The Liberal Democrats have vowed to reverse Brexit as part of a long-term process to restore the UK-EU relationship, and they will start by joining the Single Market if elected.
At the manifesto launch event in London, Sir Ed Davey has also promised “to save the NHS” with a £9bn promise to fix the health and care system if they get into power.
A day before the Tories unveil their own, Labour has claimed it will be the “most expensive panic attack in history” when it is unveiled on Tuesday. Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth has said the document will be “littered with unfunded commitments”.
Reform UK has also kicked the manifesto week by unveiling the party’s economic policies. Richard Tice promised to raise the threshold of income tax to £20,000 while Nigel Farage said the party is now a key “Labour challenger” on the polls.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has been facing questions about rumours that he could be standing down from the campaign trail. But the prime minister has said he will continue fighting despite the D-Day fiasco.
Reform candidate says UK should have ‘taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality’ instead of fighting Nazis
Labour not ruling out borrowing to fund manifesto promises
With Labour set to unveil their manifesto on Thursday, Jonathan Ashworth has refused to rule out borrowing to pay for the pledges.
The shadow paymaster general said: “Let me absolutely clear about our plans. We will always put sound public finances first.
“We have seen what happened with the Conservatives when they played fast and loose with the public finances. It means working people across the country are now paying more on their mortgage.
“Every single commitment that we put forward on our manifesto will be fully funded and fully costed and you will know where every penny piece of the investment is coming from.”
Labour: Tory manifesto ‘most expensive panic attack in history’
Jonathan Ashworth has claimed the Conservative manifesto will be the “most expensive panic attack in history” after is unveiled on tomorrow.
The shadow paymaster general added: “Tomorrow you will see a document littered with unfunded commitment after unfunded commitment, a desperate wish list, the most expensive panic attack in history.
“From a weak, desperate prime minister who, in the chaotic scattergun of announcements which he has made in his campaign to date, has not even bothered to make his sums add up.”
He added: “The Tory sums do not add up. The money is simply not there.”
Labour: PM lost £1m an hour to benefit fraud
The Labour party has claimed that the prime minister has lost £1million to benefit every hour since October 2022.
Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: “They claim they will tackle benefit fraud. Let me take you through the numbers on benefit fraud.
“Overpayments due to fraud and error have risen from £4.5 billion in 2019/20 to £9.7 billion in the latest figures.
“Rishi Sunak has lost a million pounds to benefit fraud and error every hour he’s been Prime Minister.
“So not only is the money not there, the DWP are actively losing money to fraud.”
Should the UK rejoin the EU single market?
It’s been more than four years since the UK officially left the European Union, but that doesn’t mean the conversation about Brexit and its impact is over.
Unveiling his general election manifesto, Sir Ed Davey said repairing the UK’s damaged relationship with Europe will lower shop prices and create more job opportunities for young people across Europe.
He emphasised that the Liberal Democrats are a “pro-European party” and that Britain “needs to be back at the heart of Europe.”
Now we want to know what you think. Do you think the UK should rejoin the European single market?
Should Brexit, as Sir Ed is suggesting, be reversed? And does the Lib Dem’s freshly unveiled manifesto give you food for thought as polling day looms?
Share your thoughts by adding them in the comments — we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.
All you have to do is sign up and register your details — then you can take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen.
Ed Davey vows to fight for UK to rejoin EU single market and eventually overturn Brexit
Farage: If this wasn’t an election, Sunak would have resigned
Nigel Farage has said he’d be surprised if the Prime Minister does quit before the general election amid D-Day furore.
But the Reform UK leader claimed if it wasn’t because of the campaign “he would have resigned already”.
Pictured: Sir Ed Davey rides rollercoaster after manifesto launch
Starmer faces calls to ‘be clear’ on climate as new poll warns half of voters unsure of Labour’s plans
Keir Starmer is facing calls to be clearer on climate change as a new poll warns half of voters are unsure of Labour’s plans, Kate Devlin reports.
The Survation figures also show that less than a third, 30 per cent, believe they know what the party would do in government.
Greenpeace, which commissioned the poll, has launched a new campaign ‘Keir be Clear’ ahead of Labour’s general election manifesto launch on Thursday.
The environmental group, which caused controversy last year when they draped 200 square metres of oil-black fabric over Rishi Sunak’s £2m manor house in Yorkshire, says Labour has the opportunity to win over voters who are hungry for change on the climate.
Labour watered down its environmental investment plans earlier this year when it ditched plans to invest £28 billion a year.
As a result, the party has radically scaled down plans to insulate millions of homes, saying the Conservatives were to blame for “crashing the economy”.
The party is now set to spend £23.7bn over the course of the next five-year parliament, on top of the £10bn a year it says the government has already committed.
Kwasi Kwarteng: ‘Tories face an existential crisis’
Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has told Times Radiothat the Conservatives face an “existential crisis” after Nigel Farage’s return to lead Reform.
Speaking with Andrew Neil, he said: “Farage coming out with what he said last week in terms of standing for a seat, that has accelerated their support and that’s what’s turned this into an existential crisis for the Conservatives.
“I think people were anticipating a defeat along the lines of 97, 160, 170 seats but the MRP polling that we’re seeing now is far worse than 160 seats and the reason for that, I would suggest, is partly largely due to the increase in the reform voting intention.
“I’ve been a candidate in five general elections. This one would have been my sixth and this is by far the toughest election we’ve had since 97, by far and it’s unprecedented really to win from a deficit of an average of 20% down in the polls. So realistically, I think it’s likely, not a certainty. I’m not saying it’s prejudged but I’m saying it’s likely that we may be facing a period of opposition.”
