A new poll suggests disaster ahead for Rishi Sunak, with the Tories on track to win just 72 seats in the next election.
A Survation poll for Best for Britain, published by The Sunday Times, predicted that Labour would win as many as 456 seats, which would far surpass Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.
Meanwhile, Labour and Nigel Farage have accused the Tories of a ‘con’ over plans to send more migrants to Rwanda during the election campaign.
The Independent understands plans are in place to fly a person from Nigeria and another from Pakistan, who are in the UK illegally, to the East African country before the election on 4 July. But much like the first person who was sent in April, it is a voluntary move and so not an enforced deportation.
Mr Farage this week claimed Reform UK is the “new opposition” following a YouGov poll that put his party ahead of the Conservatives for the first time.
Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said Mr Farage is “incredibly divisive” and trying to “destroy” the Conservative Party.
Streeting warns against complacency and giving ‘matches back to the arsonist’
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has urged voters not to give “matches back to the arsonist to finish the job”, as he suggested a Conservative election victory would be a “nightmare on Downing Street”.
The Labour frontbencher warned against “breathtaking complacency” over opinion polls predicting a victory for Sir Keir Starmer’s party at the General Election.
Polls have continued to heap pressure on Rishi Sunak and underline why the Tories have shifted strategy to warn would-be Reform UK voters not to risk handing Labour a landslide win.
Cabinet minister Mark Harper insisted the Conservatives are “fighting to win this election” as he repeated the Prime Minister’s warning that a vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK would give Labour “a very large majority” and a “blank cheque” in office.
It came after analysis and modelling by Survation put Labour on course for a 262-seat majority with the Tories reduced to a rump of just 72 MPs and Reform potentially picking up seven seats.
Holly Evans16 June 2024 11:05
‘I am the original Brexiteer’ – Rishi Sunak hits back at Nigel Farage challenge
Rishi Sunak has insisted he is the original Brexiteer and boasted of the Tories’ record on international trade since the UK left the European Union.
“As was said in last week’s debate by [Sky News presenter] Beth Rigby, I am the original Brexiteer,” he told the Times.
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans16 June 2024 10:45
Voters’ trust in Tories on tax plummets as Rishi Sunak’s final election gambit fails
Trust in the Tories on tax has collapsed, a new poll has revealed, in another massive blow to Rishi Sunak as he tries to turn his party’s election fortunes around with less than three weeks to go.
According to an exclusive poll by Techne UK for The Independent, Sir Keir Starmer has a trust rating of more than double that of Mr Sunak as postal votes are sent out this weekend in a crucial stage of the campaign.
It comes after the Tories put all their efforts into using tax as the key dividing issue and launched an assault on Labour’s plans in a last-ditch bid to stop Sir Keir from winning power with “a supermajority” on 4 July.
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans16 June 2024 10:25
How the Euros could change the result of the election
One of the first mishaps Rishi Sunak made on the election trail was tripping over a traffic cone. He was at Chesham United Football Club in Buckinghamshire, gamely taking part in a training session with a bunch of junior players.
It was pretty clear from his attempts to kick a ball in a straight line that none of football’s leading scouts would have been too upset at their failure to sign up a generational talent. But proficiency – or rather complete lack of it – was not the point.
Sunak was there to deliver an indicator of something else: his ordinariness. He was there failing to run with a ball at his feet to show the electorate that, whatever the assumptions of wealth and privilege that cling to him, he is just like us. But like the comment about his parents not being able to afford Sky TV when he was younger, it was an own goal.
Read the full article here:
![](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/06/13/16/Footie3.jpg?quality=75&width=1200&auto=webp)
How the Euros could change the result of the election
Harold Wilson said England only ever win a World Cup under a Labour leader, meanwhile a pollster has found that the shirt colour of the winning cup final team is a precise an indicator of who will succeed at the ballot box. Jim White reads the runes and asks: is Rishi’s election timing an own goal – or a win?
Holly Evans16 June 2024 10:10
Wes Streeting declines to rule out council tax hikes
Wes Streeting has declined to rule out council tax hikes or re-evaluations.
Pressed on whether this could happen under a Labour government on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour frontbencher repeated the party’s line: “We don’t want to see the tax burden on working people increase…
“None of those pledges in our manifesto requires increases in council tax or increases in fuel duty or any of the other number of taxes the Tories are claiming we want to increase.”
Holly Evans16 June 2024 09:55
Mark Harper denies suggestion Tories are a ‘bit desperate’
Mark Harper is that warning people about a Labour “supermajority” is not an admission of defeat.
He told Laura Kuenssberg: “It is simply pointing to the polls and if the polls are true then that is what you are going to get.”
But he clings on to Professor Sir John Curtice’s analysis that there are still 44 percent of voters who still have not made up their minds.
He denies Kuenssberg’s suggestion that the Tories are “a bit desperate.”
Holly Evans16 June 2024 09:47
Wes Streeting says he wishes Labour manifesto was ‘more ambitious’
Holly Evans16 June 2024 09:45
Two polls spell out disaster for Rishi Sunak
Two new polls have signalled disaster for Rishi Sunak, with one showing that his party are on course to win just 72 seats.
A poll by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph showed the Tories down four points to just 21 per cent of the vote, with Nigel Farage earning 13 per cent of the vote with Reform UK.
A separate Survation poll for Best for Britain, published by The Sunday Times, predicted the Tories would win just 72 seats in the next parliament, compared with 456 for Labour.
This would give Labour a larger landslide victory than the one achieved by Tony Blair in 1997.
Holly Evans16 June 2024 09:42
Wes Streeting grilled on Labour manifesto
Wes Streeting tells BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that with the Labour manifesto there were two questions which needed to be answered.
“Can we keep this promise and can we afford this promise?”
He insisted that if the answer was no on one of those questions for anything then it did not make it into the manifesto.
That maybe explains why some feel that the Labour manifesto was lacking in ambition, especially Unite the union who have refused to endorse the manifesto.
Most of all though this is his answer to the failure to end the unpopular two child benefit cap.
Holly Evans16 June 2024 09:40
Tories believe Wes Streeting has signalled a number of tax rises
Tories have been watching Sky and believe that Wes Streeting has “let the cat out of the bag” that the Labour manifesto may be hiding a number of tax rises.
A Conservative spokesman said: “After a three-day long conspiracy of silence, Wes Streeting has finally said what we all know: Labour’s manifesto is just window dressing for the election campaign and they are planning to spend and tax more than they are telling the public.
“Wes Streeting has let the cat out of the bag on Labour spending policy signalling that Labour simply aren’t telling the truth about their plans.
“Labour is trying to get through this campaign by not being honest with families about the true cost of their plans and the cost to families up and down the country in higher taxes on your home, your car, your business and your pension.”
Holly Evans16 June 2024 09:36