Parties launch election campaigns across the UK

Day one of the general election campaign and Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have hit the ground running – taking their pitch to voters around the country.

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The prime minister, who’s just arrived in the Scottish Highlands – started his day in Derbyshire, where he told people to put their trust in him, and the return of economic stability.

The Labour leader was in Kent – declaring it was time to “end the chaos.”

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so day one of the general election campaign and Rishi sunak and sakir starma have hit the ground running taking their pitch to voters around the country the Prime Minister who’s just arrived in the Scottish Highlands started his day in darbishire where he told people to put their trust in him and the return of economic stability the labor leader was in Kent declaring it was time to end the chaos our political letterer Gary Gibbon reports all over the country Applause prompts are working the crowds that is upside down placards are being choreographed the election is being staged the plan is working richy sunak started his day in Nottingham relentlessly repeating his campaign message and with bold action and a clear plan a clear plan to take some bold action I’m prepared to stick to a plan in interviews the prime minister said there would not now be a flight to Rwanda taking off before the general election there had been speculation a plain deporting Asylum Seekers could come just before polling day we will ensure that the Next Generation grows up smoke free a brand new promo video already out of date rishy sunak Bill Banning smoking is one of a number of legislative casualties of the early election there isn’t time to pass it but look at long last the election has been called the time has come and the wait is over K starma campaigning in Kent was also relentlessly onscript and we’ve had we’ve had 14 years of going round and round in circles getting absolutely nowhere chaos and division feeding chaos and division rishy sunak called on kir starma to take part in a TV debate every one of the campaigns six weeks knowing that the labor leader currently plans to stick to two he looking forward to all the football in Wales where they haven’t qualified for the Euros richy Sun’s question was met with silence oh some people would be sporting anyone that plays England I won’t be but rishy sunak won on mileage finishing his first day of campaigning in iness this lens in the middle please Tory strategists will be relieved the Reform Party launch was missing one famous face Nigel farage said the snap election meant he didn’t have time to cultivate a seat and run for Parliament but would campaign I’ll do that but I’ll also as the year goes on be increasingly in America because I think Trump back in the White House makes the world a much much safer place so for those who think thank goodness he’s gone away no I haven’t gone away at all and at some point I’ll be back as a candidate as well this just is not the right time for me the liberal Democrat leader Ed Davy visited Tory held cheltonham and asked for labor supporters to lend him their votes in seats like this one we’ve seen so many parts of the country where it’s a vote for the liberal Democrats that will get rid of the conservative MP today’s witness isy sunak was reminding voters of his Co cord devising Furlow the cabinet secretary was telling the covid inquiry richy sunak eat out to help out plan happened without him ever having been told about it he also spoke of General failings in Boris Johnson’s government duplication of effort overlapping meetings kind of good people were just being smashed to Pieces that’s what I saw right so we got some time for some questions let’s open up who’s got some hands up right okay let’s start there and let’s go there brilliant right so thank you and welcome to area wash in distribution center it turned out two questioners in HIZ jackets didn’t actually work there but was specially invited Tory counselors right you had a question yeah prime minister well thank you for coming to a watch this morning I imagine you’re a pretty busy guy right now a reminder that not all is as it seems in election staging on your screens for the next 6 weeks well Gary joins me now in Central Lobby in Westminster Gary you’ve had a long day how’s it gone for you and them message discipline is back we had Boris Johnson Jeremy Corbin at the last general election you have two people here clearly who are capable of learning and reciting adnam slogans and learned scripts and that’s what they’re doing so far at some point some spontaneity uh will break into this campaign but you didn’t really see it on day one what everybody’s wondering about out is are there any dividends yet any signs that the early election is working for Rishi sunak well some around him would say look what Nigel farage said there uh today saying that if it had been a if it had been a later election he might have cultivated a constituency might be uh running maybe that’s a sign of the wisdom of this early election from RI Sun’s perspective but I’m not entirely sure about that there were very strong indications that Nigel farage was going to keep his focus on the United States whenever this election happened the other thing casualty as it were of an early election that we’ve seen today uh is the wash up as it’s called when they race through uh those bills that the two main parties both sides of Parliament can agree on and that’s been going on but in the in the process you get bills that can’t be agreed on or or haven’t proceeded far enough yet and they simply go in the dust bin and they include what the Prime Minister said was one of his great legacy issues the smoking ban and uh no fault eviction the ban on no fault eviction but today yet again just like yesterday you’ve had a whole load of Tory MPS saying why the early election and when I caught up with Richie sunak at the beginning of his uh first day of campaigning in Nan today that’s what I asked him you announced the election against the backdrop of the inflation figures you said it all proved the economic plan was working so why not show off the economic plan a bit longer for a few more months basking the glory of it why go early well I know there’s more work to do and people are only just starting to feel the benefits of the change but it is clear that our economic plan is working inflation is now back to normal the economy is growing at a healthy rate wages have been rising faster than prices for for months in a row now and energy bills are coming down so the economic stability that I promised is now been delivered and the question for the country is the future you’re a prime minister with a majority you could hang around longer you could show people more of that plan in action it’s just a bit fishy it doesn’t quite add up it suggests that you don’t think the plan is going to be delivering wonderful dividends uh by the Autumn when you could have an election well well here is the track record of the last 18 months when it comes to the economy inflation when I became prime minister was running at around 11% it’s now back to normal just over 2% wages have been rising faster than prices for almost a year energy bills have fallen by almost 500 the economy at the start of this year was growing faster than pretty much all of our major competitors and whilst I know it will take time for people to feel the benefits of all of that it’s clear that that plan is working I stuck to it even when it was difficult and and that’s what leadership is about you say you’ve got a plan on immigration but if I understand you from earlier interviews today you don’t think a flight will take off before the general election nobody’s going to get the chance to test that policy which you’ve brought in the Rwanda flight and test whether it works see whether it works you’re going to the electorate before it’s been tested again bit fishy well immigration is an important issue in this election and the security of our borders is important well let’s just look at what we’ve done when it comes to Legal Migra that why not wait for the uh flights to take off let people see whether they have an impact a deterrent impact creeping into the uh numbers crossing the channel so I could just answer the question on on migration legal migration the numbers are too high I’ve said that I’ll bring them down they’re already down by quarter this year that shows that the plan is working and when it comes when it comes to Illegal migration we’ve put all the plans in place to get flights off to Rwanda in July we’ve detained people we’ve hired the cas workers we’ve booked the Airfield the flights are ready all of that is done but the elections are about the future and the choice I believe in a deterrent now I believe that if people come here illegally they shouldn’t be able to stay we should be able to remove them to a safe Third Country like Rwanda That’s How we’ll break the cycle K sta doesn’t believe in that he would scrap that scheme if he was prime minister making us the soft touch of Europe offering an amnesty to illegal migrants and that’s the choice that people have at this elction you know why I’m asking this question because you will have had discussions in the room when you decided on having an early election when you call an election how you call an election frames the early part of that election and people don’t understand why you’re going early we’re told it’s always been in your mind to go early and you were telling Tor MPS and anyone else who would listen you were going to have an election in the second half of the year if I told you I’m GNA lend you some money but not ask for it back until the second half of the year and then I asked for it back two days into the second half of the year you think that was a bit slippery it’s all a bit odd yeah economic stability has been restored that’s what I said I would do as prime minister and now is the time to turn to the Future and that’s what we’re doing and on illegal migration there’s a clear choice if I’m prime minister we will get flights off to Rwanda I believe that that’s an important part of how you stop the boats you need a deterrent multiple other European countries now agree with that approach K sta doesn’t and that’s a simple Choice it’s a great policy show it in action hang around a few more months that’s a simple choice for the country when they’re making their decision do they want to stop the boats do they believe that that needs a deterrent and if they do that’s what I’ll deliver I’m prepared to take bold action I’ve got a clear plan that’s how I’ll deliver a secure future for our country and K starma won’t there’s a choice at this election who can you trust to take bold action will stick to a clear plan to deliver a secure future that’s what I’m about that word security and and and stability you talk about that can you say hand on heart vote for the conservative party for stability some people think that sounds a bit Hollow given the last few years well because I have restored economic stability to our country ask about the conservative party I’m the conservative prime minister ah for how long they were they were looking like they were coming for you not that long ago you were having meetings discussing that you’re interested in Westminster process the country is interested in the substance and the sub is inflation has now returned to normal wages are growing faster than prices for almost a year energy bills are falling the economy is growing and whilst I know it will take time for people to feel the full benefits of that it’s clear that our plan is working prime minister thank you for your time thank you now from Rwanda flights to student numbers migration is shaping up to be a major issue in this general election our data and fact check team have been looking at how the main Pary records can on one key measure that’s legal migration which the government has more direct control over news stats out today reveal net migration that’s the number of people coming here legally minus those leaving is down that’s from a record high in 2022 of 764 th000 today’s figures show that last year this dropped 10% to 685,000 the vast majority of people arriving are on work or student visas or their families 10 times more than the number claiming Asylum since the conservatives took office in 2010 net migration has rocketed from 256,000 to nearly 700,000 today in that context the latest drop doesn’t look quite so significant but what about the last Labor government well when Tony Blair took office in 1997 he inherited very little net migration from the conservatives by 199 97 net migration had crept to 48,000 by the time labor left in 2010 it was more than 5 times higher the government spending watchdog the OB says more migration helps grow the economy though when it comes to wealth per person the picture is less clear the conservatives told us voters have a clear choice between their bold plan to control migration or going back to square one with labor labor told us today’s stats show total Tory chaos and it will bring in proper plans to link the points based immigration system with boosting skills in the UK well Labor’s Shadow Home Secretary vet Cooper accused the conservatives of total failure over their immigration numbers policy saying they couldn’t clear up their own chaos according to the Austrian Chancellor 15 EU member states back the government’s Rwanda policy so when I spoke to AET Cooper a short time ago I asked her if the Tes were actually leading on this issue in fact what other European countries are saying is that we should be working in Partnerships a very different way to the Rwanda scheme what we heard from the Prime Minister today was in fact an admission that the Rwanda scheme is a con they knew it was going to unravel over the summer it’s costing half a billion pounds for Just Around 300 people and that is only 1% of Asylum Seekers so that is not a working or workable plan and instead what we need to do is put that money into border security instead isn’t the truth on small boats and also you talk about work visas you don’t have a policy as we know on on reducing student visas on reducing uh Health and Social care visas for example unless there something you’re you’re not telling us it it seems to be that you’re trying to give the impression you’re going to dramatically cut numbers you don’t have the policies to back it up you haven’t unveiled them we set out some proposals uh last year around getting rid of the 20% % unfair discount on overseas recruitment the government has adopted that now that’s welcome and there are some other measures that they’ve put in place that that we do support but unless you deal with the proper skills shortages this isn’t going to be solved for example engineering visas have gone up at the same time as engineering apprenticeships have halved those things are related and that’s why what we would do is properly link the points based system to plans on tackling skills shortages and tackling the need for the skills that we’ve got in the economy so that there’s not continually the overseas recruitment as an alternative to investing in training you as a party Rachel Reeves Your Shadow chancellor has copied and pasted a lot of the Tory tax and spend commitments for example the National Insurance cut the the the debt Rule and so on that implies then pretty eye-watering cuts to your patch Law and Order is that the case so we’ve identified uh on policing areas where we believe that you can make savings that can then be put back into Frontline policing so for example the police foundations based on the independent work of the the work of the independent police foundation they estimated between seven and 800 million pounds of savings could be achieved by doing new joint procurement Arrangements instead of having 43 forces all doing their own multiple contracts we’ve been much more cautious we’ve estimated around half of that would go into Frontline policing and that would fund around 13,000 additional police pcsos uh specials to be able to work in our communities savings as you and I both know they very rarely materialize in the amount promised by politicians going into an election if you don’t get those savings would you be prepared to borrow to fund the police more effectively would you prepared to raise taxes to fund the police more effectively so I’ve been a former Chief secretary to the treasury so I know that it is possible to put in place programs that deliver procurement savings I’ve seen that done before from government and and worked on that in government as well even you know the court service is on its knees the prison service get wrong there are certainly areas where the courts the pr prison service there are huge problems and that’s partly because the government although they allocated the money the funding was there they just failed to actually deliver the prison places that they promise but as things stand you following their spending plans on that so that’s that implies massive cuts to a service that’s already on its knees well except that on policing what we’re saying is we’ve identified where the savings would be and we’ve been much more cautious than the police foundation it’s based on Independent work and we think we can make sure we can get that investment just finally your former leader Jeremy Corbin looks like he’s going to stand as an independent against your party what’s your message to him look we’re campaigning for a labor government this is the chance to change the country the labor party has changed under K starmer’s leaders ship and he was right to do that does his friend Diane Abbott get the whip back so I hope that that situation was to be sorted out as rapidly as possible and I’ve said so before I 24 hours get whip back we need to be I hope this is going to be sorted out as soon as possible but as a shadow Cabinet member I can’t comment on an independent process and I’m I’m sorry about that but I do want it to happen as quickly as got to complete within 24 hours because of the dissolution of parliament hasn’t it I do hope it’s going to be sorted as swiftly as possible possible but I can’t comment on it as an independent process I Cooper thanks very much thanks Kathy well as Gary mentioned earlier it’s known as the wash up a Race Against Time to ensure important bills don’t end up on the scrap Heap when MPS decide what gets dropped and what becomes law before Parliament is dissolved 16 bills are heading into their final stages and could be fast-tracked into law among those which are expected to pass are the victims and prisoners Bill including measures to establish a compensation schem for those affected by the infected blood Scandal and one for victims of the Horizon Scandal the post office offenses bill would quash the criminal convictions of sub postmasters who were wrongly prosecuted but others are expected to fall like the prime minister’s Flagship anti-smoking bill which would have banned Vapes and cigarettes for anyone born after 2009 no chance too for the renters Reform Bill which would have strengthened rights of tenants and scrapped no fault evictions and the criminal justice bill is also expected to be left by the wayside that proposed expanding police Powers as well as plans to criminalize those creating sexually explicit deep fakes which this program has investigated let’s go now to Aisha in leads thanks Kathy well if the polls are right and the conservatives are facing a red wall of gains in the soal red wall the former labor heartlands they won in 2015 take Dudley in the West Midlands the constituency boundary there was changed last year but taking account of those changes the 2019 election result would have given the Tories a majority of just over 13 and a half thousand the seat is now one of Labour’s Prime targets our senior political correspondent Paul McNamara is there it was here in Dudley in 2011 that a company called Westfield produced the world’s first commercially viable electric racing car at the last election red wall seats like Dudley were the Battleground the weapon of that war leveling up and we will back that Vision this government will back that Vision this is a government that backs Britain and believes in British innovation in 2024 it’s a Battleground again but it’s labor tanks on the lawn the place they launched their local election campaign and the messaging pretty similar local growth plans that’s the commitment we make today this time the Tory message is different the message is economic the plan is working and we have that economic stability back among voters in places that last time lent the conservatives their vote it’s getting a mixed reception okay richy soon he reckons his economic plans working what do you think I don’t think so nobody likes him I don’t think so nobody likes him that’s a bit harsh no it’s not harsh to be honest you have to look at the E economical situation is so bad so poorly they have to uh see the people they don’t have like no jobs she said would say look yesterday inflation Figures were coming down that’s down to him do you believe him um I don’t think so do you agree with him well he seems to be working doesn’t he he’s come a long way his messed things up he’s had a he’s had a lot to do and um sorry it seems to be working whether it’s enough or not I don’t know I’ll say R soon get rid of him yeah I disagrees yeah she does but yeah K Kama he hasn’t shown anything yet but I’d I’d put my backing on Rishi sunak on these streets though that view appears to be in the minority richy sunak he says his economic plan’s working what do you think no he isn’t no no it’s not it’s not working no Labour’s messaging today though is well repeated rather a lot all we ask now humbly is the opportunity to change our country change change change it change the problem for rishy sunak even Tory voters of old in this red wall seat are open to that labor messaging although they still need some convincing within the next six weeks when the detail comes out I think that’s when to make a decision so K sta could end up winning your vote if you get those details we’ll see last November Dudley was awarded 40 million of leveling up money but do voters feel like their town is on the up a town that is also about to get a much needed tram stop linking it to the West Midland’s Metro do you feel like you’ve been leveled up no not yet not no you don’t think either not yet not yet not yet so do you think it’s coming hope so because tra is coming so we have a hope so let’s see I say it’s getting there say yeah yeah it’s getting there even though you might see things that probably abandon whatever but I think things are probably are turning do you feel leveled up much in the last 5 years no I don’t know who to vote for 5 years ago last general election did you think the same then uh no I knew I knew who I was voting for who you voting for who were you voting for then I’m not I don’t really want to say did he have the same sort of hair as you [Laughter] maybe none of the above may be just as an attractive of choice for many voters in this seat in this election either way 5 years in and in the race for the red wall the Electoral tectonic plates have completely shifted and Paul joins us from Dudley with some news on candidate selection Paul yeah Labour might have designs on this seat they haven’t actually selected a candidate yet that’s the same in about 50 60 locations across the country Labor’s campaign Chief P Fen said that’ll probably be sorted in the next couple of days it’s not just a problem for the labor party though we’ve been we’ve been shown an email sent by conservative party HQ to prospective candidates asking for people to stand forward for 93 seats and when people have asked will win to the deadline they’ve been told by conservative party HQ just 48 hours now in truth a lot of these seats are labor strongholds they’re looking for what’s called a paper candidate just for someone to put their name on the list but a few of them should be pretty attractive to conservatives you’ve got for example Baron Edmund Tory since 2015 basilon and Bill Ricky the majority there is 20,000 associations we’ve spoken to are pretty livid they’ve been live left in such a state of unpreparedness this is an election that hasn’t just been sprung on the nation it’s been sprung on the conservative party itself Paulk thank you very much Paul back to Kathy in Westminster Aisha thank you well the Reform Party UK leader Richard TI has confirmed he’ll be standing in the Boston and skes seat but it was the party’s honorary president Nigel farage who’s been the focus of all the speculation today I sat down with Mr Ty earlier and put it to him that Mr farage had been all set to announce his candidacy next week and then he pulled out so have rishy sunak snap election call thrown all their plans up in the air no not at all actually the truth is the snap election was called because the Tores are terrified of us going up in the polls and them going down the poles and what they were facing if they ran it through the summer would was that we would overtake them that you’re flashing yourself a bit there though aren’t you look you see everybody said 3 years ago 1% they laughed at us including the Tories and the media now the Tories are absolutely terrified of us that’s why all they’re doing is attacking us the truth is vote Tory get labor is it a bit of a blow to Your Ego though that you know the T is a mighty relieve that he’s not going to be standing as a C I’m thrilled that Nigel’s campaigning with us and what we can see from the Tory reaction today is they are terrified they know that they’ve broken Britain they know that they betrayed everybody with the mass migration numbers that came out this morning health care we’re getting slower healthare more Health delays ambulance delays AE delays greater waiting list the greatest ever why because of the huge extra pressure because the tourist have betrayed Britain on mass immigration well the waiting the waiting list could be just just as much to do with we’ve got an aging population and a sicker population be pretty young actually it’s all to do with the extra surgeon demand what the NHS waiting list migrants are young they’re not pressure you’re saying that no none of the 2 and a half million people have arrived here in the last two years none of them using the NHS I’m just serious contributor I’m well I’m quering your evidence for that well the evidence of that is that the waiting list all all elements of healthcare is a disaster and therefore the outcomes are worse our excess deaths are worse and here’s the other point the evidence is we’ve got the longest perp person recession since records began 70 years ago and you really think that Net Zero immigration which is your policy would help the economy absolutely because guess what it does it drives up demand for labor which means the price of Labor of the least well off the lowest paid goes up that’s a good thing it also drives capital investment because if businesses can’t afford labor guess what they do they invest in Capital Equipment to it’s basic economics the only person call it out the on the contrary and the basic economics is that the economy is fueled by migration and that’s why successive Administration and I let you finish you got to let me finish that is why successive administrations have allowed migration to flourish so we’ve got the lowest growth decade for 70 years we’ve got the longest recession per person for 70 years that is evidential pro that is evidential proof you don’t think brexit has a part to play in that none at all the fact none at all CU Kathy more people are coming which proves my point people want to come to the UK but the reality is we’ve got lower wages the mainstream media cannot deal with the fact that brexit is a great opportunity I accept that this government voted for brexit don’t think that it was a great opportunity they’re now getting remorse not at all There’s No Remorse the only sadness there’s no the remorse false false fact the remorse is that this Tory government has failed to take advantage of a great brexit opportunity you say you’ll stand can candidates in every seat apart from in Northern Ireland how many candidates have you got ready to we about 500 approved and allocated and that’s changing literally by the hour and we’ve got a couple hundred going through the process so we’ll stand as I say 630 there’s always a little bit of filling in the jigsa as you approach the final day well you’ve got the money for we’re well on track no problem at all I mean you you’ve said you’re going to basically ruin the Tories they’ll be out of action if they deserve they deserve to be replaced given them what they’ve done to this country it’s appalling if you don’t get a single MP do you pack up shop and go home this is a medium-term project medium-term plan a medium-term game so Nigel farage could stand at the next election could ANP let’s wait and see Nigel you know Nigel’s he’s that works better for him that timing he can do the American election and then come back and do another he’s got to work out what he wants to do and and uh you know we’re very good friends and he’s delighted that he’s campaigning for us and he’s got some fantastic advice onwards and upwards Richard Ty thanks very much thank you so the search for votes has begun and so have the promises but the public spending plans which would have to pay for them are extremely tight our economics reporter Neil McDonald is here with me Neil what do we know about what is coming well not enough I think you could say given the importance of this decision to the next Parliament I mean the government has set out uh the total amount it wants to spend over the next uh 5 years but it hasn’t said very much about how that cake is going to be divided and it does look like people will now be voting without getting that information um The Institute for fysical studies has worked on a possible scenario for what might happen which does suggest there could be some big cuts coming for some departments so they reckon that in the next 5 years total spending will grow by 1% a year allowing for inflation but some areas they say will grow faster the NHS will grow faster of course there’s Protections in place for defense and for Aid and for child care which is due to grow very quickly as they grow faster something else has got to be shrinking uh and they reckon that those unprotected budgets uh will get smaller by 2.3% a year uh in real terms so there Kathy we’re talking about prisons we’re talking about local government we’re talking about further education and the courts all areas under huge amount of pressure shrinking not just one year by 2.3% but potentially by four years in a row and I was talking about some of that with I Cooper earlier but is that inevitable those figures that you’re talking about no I mean the says with 20 billion a year you could avoid that um you could choose to raise that through taxes you could choose of course to borrow that I me clearly the conservatives and labor don’t seem to favor that um could you cut it from the benefits bill could you boost productivity in these areas enough to absorb these Cuts maybe but I think either of those options would also involve pretty difficult choices and you mentioned taxations what’s the big picture on the wages that might pay for this well this would will be easier these decisions if we hadn’t experienced 15 years of real wage uh growth basically stopping and the resolution Foundation says that that is basically what’s happened um I can show you here what’s average average weekly earnings uh in the 21st century and in real terms you can see that basically they stopped growing around about the time of the 2008 financial crash now the resolution Foundation have imagined an alternative Universe in which they carried on growing and they in that case average weekly earnings in real terms right now would be £276 higher now Kathy that is 14,000 a year on average and of course higher wages would bring higher taxes and that would make some of those choices on spending we were talking about earlier they could have been a lot more generous Neil thanks very much for joining us