Tempers fray as Sunak, Starmer trade blows in debate

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer launched highly negative attacks on each other as PM used his underdog status in an attempt to make voters think twice about Labour.

Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak in their last debate before the election. Picture: BBC via Getty Images.

Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak launched highly negative attacks on each other in a bad-tempered debate in which the prime minister used his underdog status in an attempt to make voters think twice about Labour.

The prime minister raised Starmer’s broken pledges on running for the Labour leadership to say his rival could not be trusted. “It goes back to trust,” Sunak said. “It goes back to having the courage of your convictions.”

Sunak accused Starmer of “taking people for fools”, even exclaiming “Oh my God” in frustration at Starmer’s arguments on migration.

In return, Starmer repeatedly raised the prime minister’s conviction for breaking Covid rules as he tried to paint Sunak as part of a culture of Conservative sleaze. He accused Sunak of talking “utter nonsense” and of lying. As the pair talked over each other, Starmer told Sunak at one point: “If you listened to people in the audience and across the country more often you might not be quite so out of touch.”

Rishi Sunak during the BBC's Prime Ministerial Debate. Picture: Getty Images.

Public finances

Starmer called Sunak “Liz Truss mark II”, while the prime minister said his criticism of his predecessor showed he was right to warn of Labour tax rises.

In response to a pointed question about “where is the money going to come from?” Sunak insisted he wanted to cut benefit spending to fund tax cuts.

“It’s right that we make savings from the welfare bill, because it’s forecast to grow at an unsustainable rate,” he said. He claimed repeatedly that Labour would put up taxes: “Mark my words, your pension, your council tax or home your car, you name it, they will tax it.”

Showing an increasing willingness to criticise his predecessor, Sunak said: “I warned repeatedly about what Liz Truss’s economic policies would do to our country. I was right then and that’s why you can trust me now that Labour Party’s policies will mean.”

Starmer insisted this was “false”, mocking Sunak by saying that “his pitch to you seems to be ‘my predecessor as Tory prime minister, broke the country … please vote Tory.’ ”

But he defended refusing to match Tory plans for tax cuts for pensioners, saying: “Pensioners are not going to be better off with a prime minister who’s making promises that he can’t keep because they’re not funded – that’s exactly what Liz Truss got wrong.”

The betting scandal and ethics

Responding to questions over the Westminster betting scandal, Starmer said he acted immediately in suspending a Labour candidate who had bet they would lose. He said Sunak, by contrast, had “delayed and delayed and delayed”, a reference to the 13 days it took the prime minister to suspend Tory candidates accused of betting on the date of the election.

Both tried to widen the criticism to each other’s character. Sunak accused Starmer of reversing his positions and failing to be straight with people. Starmer said that “when you get convicted for breaking the Covid rules … you really shouldn’t be talking about integrity and politics.”

Illegal migration

Starmer struggled to spell out how his party would deal with small boats. He pledged to “smash the gangs” and repeatedly pointed to his record as Director of Public Prosecutions, saying he worked with other countries to disrupt international drugs and terror plots. He vowed to “process” everyone’s asylum claims, saying under the Tories effectively “100 per cent” of asylum claims were granted because of the backlog.

The prime minister asked how Labour would negotiate returns deals with Iranian ayatollahs or the Taliban in Afghanistan – where many small boat migrants come from. Starmer argued that because the Rwanda deal covered a fraction of migrants, it would take 300 years for all to be removed.

Women’s rights

Sunak accused Starmer of shifting his stance on women’s rights – from saying in 2021 that Rosie Duffield, a Labour MP, was “not right” to argue only women had a cervix to saying last week that “biologically, a woman is with a vagina and a man is with a penis”.

Starmer said he had been consistent, supporting women as head of the Crown Prosecution Service by ensuring victims of domestic violence had access to women-only spaces and services. He accused Sunak of “fabricating a difference”.

and said the notes of the Equalities Act already made it clear sex is defined by a person’s biology.

Welfare

Sunak said Labour would deliver “higher taxes and higher welfare” while Starmer accused Sunak of being “out of touch” with the country. A woman in the audience asked how the two leaders would help people off benefits and another woman was worried about losing her disability payments.

Starmer said that he wanted to get the benefits bill down but that the “catastrophe” of NHS waiting lists added to the problem.

Brexit

The Labour leader said there was a “massive gap” between Sunak’s life and that of most people as he accused the government of striking a “botched” deal with the EU. His comment came after a business owner said she had lost 90 per cent of her business with Europe after Brexit. Sunak said renegotiation would require Labour to agree to free movement with Europe and accused Starmer of “taking people for fools”. He said the best way to help small businesses was to scrap national insurance for the self-employed – a measure Starmer said would cost pounds 46 billion.

The Times