Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer went head to head in the last live TV debate before voters go to the polls next week. The two party leaders were questioned before a BBC studio audience in Nottingham on Wednesday night, with the muffled shouts of pro-Palestine protesters outside the venue audible in the background. For Sunak, it was his last opportunity to broadcast his key messages to millions of viewers and go on the attack to try to claw back some ground from Labour. For Starmer, the task was to hold things steady. Here are five things we learned.
The gambling scandal isn’t going anywhere
Sunak’s decision this week to belatedly suspend two Tory candidates who are being investigated by the Gambling Commission was an attempt to draw a line under the scandal. But the debate demonstrated that it continues to dominate the campaign. The first audience question to Sunak and Starmer was about how they would restore trust in politics in light of the allegations. Starmer seized on this, saying: “The prime minister delayed and delayed and delayed until eventually he was bullied into taking action.” Just before the debate began, news had broken that the Metropolitan police would take on an expanded role in investigating the scandal. Separately, it emerged that a Tory candidate, Philip Davies, had bet that he would lose his seat. Neither leader could say whether any more of their candidates were facing investigation. It was a sign that the drip-drip of revelations is far from over – and that the dimensions of the scandal have broadened far beyond expectations.
For the Tories it is all about tax, tax, tax
For Sunak, every question was an opportunity to hammer home one thing – Tory attacks on Labour over tax. The Conservatives rebranded their X account to “Tax Check”, resurrecting a controversial tactic they first used in 2019. Sunak cited a story that had just been published in the Telegraph about Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, telling a meeting in his Bristol constituency that decarbonising the economy would require hundreds of billions in the long term. Sunak claimed over and over to viewers that Labour’s policies would mean higher taxes – a message the Conservative party will be repeating a lot over the next eight days. In turn, Starmer pointed out the Tories hadn’t explained how they would fund their ambition to scrap national insurance. At the very end, when Sunak repeated the highly contested claim that Labour policies would put people’s taxes up by £2,000, Starmer interjected: “That is a lie – he’s been asked not to repeat that lie, and he’s done it.”
Liz Truss looms large over this election
Labour has at least one potent counterattack to the Tories over tax and the economy – reminding voters of Liz Truss. Starmer repeatedly brought up her catastrophic premiership and pointed out that she remains a Conservative candidate (unlike, say, Jeremy Corbyn who has been expelled from Labour) despite having crashed the economy. He accused the Tories of making unfunded promises and said it would be “Liz Truss mark two”. In response, Sunak tried a tactic he has introduced at quite a late stage in this campaign – directly attacking Truss and arguing that he warned about the impact of her policies when he stood against her for the Conservative leadership. He claimed that Labour’s policies would have a similar effect.
Migration is tricky ground for Labour
Sunak acted as if Starmer had already become already prime minister, attacking him for ditching the Rwanda policy and demanding to know what he would do about asylum seekers who arrive in the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats. “Will you sit down with the ayatollahs? Are you going to try to do a deal with the Taliban? It’s completely nonsensical – you are taking people for fools,” he said, to applause from the audience. Starmer in turn pointed to the fact that record numbers of people are crossing the Channel as evidence that Sunak’s policies weren’t working. “He says it’s a deterrent, there are a few hundred that will go on a flight to Rwanda, a huge expense to taxpayers. There are tens of thousands, 50,000 people have come since Rishi Sunak has been prime minister.” The tetchy exchange demonstrated that migration continues to be tricky ground for Labour politically.
Housebuilding would be at the heart of a Starmer government
Arguably Starmer’s best moment was at the end of the debate when the two leaders were asked about giving young people a reason to stay in the UK. He recounted Labour’s ambitious plans to build more houses and said the “tragedy of the last 10 years” had been the housing crisis. Starmer said: “We’ve got to build 1.5m houses. The prime minister has taken down the targets for housebuilding, they’re going off a cliff ... and that has taken down with it your dreams and the dreams of young people across the country.”
• This article was amended on 27 June 2024. Due to an editing error, Keir Starmer was quoted as saying “15,000 people have come [across the Channel] since Rishi Sunak has been prime minister”. He actually said 50,000.