What we learnt from Sunak and Starmer at leaders’ event – including prime minister’s ‘appalling’ diet

Published

11 months ago

June 13, 2024

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Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer took turns answering questions from Sky News and a live audience, with a snap poll suggesting the Labour leader performed better on the night.

But what did we learn from their responses about the key issues facing the country?

Here’s a look at the key points from the Sky News leaders’ event in Grimsby.

Latest updates on the general election

NHS waiting lists

With the NHS England waiting list up to about 7.5 million cases, there was some angry shouting from the audience when Mr Sunak brought up the industrial action taken up by staff in the health service.

“We’ve not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked,” he said.

“That was something that I was keen to do, and it has proved more difficult for a number of reasons, obviously recovering from a pandemic is not easy.”

He faced groans and boos when he said: “I think everyone knows the impact the industrial action has had, that’s why we haven’t made as much [progress].”

Sir Keir said the government could not afford to meet junior doctors’ pay-rise demands but said Labour would “get the room and settle this dispute”.

Tory tax burden

Mr Sunak repeated his promise of “tax cuts for people at every stage for people at every stage of their life”.

Facing questions about the tax burden potentially being higher than it is now under a future Conservative government, Mr Sunak said: “What our manifesto announced is the tax cuts for people at every stage of their life – for people in work, for people that are setting up small businesses, that are self-employed, for those young people who want to buy their first home, for pensioners and for families.”

D-Day fallout

“It hasn’t been an easy 18 months in general,” Mr Sunak admitted, when asked about what has gone so wrong for his party.

“I’m going to keep fighting hard until last day of this election,” he said.

But Mr Sunak’s decision to leave D-Day commemorations early sparked widespread backlash against the prime minister.

“I was incredibly sad to have caused people hurt and upset,” he said, adding he hopes people can forgive him.

National service

When an audience member asked why a young person today would believe the Tories have their best interests at heart, Mr Sunak said he is “incredibly excited” for his daughters to do national service.

“I think it will be transformative for our country,” he added.

Tough questions for Starmer on tax

Addressing his tax plans, Sir Keir insisted “working people shouldn’t pay more tax” and repeated “no tax rises for working people”.

This includes income tax, VAT and National Insurance, but rises in fuel duty, for example, would impact working people, Rigby pointed out.

That has not been explicitly ruled out.

To help balance the scales, increasing capital gains tax could raise £14bn a year, Rigby said, but Sir Keir revealed “that is not in our manifesto”.

He said he’d be happy to pay more tax himself, despite being in the top 3% for amount of tax paid – after earning £128,000 and paying £44,000 in income tax last year.

“Yes, of course,” he said, reminding the audience his father was a toolmaker – with the often-repeated line causing some laughter in the audience – and his family “couldn’t make ends meet”.

VAT on private schools

Challenged on his plans for a VAT tax on private school education, Sir Keir told an audience member the party is removing a tax break – rather than adding a new tax.

“The position at the moment is there’s a tax break, so you pay VAT on other services, but you don’t pay for private schools,” he said.

“Now I understand why that’s been in place, but it’s a tax break that we are removing. It’s not an introduction of a new tax.”

Two-child benefit cap

Sir Keir confirmed there is no plan in his party’s manifesto to cut a two-child benefit cap, admitting it was a “difficult” decision.

“I can’t do something – I know the benefits of it and we will have a strategy for it – but I think people are fed up of politicians who before the election say we’ll do everything,” he said.

Small boat crossings and immigration

On small boats, Rigby confronted Mr Sunak about small boat crossings. More than 10,000 migrants have arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats in 2024 – a new record for this stage in the year.

Part of the Tory strategy to cut the number of crossings is the controversial Rwanda policy, which Mr Sunak again vowed would take off in July if he wins the election.

Asked why, if he is so confident flights would take off in July, he didn’t prove this before calling an election, Mr Sunak said “it was the right moment” to go to the polls.

Meanwhile, Rigby outlined how net migration in the past three years stands at 1.9 million people – against 836,000 before Brexit.

With the figure more than doubling since leaving the European Union, Mr Sunak admitted “it’s too high”.

“I’m sure people feel frustrated about that,” he said. “The numbers are too high.”

Starmer distances from Corbyn

Questioned on trust, Sir Keir defended changing previous stances he held, including Labour policies.

He said the “country comes first, party second” and looked back at previous decisions to ask himself if they’re best for the nation, rather than Labour.

Reminded on his claim in the last election that Jeremy Corbyn would make a “great prime minister”, the Labour leader refused to answer directly if he believed that.

Instead, he repeated he was “certain” the party would lose the election in 2019.

What we didn’t know about the leaders

Asked what he fears most about becoming prime minister, the Labour leader said he’s worried about the impact it will have on his family, including his children aged 16 and 13.

Rigby asked Mr Sunak to tell the audience one thing they might not know about him.

He said he had an “appalling diet” due to his sweet tooth. Haribo and Twix are apparently his favourites.

Politics

Solana’s Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack

Published

1 hour ago

April 26, 2025

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<div>Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after .8M hack</div>

Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Loopscale has temporarily halted its lending markets after suffering an approximately $5.8 million exploit.

On April 26, a hacker siphoned approximately 5.7 million USDC (USDC) and 1200 Solana (SOL) from the lending protocol after taking out a “series of undercollateralized loans”, Loopscale co-founder Mary Gooneratne said in an X post.

The exploit only impacted Loopscale’s USDC and SOL vaults and the losses represent around 12% of Loopscale’s total value locked (TVL), Gooneratne added.

Loopscale is “working to resume repayment functionality as soon as possible to mitigate unforeseen liquidations,” its said in an X post.

“Our team is fully mobilized to investigate, recover funds, and ensure users are protected,” Gooneratne said.

Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack — *Loopscale’s ‘Genesis’ lending vaults. Source: Loopscale*

In the first quarter of 2025, hackers stole more than $1.6 billion worth of crypto from exchanges and on-chain smart contracts, blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an April report.

More than 90% of those losses are attributable to a $1.5 billion attack on ByBit, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group.

Unique DeFi lending model

Launched on April 10 after a six-month closed beta, Loopscale is a DeFi lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency by directly matching lenders and borrowers.

It also supports specialized lending markets, such as “structured credit, receivables financing, and undercollateralized lending,” Loopscale said in an April announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Loopscale’s order book model distinguishes it from DeFi lending peers such as Aave that aggregate cryptocurrency deposits into liquidity pools.

Loopscale’s main USDC and SOL vaults yield APRs exceeding 5% and 10%, respectively. It also supports lending markets for tokens such as JitoSOL and BONK (BONK) and looping strategies for upwards of 40 different token pairs.

The DeFi protocol has approximately $40 million in TVL and has attracted upwards of 7,000 lenders, according to researcher OurNetwork.

Magazine: Ripple says SEC lawsuit ‘over,’ Trump at DAS, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 16 – 22

Politics

US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

United States Senator Jon Ossoff expressed support for impeaching President Donald Trump during an April 25 town hall, citing the President’s plan to host a private dinner for top Official Trump memecoin holders.

“I mean, I saw just 48 hours ago, he is granting audiences to people who buy his meme coin,” said Ossoff, a Democrat, according to a report by NBC News.

“When the sitting president of the United States is selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him. There is no question that that rises to the level of an impeachable offense.”

Senator Ossoff said he “strongly” supports impeachment proceedings during a town hall in the state of Georgia, where he is running for reelection to the Senate.

The Senator added that an impeachment is unlikely unless the Democratic Party gains control of Congress during the US midterm elections in 2026. Trump’s own Republican Party currently has a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Conflicts of interest

On April 23, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin’s website announced plans for Trump to host an exclusive dinner at his Washington, DC golf club with the top 220 TRUMP holders.

The website subsequently posted a leaderboard tracking top TRUMP wallets and a link to register for the event. The TRUMP token’s price has gained more than 50% since the announcement, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The specific guest list is unclear, but the memecoin’s website states that applicants must pass a background check, “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country,” and cannot bring any additional guests.

On April 25, the team behind TRUMP denied social media rumors that TRUMP holders need at least $300,000 to participate in an upcoming dinner with the president.

“People have been incorrectly quoting #220 on the block explorer as the cutoff. That’s wrong because it includes things like locked tokens, exchanges, market makers, and those who are not participating. Instead, you should only be going off the leaderboard,” they wrote.

Law, Politics, Senate, Donald Trump, trumpcoin, Memecoin — *The TRUMP token jumped on news of the private dinner plans. Source:* *CoinMarketCap*

Legal experts told Cointelegraph that Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, including the TRUMP memecoin and Trump-affiliated decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol World Liberty Financial, raise significant concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

“Within just a couple of days of him taking office, he’s signed a number of executive orders that are significantly going to affect the way that our crypto and digital assets industry works,” Charlyn Ho of law firm Rikka told Cointelegraph in February.

“So if he has a personal pecuniary benefit arising from his own policies, that’s a conflict of interest.”

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Politics

Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Published

7 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Crypto investor sentiment has seen a significant recovery from global tariff concerns, but analysts warn that the market’s structural weaknesses may still result in downside momentum during periods of weekend illiquidity.

Risk appetite appeared to return among crypto investors this week after US President Donald Trump adopted a softer tone, saying that import tariffs on Chinese goods may “come down substantially.”

However, the improved investor sentiment “does not guarantee that Bitcoin will avoid volatility over the weekend,” analysts from Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph:

“Sentiment improvements reduce fragility, but they do not eliminate structural risks like thin weekend liquidity.”

“Historically, weekends remain vulnerable to sharp moves — especially when open interest is high and market depth is low,” the analysts said, adding that unexpected macroeconomic news can still increase volatility during low liquidity periods.

Bitcoin (BTC) staged a near 11% recovery during the past week, but its rally has previously been limited by Sunday liquidity dynamics.

Bitcoin fell below $75,000 on Sunday, April 6, despite initially decoupling from the US stock market’s $3.5 trillion drop on April 4 after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs may affect the economy and raise inflation.

The correction was exacerbated by the lack of weekend liquidity and the fact that Bitcoin was the only large liquid asset available for de-risking, industry watchers told Cointelegraph.

“While improved sentiment creates a more stable foundation, cryptocurrency markets are still susceptible to rapid movements during periods of reduced trading volume,” according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer of RedStone blockchain oracle firm.

“The sentiment recovery provides some cushioning, but traders should remain cautious as weekend liquidity constraints can still amplify price movements regardless of the current market mood,” he told Cointelegraph.

Crypto investors may have “maxed out on tariff-related fears”

Cryptocurrency markets may have priced in the full extent of tariff-related concerns, according to Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen.

“It feels like we’ve maxed out on tariff-related fear,” she told Cointelegraph, adding:

“While many remain uncertain about where things are headed over the next month or so, it also seems like markets were just waiting for the slightest signal that we’re back in the game.”

“Whether the rally is sustainable depends on whether we can break through previous resistance levels, at least in isolation. It could have legs, as markets now seem to believe there’s a ‘Trump put’ under equities, the US dollar and US Treasurys,” Barthere added, warning of more potential volatility amid the upcoming negotiations.

Nansen previously predicted a 70% chance that crypto markets will bottom and start a recovery by June, but highlighted that the timing will depend on the outcome of tariff negotiations.

The tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach a trade agreement with China, which may be the “big prize” for Trump’s administration, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.