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Sir Keir Starmer has mocked Rishi Sunak’s rain-soaked general election announcement, saying his attacks on Labour asylum policy are “as daft as he looked standing in the rain without an umbrella”.
The Labour leader was responding to prime minister’s attacks on the party’s migration plans, which the Tories dubbed an “amnesty for illegal migrants”.
Sir Keir has promised to scrap the Rwanda scheme and free up £75m to spend on hiring a new Border Security Command force to crack down on people smuggling gangs.
He accused the prime minister of never having believed the Rwanda deportation plan would work after Mr Sunak conceded that flights would not take off before the election.
As party leaders began their campaigns, Mr Sunak urged voters to back him over the government’s flagship immigration scheme and admitted planes carrying asylum seekers to Kigali would take off after polling day.
Starmer has refused to take weekly TV debates with Sunak after being challenged by the Tories, saying he would rather talk to voters directly.
But energy secretary Claire Coutinho has attacked the Labour leader saying he is “too scared to debate” Sunak.
Politics Explained | What are Reform's chances now Farage has ducked the election?
After five unsuccessful general election attempts and two by-elections, he said: “I will do my bit to help in the campaign, but it is not the right time for me to go any further than that.”
However, Richard Tice, the leader, bravely claimed that the party’s founder ‘will be everywhere’ during the campaign, writes John Rentoul.
Diane Abbott fury as Starmer suggests her suspension is nothing to do with him
Diane Abbott has claimed that Starmer was wrong to claim that the decision about whether to readmit the MP back has nothing to do with him.
The Labour leader said this morning that Ms Abbott will find out if she can stand as a Labour candidate in a few years.
He told Sky News: “The final decisions on candidates is coming up in a few days’ time, I think June 4, it may be a little earlier, a little later, I can’t quite remember.
“But within a relatively short period of time the final list of candidates will be decided, and that will be a matter for the Labour party’s national executive committee.”
Sir Keir Starmer is now speaking from Scotland
The Labour leader is at a campaign event in Glasgow alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
He tells Scottish voters: “There is no change without Scotland, Scotland is central to the mission of the next Labour government.”
Pictured: Rishi Sunak campaigning in Northern Ireland
Jewish Labour Movement: ‘Party became unsafe under Corbyn’
The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) said the party became an unsafe space for Jews under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Archie Mitchell reports.
“He refused to acknowledge the scale of antisemitism in Labour, even when the EHRC found the party guilty of breaking the law,” a spokesman said.
The spokesman added: “The Labour Party we see today is unrecognisable from what it had become under Corbyn, thanks to the leadership of Keir Starmer. Voters in Islington North deserve a Labour MP and Government - we’ll be campaigning to make sure they get one.”
Tories brand Starmer ‘scared’ as Labour leader rejects weekly TV debates with Sunak
Sir Keir Starmer has rejected a challenge by Rishi Sunak to take part in head to head TV debates every week between now and polling day, David Maddox reports.
The Labour leader defended his decision saying he would rather talk to voters directly and claimed the prime minister had nothing new to say.
But energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Sir Keir Starmer is too scared to debate the Prime Minister because he doesn’t have a plan and hasn’t got the courage to stand up and say what he believes in or to stand up for Britain.”
‘Starmer’s inane waffle on TV,’ says Tory MP
The chairman of the Conservative Party said the Labour leader has an “inane waffle” during his morning round of TV interviews.
Richard Holden added that his interviews made the “strongest case possible” for holding TV debates.
Charities slam Starmer’s claim to scrap two-child benefits limit
The Labour leader admitted the party can’t afford to scrap tow-child benefits limit.
Asked if he wanted to scrap the cap, Sir Keirsaid that “in an ideal world, of course, but we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment”.
Charities have now reacted to his comments urging him to commit to a policy change.
A spokesperson from Children’s Prosperity Plan said: “The one million children in the UK living in poverty because of this policy cannot wait for an ideal world.
“These children, many of whom are ethnic minorities and living in homes where someone is disabled, will have to contend with long-term impacts on their health, wellbeing and educational outcomes.
“This Tory policy denies the truth that all children are of equal and immeasurable worth. We cannot hope to achieve a strong economy and strong communities for as long as millions of our children are growing up in poverty.”
Rishi Sunak ramps up debate challenge to Starmer
Rishi Sunak is ramping up his challenge to Sir Keir Starmer over whether the Labour leader will debate him six times during the campaign, Archie Mitchell reports.
The prime minister has said he wants a debate every week until the 4 July contest, while Labour officials have suggested Sir Keir will take part in two TV head to heads.
The prime minister on Friday shared a Conservative Party meme of Sir Keir mocked up as a Ken-like action figure which “can be anything”.
“Not coming to a debate near you,” Mr Sunak said.
Nigel Farage says he was planning to launch MP campaign next week
But Mr Farage admitted the prime minister had “wrong-footed” him by calling an election for July 4.
He said: “What I could not do in the space of six weeks… was to find a constituency from scratch and go around the country.”
He added he had not decided which constituency he would run in as of yet as there were “a variety of options” which he felt he could have gone for.
Despite not running as a candidate, Mr Farage said he would campaign for Reform UK and stressed his support for party leader Richard Tice.
He told GB News: “Am I going to be campaigning? Yes. Am I backing Richard Tice? One hundred per cent… I am utterly committed to Reform.
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2024-05-24 09:58:36Z
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