he was too much of a robot – only to deliver a robotic answer.
If he makes it to power, there are signs from today’s encounter his honeymoon may be brief.
Sir Keir Starmer on stage being questioned by Sky News’ Beth Rigby and a 100-strong Grimsby audience
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak battled to turn around his campaign at the event in Grimsby
But the night mattered much more for Rishi Sunak, after a rocky campaign which caught his party and the country by surprise, he needed a transformative win.
It didn’t appear to come.
The area that Sunak came unstuck on was his own record. His struggles to explain his own record when challenged by the facts was picked up by the audience.
He appeared to redefine his pledge to bring down debt, saying it was always intended to come down in five years.
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His attempt to put the blame on rising waiting lists on the junior doctors was booed, while the claim they were going down, when overall in his premiership they are rising, was challenged robustly.
The audience was aghast at the scale of immigration rises, while clapped at the idea Sunak had called the election before allowing the Rwanda policy to be tested.
Sunak looked in turn wounded and bristled at the lines of questioning. But the audience knew what they were looking for – disinterested in a PM sidestepping the questions they wanted answered.
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Inside Sky’s special leaders’ event
The polling verdict was brutal – 64 to 36 thought Starmer won over Sunak, while one in three 2019 Tory voters, who backed Boris Johnson, thought the Labour leader was better.
This was a big moment for Sunak, but he didn’t seize it. Are there many more opportunities?
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Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.
MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.
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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.
“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.
“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.
“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.
The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.
It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.
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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?
Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.
Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.
“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”
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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job
Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.
“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.
“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”
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