Election latest: Sunak admits he got job 'because of a mistake' (2024)

Sir Keir Starmer has doubled down on his plan to abolish a tax break on private school fees, earning him the loudest applause of the event so far.

The Labour leader was asked how state schools will cope when parents pull their children out of private schools due to the increase in cost.

"I accept that many families... work hard and save hard to send their parents to private school because they've got aspirations for their child, and they think its the best place for their child," he says.

"But I genuinely believe that every single parent has aspirations for their child across the country," the Labour leader adds, to applause.

We know that Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to scrap the Rwanda plan, but what will Labour do to deport those who illegally arrive in the UK?

"Nobody should be making that journey," he says.

He promises to set up the proposed Border Security Command "within days" of coming into office.

Those who do make it through "will go back to the countries where people come from," he says.

As he speaks, a heckler shouts "you're not gonna stop the boats".

"The only way to stop the boats is to smash the criminal gangs," the Labour leader responds.

"I simply do not accept that it's impossible to take down these gangs," he says.

The Sun's "election showdown" between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer got off to a terrible start for the PM.

Mr Sunak was dodgy on the Tory betting scandal.

Facing tough questions from Harry Cole about why he didn't suspend the Tories being investigated, at one point he told Harry: "Just be careful."

His argument was the matter should be left to the Gambling Commission and the party's own investigation. But the audience seemed unimpressed.

So was Harry, who quipped: "It looks like the last days of Rome, people nicking the candlesticks on the way out."

It all got a bit heated between interviewer and interviewee when the questions turned to immigration and small boats crossing the Channel, after a question from a retired policeman, Jonathan.

But Mr Sunak recovered and eventually spelled out his policy.

Then the mood became emotional as Fliss, another Sun reader, told a sad story about the poor treatment her father received in the NHS before dying six weeks ago. It was a tough moment for the PM, and he promised to investigate.

Towards the end, Mr Sunak did better, answering a question about young people struggling to buy a home with a pledge on abolishing stamp duty for first time buyers and then attacking Labour for "taking more tax out of your bank account".

He finished strongly by turning a question about "inflicting Liz Truss on the British people" into an attack on Sir Keir Starmer and wins applause - his best moment of the half-hour Q&A.

"Can you afford £2,000 worth of tax increases?" he challenged the audience. After a poor start on the difficult questions about the betting scandal, his final few minutes were powerful, and he won more applause.

One of the final questions was: "Do you regret calling the election earlier and not waiting another six months?"

"No!" he insisted, before launching into a final attack on Labour.

By the end, there was warm applause from the audience.

Verdict: shaky start, strong finish from the PM.

Sir Keir Starmer is now questioned over his prior support for Jeremy Corbyn - and asked: "How can we trust you?"

The Labour leader says he was campaigning for his own seat in 2019, and says he "understands" why people are confused by his shift in stance on Mr Corbyn.

"I didn't vote for him to be leader of our party in 2015, I didn't vote for him to be leader in 2016 - I supported different candidates."

The Labour membership did not agree, he explains, and he then had to make a decision on how he dealt with this.

"Leaders are temporary, but political parties are permanent," he says, explaining that from within the party he could challenge Mr Corbyn on antisemitism.

"Everybody knew there was always going to be a day after," he says. "When we would have the opportunity for a new leader of our party."

Sir Keir stresses that the Labour Party is "fundamentally changed".

The leader of the Labour Party is now in his seat opposite The Sun's Harry Cole.

Sir Keir Starmer is immediately questioned on his comments last week, suggesting Jeremy Corbyn would have been a better prime minister than Boris Johnson.

Mr Cole asks whether Mr Corbyn would have done as good a job as Mr Johnson in supporting Ukraine.

"I'm gonna do something I don't often do," Sir Keir says, "and that's praise Boris Johnson."

"There won't be any change in support for Ukraine," he adds.

Lastly, Rishi Sunak is asked if he regrets calling the election for 4 July.

His answer is clear: "No."

Mr Sunak says: "When I got this job my number one priority was to get the economy in a strong position, and that's what we've been able to do over the last 18 months.

"Get inflation back to target, get the economy growing and wages rising, energy bills falling.

"This is the moment for you to decide what you want for your country."

Harry Cole then suggests that the usually "Tigger-ish" Mr Sunak's fight is gone, which he denies.

"We've had a very Tigger-ish conversation," the prime minister says, referencing the Winnie the Pooh character.

Sir Keir Starmer will be up shortly.

For the past few minutes, the prime minister has been discussing mortgages with an audience member named Lynda.

He's insistent that tax cuts and mortgage schemes he's introduced will begin to negate high bills and help people in arrears on their repayments.

Rishi Sunak then looks incredulous for a fleeting moment as The Sun's Harry Cole asks if he "feels any responsibility for inflicting Liz Truss on the voters".

"Excuse me?" the prime minister responds.

"I spent a summer saying that what Liz Truss was proposing was wrong... I kept talking about it," he says.

"I was right then when I warned about Liz Truss, that's why all of you can trust me now when I also warn of the damage that [Sir] Keir Starmer would do to our economy."

Rishi Sunak is posed an emotional question by Fliss, a woman whose father died after a long wait for cancer treatment.

In a follow-up, Harry Cole asks what has gone wrong with the NHS on his watch, with waiting lists at record highs under the Conservatives.

The prime minister says: "Obviously it is my responsibility because I'm the one in charge.

"I've been very clear that we haven't made as much progress on waiting lists as I would have liked."

Mr Sunak points to the pandemic, urging people to "understand the scale of what happened" - with six million referrals delayed.

We now turn away from illegal immigration to legal migration - with The Sun's Harry Cole questioning why Rishi Sunak hasn't done more to bring levels down.

The prime minister says he inherited legal migration numbers that "were too high" under predecessors, although stops short of naming who is responsible when pressed by Mr Cole.

He says that, despite that, in a year of his premiership, net migration was "down 30%".

He fiercely fires back at The Sun's political editor and asks him to name another year where levels have been reduced so much.

The Tories are promising a cap on legal migration in their manifesto, though haven't put a number on it.

It is now put to Rishi Sunak that he was allegedly told shortly before calling the election that the prospect of flights to Rwanda taking off in July would be "severely hindered" by legal action.

Is this true?

The prime minister doesn't directly answer the question.

He says: "People have tried to frustrate this, starting with the Labour Party, for some time.

"They've tried to block it - I've kept going."

Mr Sunak has long promised flights will take off in July, and has stuck to that during the election campaign.