General Election 2024 latest: Labour to release manifesto today as Starmer’s tax policies questioned

The home secretary and the shadow health secretary had a heated conversation after Mr Cleverly repeated Tory claims that Labour would increase taxes for the average household by more than £2,000 a year.

Mr Streeting pulled faces before referencing a Brady Bunch scene that is often used as a meme to dismiss a fictitious story.

It came after Sir Keir Starmer insisted that Labour’s general election manifesto, which will be launched on Thursday, will not contain any “tax surprises” for voters.

Lee Cain, who was Boris Johnson’s communications director in Downing Street, has hit out at the Conservative Party now warning against a Labour “supermajority” suggesting that his experience showed it would suppress the Tory vote.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter) Mr Cain, who has founded Charlesbye Strategy, was highly critical of the line put out by defence secretary Grant Shapps yesterday amid serious concerns that Tory voters are switching to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK or staying at home.

Nigel Farage has said he believes Reform UK is “close to a tippicng point” of overtaking the Conservative party in the opinion polls.

It comes after the latest YouGov poll landed Reform just one point behind the Tories.

Mr Farage said the “election is over” and he is sure that Labour will win on July 4, so urged voters to shift the focus on who will lead the opposition in Westminster.

Speaking on LBC, the Reform leader said Conservatives “are incapable” of becoming the opposition” because “they hate each other”.

Rishi Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide placed a bet on when the general election would be called, just days before the prime minister made the announcement, it has been revealed.

Craig Williams, the prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary, admitted placing a bet on the election prior to Mr Sunak’s announcement after he was approached by a journalist, Tom Watling reports.

It is understood the Gambling Commission, which has launched an inquiry into the incident, informed Downing Street officials of the bet last week.

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer faced audience questions on Sky News on Wednesday night as the general election campaign went to Grimsby, Matt Mathers reports.

Here are five key moments from the exchanges:

• Tax: Sir Keir said that a Labour government would not raise income tax, national insurance contributions or VAT, describing the pledge as a “triple lock”. The prime minister said he could not comment on analysis he had not seen, but added the tax burden was “too high”, prompting further heckles from the audience.

• Immigration: Mr Sunak insisted that his plan to curb illegal migration was working despite record numbers of Channel crossings. The PM made “stopping the boats” one of his five key pledges when he first entered Downing Street in October 2023.

• Snap poll gives Starmer a huge win: A snap poll conducted after the debate gave Sir Keir a huge victory over Mr Sunak in another blow to the PM’s faltering election campaign. Some 64 per cent said Sir Keir performed better, with 36 per cent saying the prime minister was the winner. YouGov spoke to 1,864 voters shortly after the debate, during which the two leaders were grilled on their plans for government.

• ‘True blue’ Amy gives Sunak both barrels: An audience member called Amy tore into Mr Sunak over what she described as the Tories’ terrible behaviour over the past few years. Amy, a former Conservative Party chairperson, said she was a “true blue” who had voted for the party all her life but was undecided about who she would vote for on 4 July.

• Starmer asked whether he is a ‘political robot’: Sir Keir seemed briefly stumped after an audience member suggested he had become a “political robot” and asked how he would convince people to vote for him.

Sir Keir Starmer is set ot unveil the long-waited Labour manifesto this morning.

The party leader stressed the document will contain “no surprises” on tax as he attempts to difuse Tory attacks that Labour will hike them.

The manifesto will showcase the policies which have already been announced before the election campaign began.

Some include creating Great British Energy, hiring more police officers and teachers, and further economic plans.

Ahead of the launch, Sir Keir said wealth creation was “our number one priority” and “growth is our core business”.

He added: “If we could grow the economy at anything like the level the last Labour government did, that’s an extra £70bn worth of investment for our public services.”

Asked about Tory candidates using Nigel Farage to boost their campaign, after Dame Andrea Jenkyns included a picture of Mr Farage in her leaflet, Lord Cameron said: “I didn’t know about this, actually, I have had a text message from Andrea who asked me for an endorsement for her leaflet which I gladly gave her.

“So she clearly is trying to win votes from this side as well.”

He added: “We have 650 candidates, I can’t focus on the election address of every single one, but I was happy to help in this case.”

David Cameron has insisted the Conservartives can still be re-elected on July 4.

The foreign secretary said the 2015 general election is a testament that an unexpected majority victory can still happen.

He told Times Radio: “I remember fighting the election in 2015 and people said I didn’t have a chance and we were behind in the polls and we kept going and we had a clear plan, we had a strong team, and we came through and won the election.

“So anything is possible. I always think during elections, time spent talking about opinion polls is just time completely wasted because you don’t know whether they are right, I don’t know whether they are right and we will find out in 21 days.”

He added: “I believe anything can happen.”

Join The Independent as our expert panel picks apart the key moments from the 2024 general election.

We’ll be analysing the major triumphs, biggest setbacks and key outcomes for each of the UK’s major political parties.

The event will be hosted on Zoom and will last one hour. It will take place on Thursday July 11 and will start at 7pm BST.