We are closing this blog shortly but you can read our debate report here and all our election coverage here. Thanks for following along with us.
Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt have clashed again in a second seven-way TV debate, one which also saw representatives from smaller parties turn their attacks on Labour as they seem set for government.
Labour’s deputy leader repeatedly saw her answers on subjects including public services and the economy interrupted as Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, accused Labour of wanting to raise taxes, while also saying the party had no economic plans.
“You’ve had 14 years to come up with some ideas,” Mordaunt said at one point. Rayner, prompting laughter from the ITV audience, replied: “You’ve had 14 years in government.”
In an identical lineup to the first seven-way debate on BBC One, the pair debated alongside: Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats; Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader; Stephen Flynn, the Westminster leader of the Scottish National party; Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Greens; and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader.
Much like the earlier debate, just under a week ago, the sheer number of participants often made events a bit chaotic, as the panellists talked over each other and jostled for airtime.
But some themes emerged, including a tendency for Labour to take a degree of criticism from a range of parties, while Farage focused his aim on the Conservatives.
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Fact check: GDP per capita rose in the first quarter of 2024
In tonight’s ITV election debate Farage said gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has fallen for the last six quarters in a row. He said: “GDP, wealth per capita, has fallen for the last six consecutive quarters.”
The PA news agency have fact checked this and report that in the first quarter of 2024, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that GDP per capita rose to £8,281 from £8,249 in the previous quarter. Before that, it had shrunk every quarter since the first quarter of 2022 when it was £8,393.
Candidates’ closing statements
Denyer asked whether Labour is offering real change. She said the Green MPs will never stop defending the NHS from privatisation.
Mordaunt said Rayner had proved tonight that Labour will put up taxes. If you value your pension, vote Conservative, she said.
Cooper said the Lib Dems are offering a “fair deal”. She said that in many places in the UK, voting for the Lib Dems is the best way of getting the Tories out.
Rayner said the choice at this general election is simple. She said NHS waiting times will be brought down and streets will be made safer. Vote Labour for change, said Rayner.
Flynn said voters should vote SNP to put Scotland’s interest first.
Farage said he’d come out of retirement with passion in his heart. He said Starmer will in the election but the question is who will lead the opposition? He means himself.
Ap Iorwerth said he was there to offer a positive vision of what Wales could be. He said it was high time that Conservatives were kicked out of power but Labour also need to be held to account.
And that’s it.
Question: Trust in politics
Question: What one change can you make to restore trust in politics?
Etchingham gave each of the participants 30 seconds to answer.
Cooper said the Lib Dems want proportional representation and devolvement of power to local communities.
Rayner said politicians need to bring back ethics and integrity back into politics.
Mordaunt said honesty in manifestos and started pointing at the other participants, saying “higher taxes”.
Ap Iorwerth said honesty and good judgment in politicians is needed.
Denyer said changing voting to a proportional system is what is she would opt for.
Flynn said people should vote for who they believe in and hold their politicians to high standards
Farage said he would change the voting system, enable more referendums and said the House of Lords is “a disgrace”.
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Laughter as Rayner and Mordaunt clash in seven-way debate
The speedy Peter Walker has already filed his news piece on tonight’s seven-way debate, which you can read here:
We’re a little behind on the live blogging but will be bringing some more key moments of the later part of the debate, which has now ended.
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Mordaunt has repeated her party’s controversial claim that Labour would raise taxes by an average £2,000 per working household.
She said:
This is not the time to suddenly ramp up taxes on people. Labour are going to do this.
What you haven’t been told is what taxes and on what people but the average is £2,000 per working household in this country. People can’t afford that.”
The audience applauded when SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn replied: “You know what the public can’t afford, Penny, is any longer, one single day more of a Conservative government which is completely out of touch with reality.”
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In tonight’s ITV debate Etchingham invited each of the seven participants to ask one question of another participant.
Denyer asked Rayner “which of Labour’s u-turns she’s most proud of?”. If Etchingham thought this would not result in unruly behaviour, she was mistaken. Mordaunt also directed her question at Rayner: “You are not going to raise capital gains tax?”
Farage asked Mordaunt about migration, while Rayner asked Mordaunt if she would allow Farage into the Conservative party.
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Farage agreed with the SNP’s Westminster leader that the Westminster electoral system is “broken”.
Stephen Flynn said:
In my view, you should always vote if you are doing well in life for the politician who will make sure that others get on in life, and if you’re not doing so well in life, you should always vote for the politician who’s going to make things better for you.
I think that’s a nice and good starting point in politics. The Westminster system - the way it operates – is broken. It’s been built on failure, Brexit being the most obvious one of recent times.
Hold your politicians to high standards and vote for what you believe in.”
Farage said:
I do agree. The first-past-the-post system has led to the two big parties – well, one was big, not after today’s polls, but there we are – they’re both mushy, sort-of SDP parties in the middle.
I would change the voting system. I think the House of Lords is an abomination, the fact that it’s filled up with party donors is a complete disgrace. There must be an elected element. And finally, let’s give the people the ability to call more referendums so they can decide the biggest issue of their lives.”
Replying, Flynn said: “I was just surprised that Nigel Farage wants another referendum on Scottish independence. I’m sure there’s a lot of folk back in Scotland who’d be … keen to see that happen.”
Farage quipped: “Oh come on, you don’t want to lose again, do you?”
Etchingham tells Farage that Suella Braverman has spoken warmly of him and she has said that the two child benfit cap should be removed. Farage says he thinks we should be encouraging people to have families and would be in favour of a tax benefits for married people.
Etchingham asks if Farage is saying the two child benefit cap should be removed and he says: “We’ve got to help people.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper told the seven-way ITV1 debate:
Penny Mordaunt has said the Conservatives haven’t put tax up but really?
“I mean of course they’ve put tax up. They have frozen the personal allowance (so) people were dragged into paying a higher rate of tax – that’s an invisible tax increase by the Conservatives, but the fact is the cost of living crisis has been made so much worse by the mini-budget which blew a hole in the public finances and made people’s rent and mortgages go absolutely sky high and people have felt that and they are still trying to recover now.”
Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth accused the Conservatives of “mismanagement” and said:
They missed the opportunity to invest in economic growth in order to help our communities during those years when interest rates were low.
What they chose to do is have this ideological drive to cut public spending that hit everybody, especially those who are poorest.”
He asked “where is the ambition” in Labour and Conservative general election proposals.
A vote for the Tories is now a vote to enable a Labour government, says Farage
A vote for the Tories is now a vote to enable a Labour government, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said in a flip of Conservatives’ campaign rhetoric.
As the political panellists were given a chance to ask each other questions, Farage cited the Conservatives’ record on migration in a question to Penny Mordaunt, asking: “Why on earth should anybody believe the fifth manifesto that promises cuts to net migration?”
Mordaunt replied: “Because of the record of this prime minister.”
After being laughed at by the audience for this answer, the Conservative frontbencher warned: “Nigel is a Labour enabler. He is enabling no cap, no target, and no plan.”
Farage responded:
I don’t believe a single word that you say, you have deceived us in the last four manifestos. I don’t believe you at the fifth.
And as for being a Labour enabler, we are now ahead of you in the national polls. A vote for you is actually now a vote for Labour.”
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Question: Poverty and cost of living
Question: I’ve worked in housing for 32 years. Why am I working every day with individuals and families that never thought they’d struggle and now rely on food banks and are at serious risk of homelessness?
Farage blames the “population explosion” again. He says more houses need to be built and “take the poorer people out of tax”. He wants to increase the tax threshold to £20,000.
Ap Iorwerth says the UK is rich but unequal. He says war and global conditions exacerbated the cost of living crisis but also references Trussonomics.
Flynn says what concerns him is what comes next: “the status quo consensus in Westminster is for £18bn public sector cuts isn’t it Angela?”
Cooper says the Lib Dems were the first party to call for a windfall tax. They would spread free school meals to every child living in poverty and invest in farmers so the cost of healthy, locally grown food is reduced.
Rayner talks about building more homes and social housing. She also references Labour’s GB Energy plan.
Mordaunt says she thinks this is the issue of the election. What is needed now is to cut tax so people can keep more of their money, she says.
Denyer wants to tax millionaires and billionaires, raise minimum wage to £15 and lift the “cruel” two child benefit cap.
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Rayner calls the Rwanda scheme a “gimmick”. Mordaunt asks what exactly Labour will do instead and says Starmer couldn’t answer the question at the Labour manifesto today.
SNP's Flynn says it is 'shameful' Labour won't seek to rejoin EU
Angela Rayner faced calls of “shameful” from Stephen Flynn when she suggested Labour would not seek to rejoin the EU.
An audience question from Ken from Caerphilly asked the political parties if they would seek to rejoin the EU or single market.
“No,” Rayner said and suggested Labour respected the result of the referendum. “Shameful, shameful,” Flynn could be heard to say. He later added that his party would “yes absolutely” seek to rejoin, as did the Greens, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru.
For the Tories, Mordaunt added: “No, and if you have a Labour government they will take you back in, they will tie you on defence, on migration, on regulation, without any of the benefits of membership.”
Farage said: “No, we are free. Unfortunately, we are governed incompetently, but at least they are our mistakes and not somebody else’s.”
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Etchingham’s wish that the participants will answer uninterrupted has splintered as Mordaunt, Rayner and Cooper argue over migration. “Dear, oh dear,” says Farage.
Flynn says people shouldn’t believe Farage when he says migrants are making them poorer. He says Brexit is the biggest problem facing the UK economy, to applause.
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Politicians clash over immigration
Senior politicians have clashed over immigration during the seven-way debate on ITV1.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said:
What we need at the moment is a skills strategy. We have not had an industrial and skills strategy, so what we have is we’ve been over-reliant in our economy from overseas workers to fill our skills gap, and they’ve done a tremendous job in doing that and we have needed that, but what we really need is, as employment levels have gone higher again, is we need to really match those skills to give people opportunity to take those jobs.”
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage said: “Well, it’s funny Angela Rayner says that because Labour today launched their six key priorities at the general election and didn’t mention the single most important issue affecting the lives of everybody in this country, namely the population explosion caused directly by migration.”
Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “We need to heed and listen to people who have genuine concerns about the impact of the movement of population, pressures on public services, but we have to put that in the context of public spending cuts by the Conservatives.”
He accused Farage of having been on “a dogwhistle tour of the UK for many, many years and exploiting the anxiety that people have”.
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Mordaunt says the Tories have a cap and a plan for migration and that Labour don’t have this. Etchingham asks the seven participants to raise their hand if they think the number of legal migration needs to fall. Mordaunt, Farage, Cooper and Rayner all raise their hands.
“The Westminster status quo,” says Flynn shaking his head.
Cooper says the Lib Dems want to create a royal college of care workers. Ap Iorwerth says that the problem is that Farage has been on a “dog whistle tour” and the rhetoric on this topic needs to change. Farage interrupts saying “it’s making us poorer”.
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Denyer says she thinks it’s “shameful when some politicians scapegoat the people who become our neighbours, our friends, our colleagues to distract from their chronic underinvestment in public services”. The solution is investing in communities. She says the Green party will never engage in the scapegoat rhetoric.
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Debate moves on to migration
Question: I keep hearing that migration levels are too high and are getting higher … I understand that we as a country need some foreign workers, but what are you going to do?
Rayner says our economy has been over-reliant on overseas workers to fill skill gaps. Labour has an industrial skills strategy that would tackle this, she says. It would “skill up” people in the UK, she says.
Farage says people voted to reduce “the numbers coming in” when they voted for Brexit and the Conservatives in the last general election. He says “one in 30 people walking on the street out there has come in the last two years’alone”. Net migration has to be at zero, he insists.
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Farage thinks that putting 20% on private school fees is a “self-defeating policy” as it would then put the burden on state schools. Rayner says we cannot afford to give private schools a tax break.
Lib Dems' Cooper says party was 'punished' over tuition fees
During the discussion about education, and especially universities, Flynn poked fun at the Lib Dems history with tuition fees.
“We were punished for that. That’s democracy,” Cooper replied. She changes subject by bringing up the Conservative’s move of scrapping maintenance grants.
Denyer says it’s time to invest in school buildings, teachers and in making “schools more than exam factories”.
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Denyer accuses Labour of being too careful with its tax plans
Angela Rayner said she had “never been called timid in my life” when the Greens accused Labour of being too careful with its tax plans.
As the parties debated investment in public services, Green co-leader Carla Denyer told the ITV debate:
I would like to know from Angela: why so timid? Why wait for economic growth when you could introduce a tax that doesn’t affect those on average incomes or lower incomes, it only affects the billionaires and multi-millionaires?
It could raise tens of millions of pounds. Why won’t Labour even consider it?”
Labour deputy leader Rayner replied: “I have never been called timid in my life.”
She pointed to reforms rather than extra tax and spend as the solution, adding:
We gutted our home care services, it costs so much more money now that people are stuck on trolleys in A&E for 40 hours plus.
These are our elderly relatives that are treated really poorly and it costs us more money, so if we put the money in the right place, we can actually make savings.”
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Laughter as Mordaunt describes UK education system as 'world class'
Penny Mordaunt was laughed at by the ITV audience when she described the UK’s education system as “world class”.
Host Julie Etchingham said ITV had received messages from hundreds of teachers saying schools are in crisis while one 12-year-old had written in about his crumbling school building.
“Be honest, do you think our education system is still world class?” the host asked. Mordaunt said: “I think it is world class and we have improved.”
To laughter, she added:
Well, when we took office literacy rates were trailing the world, now they are leading them.
We have 90% of our schools are good or outstanding and we have undertaken an enormous refurbishment programme.”
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“Most of the public don’t care what colour the cat is, they just want some mice caught,” the Mordaunt has said in reference to “dogma”, while answering a question about the NHS.
Answering the first question during ITV’s seven-way debate, Mordaunt said:
They [the public] want results and in my experience, listening to people who are actually doing these jobs – police officers who have reduced crime by half over the time we’ve been in office, healthcare professionals who are coming up with amazing initiatives in our hospitals and in our GP surgeries, teachers who are responsible now have 90% of our schools good or outstanding. Listen to the professionals in those services, keep political dogma out of it.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper addressed the issue of private involvement in the NHS and said:
To be honest, where there is capacity in the private sector, we could be using some of it in order to bring down waiting lists, but let’s not kid ourselves, there is very limited capacity in the private sector and we shouldn’t be using it if it guts more capacity from the NHS.”
Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “I have to draw attention to the analogy with the cats and the mice here. What we’ve seen under the Conservatives and 14 years is the fat cats getting rich and getting the cream. I fear that with privatisation of the NHS, we’re going to see the same under Labour.”
SNP's Flynn blames Brexit for hospital and staffing issues
Farage laughs as Flynn says “we need more people coming in to work in our hospitals and in our social care”. He blames Brexit for staffing issues. Farage says that Labour is right to use the private sector in the NHS.
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Rayner rebuts Flynn’s comment. She says that Wes Streeting has said that capacity in the private sector would be used to bring down waiting lists, rather than keep people waiting for years. She says again that Labour will always keep the NHS publicly owned.
Etchingham again asks the seven participants whether the have tangible “big ideas”. Rayner says reform and new technology is needed for the “best possible care”. She presses the point about social care needing to be tackled also.
Flynn says the shadow health secretary has essentially said the door would be open to the private sector. Rayner says that’s not true.
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Daisy Cooper says she’s heard versions of this question again and again. She says the Lib Dem’s manifesto is a manifesto to save the NHS and that they would invest £9bn “upstream”. Under the Lib Dems, Cooper says there will be 8,000 more GPs and the dentist crisis would be tackled.
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Labour’s Angela Rayner says the “workforce problem” needs to be fixed and investment is needed. She says the NHS will remain a public service under Labour. She says unless you tackle social care along with the NHS “then you won’t fix the problem”.
Carla Denyer for the Green party says on the NHS that the Conservatives plan doesn’t help when they’re refusing to pay health workers properly. She says Labour’s solution of more privatisation isn’t helpful either.
The answer, she says, is investment. For both the NHS and social care, she adds.
Panellists quizzed on plans to help an NHS that is 'on its knees'
The first question is on the public services with a focus on the NHS.
Q: The NHS was an amazing thing but, unfortunately, now it is on its knees. So many public services are not working as they used to. Do any of you have any ideas that are big enough to make things work again?
The Conservative’s Penny Mordaunt says the “only way” to reduce the NHS waiting lists is to keep the NHS budget strong. She says Labour is the only party on tonight’s platform to cut that and says they have cut the NHS budget three times in Wales. Mordaunt says Conservatives have brought in 70,000 more nurses.
The SNP’s Stephen Flynn says under a future Labour government there would be £18bn worth of public sector cuts.
Rhun ap Iorwerth for Plaid Cymru says at the heart of the future of the NHS is sustainability of the workforce as well as funding. He says it “pains so many people to hear Labour’s Wes Streeting talking about bringing the private sector into the NHS”.
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage says the reason NHS caseloads are up due to an “exploding population”. He says “all of our public services are under pressure because the population has increased by 6 million since the Conservatives came to power”. He says even though people talk about more money for the NHS, we need to look at countries such as France where people pay into an insurance fund. “Let’s think more broadly,” he says.
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Etchingham says the format for tonight is simple. Questions will be coming from the audience and Etchingham says she might add in questions from viewers. She says the participants will be able to answer uninterrupted.
Etchingham passes over to the seven participants to introduce themselves to the viewers.
Seven-party ITV debate kicks off
Julie Etchingham, the ITV newsreader and journalist who is chairing tonight’s debate, opens the programme.
Bookmakers told to find all substantial bets placed on July poll after Sunak aide’s ‘flutter’
Bookmakers have been asked by the Gambling Commission to trawl through all substantial bets placed on a July election after one of Rishi Sunak’s closest aides put a wager on the poll date just days before it was announced.
The prime minister said he was “disappointed” with the behaviour of Craig Williams, which was revealed in the Guardian, but neither would be drawn on whether they had discussed the date of the election prior to the bet being placed.
The watchdog has now asked bookmakers to provide information on all substantial bets on the timing of the election after odds shortened on a July poll in the week before the date was announced.
Williams, who is standing for re-election in Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, placed a £100 bet with Ladbrokes on a July poll. The Gambling Commission launched an inquiry after the bet was referred to them by the bookmaker.
Williams, Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary and who was MP for Montgomeryshire until parliament was dissolved, would not confirm if he had insider information on the date.
The prime minister refused to be drawn on whether he would disown Williams as a candidate, saying: “It is very disappointing. Craig Williams has said that it’s a huge error of judgment. Now there is an independent inquiry which is confidential and it’s important that that is allowed to continue. It’s not appropriate to say anything while that’s ongoing.”
It understood the watchdog wrote to all licensed bookmakers this week requesting information on anyone who stood to gain more than £199 by betting on a July election in the UK.
You can read the full piece by Matthew Weaver, Jim Waterson and Jessica Elgot here:
Reform overtakes Conservative party in YouGov poll for the Times
In more disappointing news for the Tories, the Times is publishing an opinion poll that says that Reform have now overtaken them. Its political editor, Steven Swinford, has recently tweeted the story.
EXCLUSIVE:
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) June 13, 2024
Nigel Farage's Reform Party has overtaken the Conservatives in the polls for the first time
A Yougov survey for The Times finds that Reform has increased support by two points to 19%. Tories are on 18%.
The poll was carried out after Rishi Sunak launched the Tory…
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According to Savanta, the Labour manifesto featured 34 pictures of Keir Starmer while the Conservative manifesto had no pictures of Rishi Sunak.
It suggests that the potential reason why is because Starmer (43%) leads Sunak (29%) in the all-important ‘best PM’ question among the public by 14-points, with his three largest leads coming in last three weeks.
📸Lab manifesto: 34 pictures of Keir Starmer
— Savanta UK (@Savanta_UK) June 13, 2024
📷Con manifesto: 0 pictures of Rishi Sunak
Potential reason why?
Starmer (43%) leads Sunak (29%) in all-important Best PM question among public by 14-points, with his 3 largest leads coming in last 3 weeks. pic.twitter.com/OSpGb9QQPz
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Ed Davey has declined to name the bills he wants to table in the first 100 days of the next parliament, reports the PA news agency.
Even if the Liberal Democrats cannot form a government after the general election, either with another party or by itself, their future MPs could shape the legislative agenda by tabling private members’ bills.
In the party’s manifesto, presented on Monday, the Liberal Democrats set out its proposals for new laws – including a “comprehensive new animal welfare bill”, “higher standards of behaviour from government ministers by enshrining the ministerial code in law”, and a new Hillsborough law for “a statutory duty of candour on police officers and all public officials”.
Asked about how he might shape legislation from the opposition benches, Davey told the PA news agency: “Oh, you know, I’m not thinking about that yet. That would be taking the voters for granted – I’m not going to do that.”
After racing around an assault course in rural Kent, the party leader said:
I’m going to work every minute till close of polls to try to win people over to the Liberal Democrat cause and to elect local champions for their area.
But with the manifesto, I guess the key things is if you want to know what Liberal Democrat MPs are going to champion in the next parliament, it’s going to be health and care – we’ve put that at the centre of our manifesto.
It’s going to be helping people with the cost of living, whether it’s our policy on free school meals or insulating people’s homes to help their energy bills, or it’s going to be things like the sewage scandal, so read the manifesto – that’s what the Liberal Democrat MPs when elected will keep campaigning for.”
The party has pledged to extend free school meals to all children in poverty, with the ambition to extend them to all primary schoolchildren when the public finances allow, and offer free insulation and heat pumps “for those on low incomes”.
On the campaign trail on Thursday, Davey visited Arena Pursuits in Wadhurst, on the Kent and Sussex border, with his party’s Tunbridge Wells candidate Mike Martin.
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A former Conservative MP seeking re-election has hit out at his Reform UK opponent after it emerged that the latter’s Facebook profile picture used the words “jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew”.
Ben Bradley, who is fighting for re-election in the key marginal of Mansfield, highlighted a posting on the Facebook page of Reform UK’s Matthew Warnes.
Warnes had changed his Facebook profile picture in July 2013 to one which said: “Don’t be racist! Be like Mario. He’s an Italian plumber created by Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican … jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”
The image appeared to have since been deleted.
Bradley said:
Over the last few months especially, we’ve seen horrendous examples of antisemitism on our streets, outside MPs’ homes, parliament and in the Labour party. It’s vital that conservatives call this stuff out when it comes from the right too.
Whilst I despise cancel culture and believe in forgiveness and tolerance, I hope Mr Warnes thinks carefully about whether this is the sort of politics our country and Mansfield need.”
A Reform UK spokesperson said:
We take all allegations very seriously and will take appropriate action after a thorough internal investigation.
That being said the image was certainly ill-advised, a bad joke from 11 years ago. And Mr Warnes is deeply embarrassed that he posted it then.”
The spokesperson described Warnes as someone who “gives hugely of himself” by providing free entertainment for disadvantaged children in Mansfield in the guise of his ‘Captain Mansfield’ party and entertainment service.
Another good place to get up to speed on today’s general election events and news is via Archie Bland’s campaign catchup. In this latest edition, he covers a rabbit-free manifesto, a So Solid revival and David Cameron’s mum.
Keir Starmer faces challenge over cost of Labour manifesto
Keir Starmer faced new questions over how Labour would pay to fix Britain’s broken public services as he vowed to “turn the page for ever” on held-back potential and end political “pantomime” during the party’s manifesto launch.
The Labour leader said he saw “potential held back” everywhere he went as a result of a lack of housing, the cost of living crisis, low wages and inadequate healthcare for children.
Putting wealth creation at the heart of the party’s plan for government, Starmer said the manifesto was a rejection of a “defeatist” approach to the economy which suggested the “only levers” were tax and spend, rather than growth.
“The way we create wealth is broken,” he told an event in Manchester. “It leaves far too many people feeling insecure. Wealth creation is our number one priority. Growth is our core business. If you take nothing else away from this today, let it be this.”
But he faced scepticism over how he could avoid deep spending cuts to public services such as transport, justice and local councils, without fudging his fiscal targets or putting up taxes.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, said Labour was part of a “conspiracy of silence” along with the other main parties on the scale of the fiscal challenge and spending cuts to come.
“Delivering genuine change will almost certainly also require putting actual resources on the table,” he said. “Labour’s manifesto offers no indication that there is a plan for where the money would come from to finance this.”
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What to expect tonight
ITV will host a 90-minute seven party debate, which is scheduled to kick off at 8.30pm BST.
Moderated by Julie Etchingham, the debate will include:
Penny Mordaunt for the Conservative party
Angela Rayner for the Labour party
Daisy Cooper for Liberal Democrats
Stephen Flynn for SNP
Nigel Farage for Reform
Carla Denyer for Green party
Rhun ap Iorwerth for Plaid Cymru
If the last multiparty debate was anything to go by, we can expect clashes (perhaps that £2,000 tax rise claim will come up again?) and hostile exchanges. At the BBC seven party debate, Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner sparred over taxes, defence and the cost of living in a series of bad-tempered exchanges.
Another recurring theme of the seven-way debate was representatives of the smaller parties clashing with Nigel Farage, as the Reform UK leader made contentious points on areas including immigration, crime and net zero.
While we don’t know the exact series of topics and questions that will be raised, we can take a good guess that some of biggest general election stories of the past few days will crop up.
Like the previous multiparty debate, lots were drawn to decide the standing positions. Each party’s representative will stand behind podiums on the stage in the order of (L-R) Labour, Liberal Democrats, Conservative, Green party, Reform UK, SNP, Plaid Cymru.
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In case you missed any of today’s manifesto launch from the Labour party, here are a few handy pieces to peruse/listen to ahead of tonight’s TV debate:
The Guardian’s Whitehall correspondent, Rowena Mason, has put together the five key takeaways from the Labour manifesto launch:
My colleague, Larry Elliott, has written an explainer on whether Labour has boxed itself in with promise of no tax rises for ‘working people’.
In an election extra, the Today in Focus podcast takes a look at Labour’s plan. Presented by Heather Stewart:
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Keir Starmer puts wealth creation at heart of Labour manifesto
Keir Starmer has vowed to “turn the page for ever” on held-back potential as he put wealth creation and economic growth at the heart of Labour’s manifesto.
The Labour leader unveiled his plans for government, targeted at winning over former Tory voters, at an event at the Co-op headquarters in Manchester.
He said: “The way we create wealth is broken. It leaves far too many people feeling insecure. Wealth creation is our number one priority. If you take nothing else away from this today, let it be this. We are pro-business and pro-worker. A plan for wealth creation.”
Starmer said he saw “potential held back” everywhere he went by lack of housing, the cost of living crisis, low wages and children with rotting teeth.
“Britain has lost its balance. It is too hard for people to get on. Opportunity is not spread evenly,” he said at his manifesto launch in Manchester. “The toxic idea that economic growth is something handed out by the few to the many. Today we turn the page on that for ever.
“Redistribution can’t be a one-word plan for our poorest towns and regions.”
Starmer stressed that a Labour government would not be able to turn things around immediately, saying: “We don’t have a magic wand.”
Asked why there was no new policy in his manifesto, Starmer said: “It’s not about rabbits out of a hat, not about pantomime. I’m running as the candidate to be prime minister, not to run the circus.”
You can read the full piece by Pippa Crerar and Rowena Mason on Labour’s manifesto launch here:
Updated
Good evening, and welcome to our politics blog covering the multiparty general election debate on ITV which kicks off at 8.30pm BST.
Julie Etchingham is moderating and the parties will be represented by Penny Mordaunt for the Tories, Angela Rayner for Labour, Daisy Cooper for the Lib Dems, Stephen Flynn for SNP, Nigel Farage for Reform, Carla Denyer for the Greens and Rhun ap Iorwerth for Plaid Cymru.
It’s the same lineup as a previous debate hosted on BBC One by Mishal Husain which was marked by a series of bad-tempered exchanges between Rayner and Mordaunt over taxes, defence and the cost of living.
It’s probably fair to expect more of the same tonight, but at least this time the position of the candidates – which has been decided by drawing lots – means that Rayner and Mordaunt won’t be next to each other. Tonight the Lib Dems’ Cooper will be caught in the middle!
I’m Amy Sedghi and will be taking you through this evening’s debate. Do drop me a line on amy.sedghi@guardian.co.uk if you need to get in touch.
