Memorable moments from general election campaigns gone by

Published

1 year ago

June 30, 2024

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Since Rishi Sunak called the election, Sky News’ Politics Hub has been looking back over memorable moments from campaigns gone by.

From David Cameron‘s football own goal, to an upstart Nick Clegg emerging as the unlikely victor from the UK’s first televised leaders debate, there were plenty to choose from.

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We’ve collated them all here for you to reminisce on – and a fair warning, given the fine weather we’ve had this week, one might leave you craving some ice cream…

Cameron’s own goal

Nothing says “man of the people” like a good football reference.

But – in an embarrassing slip during the 2015 campaign – David Cameron did little to convince us he was a true fan.

In a speech in which he sought to celebrate Britain’s diversity, he said this was “a country where people of all faiths, all colours, creeds, and backgrounds can live together” – and one where “you can support Man Utd, the Windies, and Team GB all at the same time”.

“Of course, I’d rather you support West Ham,” he quipped.

Alas, he’s an Aston Villa fan.

‘Hell yes, I’m tough enough’

Labour had been tipped to return to power at the 2015 election, but some bruising TV appearances for Ed Miliband didn’t help the party’s chances by the end.

One saw him grilled on Sky News by Jeremy Paxman about whether he was “tough enough” to be prime minister.

Leaning forward, Mr Miliband shared an anecdote about the UK government’s desire to intervene in Syria that year, in line with the US under then president Barack Obama.

He told Paxman how he was “called into a room” to speak to David Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg, fresh off the phone with Mr Obama, and ultimately decided to vote against taking action.

“Standing up to the leader of the free world shows a certain toughness,” said Mr Miliband.

Defending his record on foreign policy, he concluded his point with the immortal words: “Am I tough enuss… tough enough? Hell yes, I’m tough enough.”

Johnson hides in a fridge

Indiana Jones infamously hid in a fridge to survive a nuclear explosion, but who knew they were equally effective at protecting yourself from Piers Morgan.

During the election campaign of December 2019, Boris Johnson retreated into an industrial fridge at a milk firm in Yorkshire after being invited to speak on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Told by a producer from the show that he was live on telly, Mr Johnson said he’d be “with you in a second” before enacting his daring escape.

“He’s gone into the fridge,” Morgan muttered in apparent disbelief, down the line from the ITV studio, as the then prime minister surrounded himself with the comfort of milk bottles.

Mr Johnson did eventually emerge and went on to win the election.

Flakes between friends

New Labour’s time in power often saw stories about a fractious relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

But the pair put on the truest form of friendship on the 2005 campaign trail: enjoying delectable 99 Flakes together.

The photo op was a rebuttal to reports of a fallout, and nothing brings people together like good ice cream.

And they probably really did cost 99p back then.

‘We’re alright!’

It’s 1992 – and Labour’s Neil Kinnock is facing John Major.

A week out from the vote, and the opposition thinks it is on track to finally re-enter Downing Street after more than a decade out of power.

Thousands of the party faithful gathered at Sheffield Arena for a huge rally.

Amid rampant cheering and applause, Mr Kinnock bellowed what was reported to be the phrase “we’re alright!”

This was taken to be him signalling Labour would be winning – a sign of complacency and overconfidence.

His party went on to lose to Mr Major’s Tories, and Mr Kinnock resigned as party leader.

He has since argued he was actually saying “well alright” in an attempt to get the crowd to listen to him.

‘Nothing has changed’

Theresa May didn’t have a great time during the 2017 campaign.

One moment in particular went down in infamy, as she repeatedly told journalists “nothing has changed” despite a screeching U-turn on controversial plans to get the elderly to pay for their social care.

It was perhaps the nadir of a campaign that had begun with her tipped to inflict a crushing defeat upon Labour, but instead saw her lose her majority.

‘I agree with Nick’

The big winner from the UK’s first ever TV prime ministerial debate in 2010 wasn’t primary contenders David Cameron and Gordon Brown, but Nick Clegg.

As the Tory and Labour leaders looked to take chunks out of one another, they saved a more conciliatory side for the insurgent Lib Dem.

He could do no wrong that night, with Messrs Cameron and Brown both finding it completely irresistible not to simply “agree with Nick”.

Cleggmania took him all the way into Number 10 as part of the coalition.

The Ed Stone

Never mind his bacon sandwich eating technique, it was unveiling Labour’s 2015 election pledges inscribed on an enormous slab of limestone that really got voters wondering what Ed Miliband was up to that year.

The then party leader thought the stunt, known as the Ed Stone, would persuade the public he was serious about delivering his promises.

They included “a strong economic foundation” and “controls on immigration” (these sound familiar, no?).

Worse still, Labour even committed to putting it up in the Downing Street garden should they win power.

But it was immediately ridiculed upon its unveiling in Hastings, and the party ended up performing so disappointingly at the election that the now shadow energy secretary resigned as leader.

Bigotgate

Nigel Farage has claimed that the furore over Rishi Sunak leaving D-Day commemorations was the prime minister’s “Gillian Duffy moment”.

So fittingly, we looked back at the original.

“Bigotgate” was born after the then prime minister Gordon Brown described one voter – Gillian Duffy – airing concerns about immigration in Rochdale as a “bigoted woman”.

Mr Brown muttered it after an exchange on camera, not realising he was being picked up by a microphone, and the comment was subsequently broadcast.

The Prescott punch

How would you react if someone threw an egg in your face?

In the case of John Prescott, the answer was to punch them.

The former deputy prime minister threw a fist at the voter who targeted him ahead of a campaign rally in Wales.

The incident came on the day Labour launched its 2001 manifesto, and went down in such infamy it has its own Wikipedia page.

Mr Prescott, then Tony Blair’s deputy, insisted the hefty jab was an act of self-defence – but him choosing violence divided the party leadership, with Gordon Brown more sympathetic than the prime minister was.

Politics

What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one?

Published

3 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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What is a wealth tax, how would it work in the UK and where else has one?

The idea of a wealth tax has raised its head – yet again – as the government attempts to balance its books.

Downing Street refused to rule out a wealth tax after former Labour leader Lord Kinnock told Sky News he thinks the government should introduce one.

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said: “The prime minister has repeatedly said those with the broadest shoulders should carry the largest burden.”

While there has never been a wealth tax in the UK, the notion was raised under Rishi Sunak after the COVID years – and rejected – and both Harold Wilson’s and James Callaghan’s Labour governments in the 1970s seriously considered implementing one.

Sky News looks at what a wealth tax is, how it could work in the UK, and which countries already have one.

What is a wealth tax?

A wealth tax is aimed at reducing economic inequality to redistribute wealth and to raise revenue.

It is a direct levy on all, or most of, an individual’s, household’s or business’s total net wealth, rather than their income.

The tax typically includes the total market value of assets, including savings, investments, property and other forms of wealth – minus a person’s debts.

Unlike capital gains tax, which is paid when an asset is sold at a profit, a wealth tax is normally an annual charge based on the value of assets owned, even if they are not sold.

A one-off wealth tax, often used after major crises, could also be an option to raise a substantial amount of revenue in one go.

How could it work in the UK?

Advocates of a UK wealth tax, including Lord Kinnock, have proposed an annual 2% tax on wealth above £10m.

Wealth tax campaign group Tax Justice UK has calculated this would affect about 20,000 people – fewer than 0.04% of the population – and raise £24bn a year.

Because of how few people would pay it, Tax Justice says that would make it easy for HMRC to collect the tax.

The group proposes people self-declare asset values, backed up by a compliance team at HMRC who could have a register of assets.

Which countries have or have had a wealth tax?

In 1990, 12 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries had a net wealth tax, but just four have one now: Colombia, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

France and Italy levy wealth taxes on selected assets.

Colombia

Since 2023, residents in the South American country are subject to tax on their worldwide wealth, but can exclude the value of their household up to 509m pesos (£92,500).

The tax is progressive, ranging from a 0.5% rate to 1.5% for the most wealthy until next year, then 1% for the wealthiest from 2027.

Norway

There is a 0.525% municipal wealth tax for individuals with net wealth exceeding 1.7m kroner (about £125,000) or 3.52m kroner (£256,000) for spouses.

Norway also has a state wealth tax of 0.475% based on assets exceeding a net capital tax basis of 1.7m kroner (£125,000) or 3.52m kroner (£256,000) for spouses, and 0.575% for net wealth in excess of 20.7m kroner (£1.5m).

The maximum combined wealth tax rate is 1.1%.

The Norwegian Labour coalition government also increased dividend tax to 20% in 2023, and with the wealth tax, it prompted about 80 affluent business owners, with an estimated net worth of £40bn, to leave Norway.

Spain

Residents in Spain have to pay a progressive wealth tax on worldwide assets, with a €700,000 (£600,000) tax free allowance per person in most areas and homes up to €300,000 (£250,000) tax exempt.

The progressive rate goes from 0.2% for taxable income for assets of €167,129 (£144,000) up to 3.5% for taxable income of €10.6m (£9.146m) and above.

It has been reported that more than 12,000 multimillionaires have left Spain since the government introduced the higher levy at the end of 2022.

Switzerland

All of the country’s cantons (districts) have a net wealth tax based on a person’s taxable net worth – different to total net worth.

It takes into account the balance of an individual’s worldwide gross assets, including bank account balances, bonds, shares, life insurances, cars, boats, properties, paintings, jewellery – minus debts.

Switzerland also works on a progressive rate, ranging from 0.3% to 0.5%, with a relatively low starting point at which people are taxed on their wealth, such as 50,000 CHF (£46,200) in several cantons.

Politics

Jingye and Whitehall officials hold talks over British Steel future

Published

6 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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Jingye and Whitehall officials hold talks over British Steel future

The Chinese owner of British Steel has held fresh talks with government officials in a bid to break the impasse over ministers’ determination not to compensate it for seizing control of the company.

Sky News has learnt that executives from Jingye Group met senior civil servants from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) late last week to discuss ways to resolve the standoff.

Whitehall sources said the talks had been cordial, but that no meaningful progress had been made towards a resolution.

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Jingye wants the government to agree to pay it hundreds of millions of pounds for taking control of British Steel in April – a move triggered by the Chinese group’s preparations for the permanent closure of its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe.

Such a move would have cost thousands of jobs and ended Britain’s centuries-old ability to produce virgin steel.

Jingye had been in talks for months to seek £1bn in state aid to facilitate the Scunthorpe plant’s transition to greener steelmaking, but was offered just half that sum by ministers.

British Steel has not yet been formally nationalised, although that remains a probable outcome.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has previously dismissed the idea of compensating Jingye, saying British Steel’s equity was essentially worthless.

Last month, he met his Chinese counterpart, where the issue of British Steel was discussed between the two governments in person for the first time.

Jingye has hired the leading City law firm Linklaters to explore the recovery of hundreds of millions of pounds it invested in the Scunthorpe-based company before the government seized control of it.

News of last week’s meeting comes as British steelmakers face an anxious wait to learn whether their exports to the US face swingeing tariffs as part of US President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Sky News’s economics and data editor, Ed Conway, revealed this week that the UK would miss a White House-imposed deadline to agree a trade deal on steel and aluminium this week.

Jingye declined to comment, while a spokesman for the Department for Business and Trade said: “We acted quickly to ensure the continued operations of the blast furnaces but recognise that securing British Steel’s long-term future requires private sector investment.

“We have not nationalised British Steel and are working closely with Jingye on options for the future, and we will continue work on determining the best long-term sustainable future for the site.”