Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour challenger Sir Keir Starmer have gone head-to-head over how to boost Britain's economy, with the PM accusing the opposition party of wanting to increase taxes if it wins power at a July 4 election.
Both Sunak, a Conservative, and Starmer stuck to their campaign lines in their first debate on Tuesday just weeks before a general election opinion polls suggest Labour is set to win, with Sunak saying only he had a plan to spur Britain's paltry economic growth and Starmer portraying the Conservatives as presiding over 14 years of economic chaos.
In a heated debate - a recent feature in Britain and one which sees more voters tune into politics - the two leaders battled over how to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, growing waiting lists in the public health service and reducing immigration.
Most of the questions illustrated what many voters are contending with: a cost-of-living crisis when some struggle to pay their household bills, long waits for the health service and lower standards in the education system.
"Keir Starmer is asking you to hand him a blank cheque when he hasn't said what he'll buy with it or how much it's going to cost you," Sunak said in his closing comments. "In uncertain times we simply cannot afford an uncertain prime minister."
Starmer responded saying he would never offer "the gimmicks or unfunded promises that Rishi Sunak does".
"Imagine how you would feel waking up on July 5 to five more years of the Conservatives, five more years of decline and division, the arsonists handed back the matches," he said.
"Now imagine turning the page with a Labour government that rolls up its sleeves and gets on with the job... The choice at this election is clear: more chaos with the Conservatives or the chance to rebuild Britain with a changed Labour Party."
SUNAK ON THE ATTACK
Sunak repeated the Conservatives' attack line that Labour had no plan for the country beyond putting "everyone's taxes up by two thousand pounds" ($NZ4130).
"Mark my words, Labour will raise your taxes. (It) is in their DNA. Your work, your car, your pension, you name it, Labour will tax it."
Starmer did not deny the charge immediately, but later called the 2000 figure "nonsense". Labour has repeatedly said it will not raise income tax or National Insurance social security contributions if it wins power.
"My dad worked in a factory, he was a toolmaker, my mum was a nurse. We didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up," the Labour leader told an audience member who said she was struggling to pay her bills.
"So, I do know the anguish of worrying when the postman comes with a bill, what bill is it, am I going to be able to I pay it? I don’t think the Prime Minister quite understands."
Starmer attacked the Conservative Party for presiding over 14 years of chaos and Sunak's plans to introduce mandatory national service.
The Prime Minister drew groans when he blamed growing waiting lists at the National Health Service on strikes, and was greeted by laughter when he said the numbers were going down "because they were higher" before.
But he seemed to make up some ground with the audience when discussing how he planned to tackle immigration, portraying his plan to send illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda as a deterrent the Labour Party was lacking and saying he would put the country's security above any foreign court.
Starmer said he also had a plan to tackle immigration, which has become a prominent concern among voters, and that he would consider processing asylum claims in a third country if doing so didn't breach international law.
Sunak, whose campaign has yet to reduce Labour's lead of around 20 percentage points in opinion polls, was on the attack, repeating the line that only his party had a plan, whereas voters did not know what Starmer intended to do if he won power.
DRINK THROWN AT FARAGE
The two-way leaders’ debate comes a day after populist Nigel Farage said he was running in the election - a major blow to Sunak with the Brexit campaigner expected to peel off the votes of many right-wing voters.
At an earlier campaign launch, Farage said he would be a thorn in the Conservatives' - and Labour's - side.
"I will be unafraid, despite what everybody says, despite what names they call me, they are so stupid it only encourages me really," he told dozens of supporters in southeastern England on Tuesday.
"Send me to parliament to be a bloody nuisance."
Farage is leading the Reform party and was doused with a soft drink during his first full day of campaigning.
The 60-year-old is best known for having helped lead a successful campaign in 2016 for Britain to leave the European Union, and his popularity has put pressure on a succession of Conservative prime ministers to take tougher positions on immigration.
Shortly after launching his campaign for election in the seat of Clacton-on-Sea, Farage was approached by a woman who threw a large cup of soft drink over him as he left a pub, footage posted on social media showed. He appeared unharmed as he was led away by security.
Richard Tice, the chairman of Reform, said his party would not be bullied off the campaign trail and the incident would help it win hundreds of thousands more votes.
A former commodities trader who is often pictured with a cigarette and pint of beer in hand, Farage has for three decades been the figurehead of euroscepticism in Britain, and is no stranger to controversy.
Charismatic and divisive, he has in the past made comments that his political opponents have called racist. During the Brexit campaign, Farage appeared in front of a poster showing lines of migrants under the slogan "Breaking Point"; last month he said Muslims did not share British values.
He was previously doused in milkshake in 2019 while campaigning for the Brexit Party, Reform's predecessor, in Newcastle before a European Parliament election. On that occasion, his attacker was ordered to pay for his suit to be cleaned after pleading guilty to common assault and criminal damage.
