General election latest news: Streeting warns ‘NHS is not envy of the world’ as Starmer to lower voting age to 16
Labour Party ‘leaks Rishi Sunak‘s campaign diary’ in new ad attacking gaffes
Wes Streeting has warned striking doctors that he will not meet their huge pay demands, and has vowed he will be “a shop steward for patients” as health secretary.
In an exclusive interview with the Independent, he spoke of his plan to tackle of record waiting lists and the ongoing pay disputes, stating: “The NHS is not the envy of the world.”
Sir Keir Starmer has sought to question why voters should have trust in Rishi Sunak’s general election proposals if Michael Gove appears to have “lost faith” in the PM by joining the record exodus of Tory MPs.
On a visit to Stafford, the Labour leader said: “If he has effectively lost faith in what Rishi Sunak is putting before the electorate it does beg the question as to why the voters should have faith in what Rishi Sunak is putting forward.
“They have effectively got off the bus, because they don’t think the bus is going anywhere, I do think that’s significant.”
Sir Keir also confirmed he wanted to lower the voting age to 16.
Key Points
‘Not unnatural’ for veteran Tories like Gove to be quitting, minister insists
The exodus of prominent Tory MPs like Michael Gove and Dame Andrea Leadsom is “not unnatural”, a minister has insisted, amid speculation that Conservatives are quitting Parliament in fear of imminent electoral defeat.
Bim Afolami, whose seat of Hitchin and Harpenden has seen a waning Tory majority in recent years, said the party was “pretty confident here” and denied it had crossed his own mind to stand down ahead of the July 4 polling day.
It comes after Housing Secretary and long-serving Cabinet minister Mr Gove cited the “toll” of public office as he said it was time to let “a new generation lead” following a political career spanning nearly 20 years.
A post-war record of 78 Conservative MPs have stepped down for the summer election as the party languishes behind Labour in the polls, surpassing the previous high of 72 who quit prior to Labour’s 1997 landslide.
Speaking to Times Radio on Saturday’s morning broadcast round, Mr Afolami said: “Look, it’s not unnatural if you’ve got people who served for 20, sometimes 30 or 35 years in Parliament in their 50s or 60s coming to retirement or indeed retiring completely, that they choose to bring their political careers to a close. I think that’s fine.”
Lib Dems ‘way more in tune’ with young voters than other parties – Sir Ed Davey
The Liberal Democrats are “way more in tune” with young voters than “any other party”, Sir Ed Davey has said, as Labour pledged to lower the voting age to 16.
The Lib Dem leader pointed to his party’s position on housing, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and their pro-European stance as policies that may appeal to younger people as he hit the campaign trail in Chichester, West Sussex, on Saturday.
Sir Ed welcomed Labour’s promise to reduce the voting age to 16 but said “bolder” reform is needed to fix the country’s “broken” political system.
When asked how the Lib Dems could regain the trust of young voters following the U-turn on their pledge to scrap university fees during the 2010 coalition government, Sir Ed said his party had “fought the Conservatives every single day” during the power-sharing agreement but “weren’t able to get everything we wanted”.
Wes Streeting: I won’t give in to doctors’ unions on huge NHS pay demands
Wes Streeting has vowed he will be “a shop steward for patients” as health secretary, with a warning to striking doctors that he will not meet their huge pay demands.
With an election on 4 July, Mr Streeting has attempted to outline what sort of health secretary he would be if Labour, as expected, is victorious but takes power in the face of record waiting lists caused by the Covid pandemic and exacerbated by ongoing pay disputes.
And he comes with a message on why things need to change: “The NHS is not the envy of the world.”
Starmer defends New Deal ‘rebrand’ after union backlash
Sir Keir Starmer has defended Labour’s decision to rebrand its package of workers’ rights pledges following a backlash from one of the UK’s biggest trade unions.
The party leader denied he was weakening policies on areas like zero-hours contracts, parental leave and sick pay after Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the plans had “more holes than Swiss cheese”.
It comes after the latest flare-up in a row over Labour’s New Deal for Working People, following reports it would go through a formal consultation process with businesses – potentially delaying or toning down the pledges.
On Friday, Labour rebranded the New Deal as “Labour’s plan to make work pay”.
During a visit to Staffordshire on Saturday, Sir Keir told the BBC: “We have come to an agreement with the trade unions on the new deal for working people.
“There’s been no watering down. This is the most significant set of protections for a generation.
“It’s also something which I think employers and good businesses would say, ‘looking at the detail of it, this is what we’re doing in good businesses’.”
Rachel Reeves says she has ‘no plan’ to increase taxes
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has met supermarket workers in London to talk about the cost-of-living crisis, attacking the Conservatives’ approach to the economy as she pitches Labour as the party of “stability and tough spending”.
Speaking to reporters on the visit, she also suggested she wanted to cut taxes for “working people,” saying they should be “lower,” but insisted that “unlike the Tories” she would not make pledges she cannot keep.
Repeatedly pressed on whether she could rule out national insurance or income tax rising if Labour wins the election, the shadow minister said: “I have no plans to increase taxes.
“We’ve set out the plans that we do have to fund the immediate injection of cash into our NHS and into our schools, but we have no plans beyond that to increase taxes.”
Labour has said it would use tax on wealthy non-doms and impose VAT and business rates on private schools in order to fund improvements to public services.
Sunak hopes TV debates can change his fortunes – they might just make matters worse
Party loyalists disapproved of my suggestion that there was bound to be at least one episode of panic at Labour HQ before election day, because the opinion polls were likely to narrow, either as a result of random variation or of events. They can be pleased that it hasn’t happened yet. If there is a Labour wobble, it will now happen during the campaign itself.
And if it does happen, it is likely to resemble the episode during the Conservative election campaign in 1987, when David Young grabbed Norman Tebbit by the lapels and told him, “We’re about to lose this effing election!” Margaret Thatcher won with a majority of 102.
Labour and Tories clash on economy as both hint at tax cuts
The Tories and Labour clashed over the economy as the Chancellor hinted at tax breaks for high earners while his opposite number insisted she had “no plans” to raise the burden on working people.
Jeremy Hunt signalled the Conservatives would seek to end the impact of tapering of personal allowances on larger incomes while Rachel Reeves vowed to deliver financial stability with a Thatcher-style commitment to “sound money”.
Workers lose £1 of their tax-free personal allowance for every £2 that their earnings go above £100,000, and anyone on more than £125,140 gets no allowance.
In an apparent bid to draw dividing lines with Labour, Mr Hunt used an interview with the Telegraph newspaper to dangle the prospect of a change to the current system.
“If you look at the distortions in the tax system between £50,000 and £125,000, they are bad economically because they disincentivise people from doing what we need, which is to work, work harder. And we are the party of hard work,” he said.
Mr Hunt also branded inheritance tax “profoundly anti-Conservative” but refused to be drawn on whether cuts to death duties would feature in the party manifesto.
Boss of childcare firm backed by Rishi Sunak’s wife says she’s voting Labour
The boss of a childcare firm backed by Rishi Sunak’s wife and hosted at a Downing St reception has said she is backing Labour after she saw at first hand how Tory infighting and the toppling of prime ministers prevented the introduction of key policies that would benefit parents.
Supporting Sir Keir Starmer in the general election, Rachel Carrell, the CEO and founder of Koru Kids, said the Conservatives “are not serious people” but Labour’s top team would give the UK the stability that is “absolutely essential to business growth and … getting necessary reforms through”.
She also said that she looked forward to “living in a country with competent leadership” after it had lurched from “crisis to crisis, embarrassment to embarrassment” under the Conservatives.
Minister rejects suggestion Sunak ‘taking day off’ amid campaign in Yorkshire
A minister has dismissed suggestions that Rishi Sunak is “taking the day off” as the Prime Minister campaigned in his constituency on Saturday morning.
Mr Sunak met local veterans in Yorkshire at the start of the weekend after completing a whistlestop two-day tour of the UK on Friday, though his plans for rest of the day had been unclear.
Treasury minister Bim Afolami confirmed the PM “will be campaigning” in the day as he was questioned about the weekend agenda on Sky News.
Asked whether the PM was “taking the day off” from the campaign trail, Mr Afolami told Sky News: “It’s not right. He’s going to be campaigning in Yorkshire.”
Asked whether Mr Sunak has lots of events planned, he said: “I don’t know what he’s got planned but I know he’s campaigning in Yorkshire today.”
The Prime Minister had a breakfast with local ex-servicemen in a Wetherspoons in Northallerton, in his Richmond constituency, in the morning.
Labour’s shadow environment secretary has said the UK’s water industry is broken, after several people were taken ill in south London.
Commenting on a potential contamination of London’s drinking water, Steve Reed MP said: “Just days ago, a parasite outbreak was making people sick in Devon, now London’s drinking water may not be safe to drink.
“The Conservatives just folded their arms and looked the other way while water companies pumped a tidal wave of raw sewage into our rivers, lakes, and seas – putting our nation’s health at risk.
“It’s time for change. A Labour government will put the water companies under tough special measures to end this scandal. We will give the regulator new powers so law-breaking water bosses face criminal charges and see their huge bonuses being blocked until they clean up their toxic filth.”