Salford: The leaders of Britain’s two main political parties faced off in the first live broadcast of the general election campaign on Tuesday, a month before voters go to the polls and predicted victory for the main opposition Labor Party.
Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he had a “clear plan for a safer future”, while Labor leader Keir Starmer said on July 4 he wanted to “transform our country” with national support.
“Apart from raising your taxes and attacking your pensions, nobody knows what Labor will do,” he said, as he fought to revive the party’s weak campaign.
Starmer, whose biggest opinion polls mean he has more to lose than fight, said the election would be a choice between “most of the chaos and division we’ve seen.
The two men have repeatedly said they will not speak to each other and asked for their votes as they clash on issues ranging from immigration, education to health and the zero-energy transition, but no new plans have been announced.
In the lead-up to the clash, Nigel Farage has been shadowing his return to the political ranks, which could spell bad news for the Tories.
Farage, whose views on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union have long been mainstream, is running as the anti-immigration Reform Party candidate.
But it risks splitting the right-wing vote, allowing Labor to return to power for the first time since 2010, with a record majority if ballot paper predictions are met.
Labor has been enjoying double-digit polls for 18 months and the campaign has been running for about two weeks as Britain grows weary of the Conservatives after nearly half a decade in power.
The 44-year-old candidate announced the May 22 election, calling it six months earlier than necessary, and spoke in the rain outside No 10 Downing Street in a highly insulting manner.
He made tantalizing promises to sway the right people who want to be tougher on immigration and the legal system.
It includes promises to introduce a national form of service for 18-year-olds, cap pensioners’ income tax and change the UK’s Equality Act to limit biological sex to those who can use single-sex spaces.
Starmer, 61, is playing it safe, trying to convince voters that he will be in charge of Britain’s economy and defense while trying to protect Labour’s lead.
A YouGov poll on Monday – using the same national model that correctly predicted the 2017 and 2019 general elections – showed Labor on track to win 422 of the 650 seats in Parliament.
It would deliver the centre-left party’s best ever election result and hand the Conservatives their worst defeat in more than a century as many senior ministers resign.
Another poll by More in Common using the same model has a Labor majority of 114.
Both came before Farage announced his decision to return as leader, allowing him to contest the Reform Party which was originally set up as the Brexit Party and take part in the election debate.
The move comes less than two weeks after the former member of the European Parliament, who failed seven terms as a UK MP, said he would not stand down.
Farage, who was once dubbed “Mr Brexit” by his close friend Donald Trump, is targeting more than just a seat in the UK parliament as the new member for Clacton in the east of England.
He launched his campaign at the seaside resort on Tuesday, calling for an “anti-establishment people’s army” and attacking the Tories for allowing immigration to reach record levels.
Not everyone seemed to support the man’s rhetoric. Looks like he tried a banana milkshake when he left the base.
Farage has previously admitted he wants to capitalize on any Tory ideological strife after the election.
“I don’t want to join the Conservative Party, I think it’s better to take it,” Farage told ITV.
UK leaders clash in TV debate as Farage enters election fray
