Wes Streeting has mocked the Conservatives for trying to portray Keir Starmer as old and doddery, joking that the TV debates between the Labour leader and Rishi Sunak should be replaced with a one-to-one football challenge, in which Starmer would “take out” Sunak’s ankles, to settle the issue.
The shadow health secretary said he was “pretty disgusted” at some of the Conservatives’ campaign tactics, notably anonymous quotes calling Starmer “Sir Sleepy” and intimating that at 61 he was less vigorous than the 44-year-old prime minister.
On the basis of footage from Monday showing Sunak clumsily dribbling between cones before nearly tripping over the ball, Streeting said, the prime minister would be no match for Starmer, who plays five-a-side football regularly.
“What have we seen so far? We’ve seen Rishi Sunak trying to paint himself as the youthful, dynamic candidate against his older opponent,” Streeting said.
“Seeing that appalling stunt of Rishi trying to dribble a ball, Keir would take his ankles out in a second on a football pitch. Forget the TV debates – let’s have one-on-one in the midfield. I know who my money would be on.”
Questioned by reporters during a campaign visit to Amersham in Buckinghamshire on Monday about the Trumpian name-calling, Sunak refused to distance himself from it.
Asked if he really felt the Labour leader was not physically up to the job of being prime minister and that “Sir Sleepy” was an accurate moniker, Sunak replied: “I’m really not familiar with his sleeping habits. What I can speak to is what I’m doing, which is working incredibly hard every day of this campaign.”
Streeting said such tactics were indicative of an increasingly desperate prime minister and Conservative party.
“Rishi has gone from clinging on to No 10 by his fingernails to scraping the barrel with his fingernails in this general election campaign,” he said. “The Conservative party is a national embarrassment. I think that’s why so many Conservative MPs are standing down, they don’t want to be associated with it.
“People have got to bear in mind when it comes to the Conservative party, things can get worse. Rishi Sunak won’t last five minutes as leader of the Conservative party if they win the election. And imagine which of the cast of clowns might follow.”
