Labour launches manifesto — as it happened

Labour’s manifesto was launched today — with several key pledges outlined

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Labour would recognise a Palestinian state if elected into government, according to the manifesto it published today.

It states that long-term peace and security in the Middle East was the party’s immediate focus. It would continue to push for the release of hostages, more aid into Gaza and the upholding of international law.

“We are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state,” the manifesto said.

The party has endured criticism from some members who feel they are not doing enough to call for a ceasefire and have suffered setbacks in some previously safe seats.

They are said to have close personal relationship, bonded by a shared desire to tackle illegal migration in their respective countries (Aubrey Allegretti writes).

And on Thursday, in what could be his last appearance as prime minister on the diplomatic circuit, Rishi Sunak embraced Giorgia Meloni — if not all her beliefs — as they arrived in Bari, Italy, for the gathering of G7 world leaders.

The three-day summit began with accusations that Russia was plotting to influence elections in Moldova.

Read the full story: G7 summit 2024: Sunak warns of Russian ‘meddling’ in Moldova election

Sir Keir Starmer with Jeremy Corbyn in 2019

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL

Jeremy Corbyn has accused his successor of rewriting history after Sir Keir Starmer said he knew Labour was not going to win the general election in 2019.

Corbyn, 75, led the party to its worst parliamentary result since 1935. It won 203 seats, a net loss of 59 MPs compared with 2017.

Starmer told Sky News during its debate programme in Grimsby on Wednesday that he campaigned for Labour in 2019 to help colleagues win their seats but that he was certain the party would lose.

“Well, he never said that to me, at any time,” Corbyn said. “And so I just think rewriting history is no help. It shows double standards, shall we say, that he now says he always thought that, but he never said it at the time, or anything about it. He was part of the campaign. He and I spoke together at events and I find it actually quite sad.

“Get over it and get on with it. He was in the shadow cabinet, he was at the Clause 5 meeting. Both those meetings unanimously agreed the 2019 manifesto, and he was there.”

Corbyn is running for re-election as an independent in his Islington North constituency, having been banned as a Labour candidate last year following a row over antisemitism.

The nation woke on Wednesday to a heartbreaking story about a young boy from Southampton having to get by in the mid-1990s without a Sky TV subscription, but by nightfall a happy ending had been more than provided (Tom Peck writes).

Rishi Sunak is 44 years old now, with a net worth usually estimated at about £750 million. He no longer lives with his parents, who so cruelly deprived him of his basic human right to watch Matt Le Tissier at the peak of his powers (he has since faded somewhat). He can surely afford Sky TV now. If he’s not signed up already he should do so at once. Believe it or not, he might actually enjoy taking an hour and a half out of his busy schedule to rewatch the Sky News leaders “special event” live from Grimsby. It will certainly make for far more pleasant viewing for the present prime minister than for the almost certain next one.

Sky News does its leaders’ “debate” a bit differently, and thank goodness for that. Across 90 quite watchable minutes the two men never set foot in the room at the same time. It was not an opportunity to shout dubious soundbites at one another over and over again, for the benefit of precisely no one. Instead, the leaders took it in turns to be interviewed by Sky’s Beth Rigby, who was on quite stupendous form, and then face a second interviewing from a live audience.

Read the full story: The audience seemed more annoyed with Starmer than with the PM

The Labour leader said he has empathy with Britons struggling with bills

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Pushed on when economic growth may be achieved if Labour are elected to govern, Sir Keir Starmer told Times Radio that it would take time and be achieved through fixing fundamental problems.

When it was put to him that he was asking the British people to be patient with his prospective government, the Labour leader said: “Well, of course these things take time. You have to fix the fundamentals. The problem with too much in politics these days is that everybody asks for the sticking plaster solution, which doesn’t last, doesn’t fix the problem, and nobody fixes the fundamentals. We’re living with public services that are on their knees, a health service which has got a massive waiting list.”

He also said he was speaking publicly about the financial difficulties his family faced during his childhood because he had empathy with people in the UK currently struggling with the cost of living crisis.

“It gives me a real understanding from personal experience about what it feels like to worry about bills,” he explained. He recalled one occasion where he put a football through a window at home that his family couldn’t afford to fix.

He said: “I’m not pleading poverty … But I do know what it feels like to fear the postman coming down the road with a bill which we might not be able to afford.”

As an election approaches, many voters will be lamenting the quality of political debate — but if the weather had been better, could it have been even worse?

A new study suggests that as temperatures rise, political discourse dumbs down. The study analysed more than seven million parliamentary speeches made in eight countries, including England, since the 1950s. It found that higher temperatures were linked to a significant reduction in the complexity of language used by MPs.

“Heat has long been associated with a range of negative health outcomes, including increased risk of decreased productivity and cognitive performance,” Dr Risto Conte Keivabu, of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, said.

Read the full story: Think politicians talk nonsense? It gets worse in warmer weather

Sir Keir Starmer has said that his prospective government would not return to austerity, despite a leading economic think tank suggesting they might have to if they are to maintain their commitment to fiscal rules.

The Labour leader told Times Radio: “We are not returning to austerity. There will be tough choices but we will invest in our public services.”

The party said they remain committed to fiscal rules that would see government debt, as a share of the economy, falling by the end of the next parliament.

When it was put to him that cuts would be needed if current economic growth trends continued, he responded: “I do not accept the proposition that we cannot do any better than we have done in the last 14 years … I don’t go into this election saying the best we can do is a no-growth economy.”

He also said that a problem with recent governments was the use of “sticking plaster” solutions to complex problems. “We haven’t done the long-term changes that we need, I am not prepared to let that continue,” he said.

With three weeks until polling day, Sir Keir Starmer today set out Labour’s plans for the next five years if the party wins power on July 4.

What would a Labour government look like, how likely are the proposals to work and what has been left out?

Read the full story here — Labour manifesto 2024: the key policies

Rishi Sunak and the Italian PM in Puglia on Thursday

CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGES

Rishi Sunak has said the decision by his parliamentary aide Craig Williams to bet on the date of the general election was “very disappointing”.

Speaking at the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy, the prime minister said: “It’s very disappointing news and you will have seen Craig Williams say that it was a huge error of judgment.

“Now, there’s an independent inquiry that is ongoing, which is necessarily confidential, as well as independent. And you’ll appreciate that, given that, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment while that’s ongoing.”

Yesterday, the Guardian reported that Williams placed a £100 bet on a July election three days before the prime minister named the date. The Gambling Commission has launched an inquiry into the bet which could have led to a £500 payout on odds of 5/1.

Zero-hour contracts will be scrapped by Labour under its manifesto pledge to reform working conditions in the UK, that also promises to adjust the way the minimum wage is calculated.

The party proposes that the Low Pay Commission, an independent body that advises the government on wages, would take the cost of living into account for the first time.

Their pledge, which is called the “new deal for working people”, would be implemented under legislation introduced in the first 100 days of government. They said: “This will include banning exploitative zero hours contracts, ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal.”

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, the UK’s largest trade union, said: “This manifesto sets out a clear plan for the future. It shows how a Labour government could rebuild a Britain broken after years of Tory austerity and chaos.

“Unlike the party that’s been in power for the past 14 years, a Labour government would be committed to public services.”

Labour Party supporters use placards to shelter from the rain at Crew Alexandra’s stadium

PHIL NOBLE/REUTERS

“It’s fantastic to be here on the campaign trail and what a day it is today, because today we launched our manifesto”, Sir Keir Starmer told supporters in Crewe.

He added: “It is a manifesto that rejects fundamentally the proposition that Britain can’t do better than this.”

The Labour leader outlined the party manifesto today

A leading economic think tank has described the size of Labour’s tax and spending pledges as trivial, suggesting that they will have little economic headroom if elected because of the fiscal rules the party have committed to.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “This was not a manifesto for those looking for big numbers. The public service spending increases promised in the costings table are tiny, going on trivial — the tax rises, beyond the inevitable reduced tax avoidance, even more trivial.

“On current forecasts, and especially with an extra £17.5 billion borrowing over five years to fund the green prosperity plan, this leaves literally no room — within the fiscal rule that Labour has signed up to — for any more spending than planned by the current government, and those plans do involve cuts both to investment spending and to spending on unprotected public services.”

He added: “This is a manifesto that promises a dizzying number of reviews and strategies to tackle some of the challenges facing the country. That is better than a shopping list of half-baked policy announcements but delivering genuine change will almost certainly also require putting actual resources on the table.”

Labour have said they are committed to fiscal rules that would see government debt, as a share of the economy, falling by the end of the next parliament.

Sir Keir Starmer is visiting his third football ground of the campaign this afternoon after the launch of Labour’s manifesto.

Starmer is at Crewe Alexandra FC, which finished sixth in League Two last season. His campaign launch was at Gillingham FC, which finished twelfth in the same division. A week into the election campaign, he also visited Worcester City Football Club.

The settings provide several advantages. Logistically, security can be tightly controlled in a set area. And politically Starmer, an Arsenal fan, can portray himself as a man of the people. The visits are all in target seats held by the Tories at the moment, so were always unlikely to be at the grounds of the big clubs crowded in urban areas.

Ed Balls, a former shadow chancellor, said on his Political Currency podcast that Labour’s manifesto could lead to a “very difficult” first year in office.

He said that the party’s commitment to “tough fiscal rules” and not raising income tax, VAT or national insurance means that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have little room for manoeuvre.

“For Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves there are huge expectations, no money, little room for manoeuvre, inherited plans which are very tight, and an economy which isn’t growing. So I think that creates a big set of expectations and that is the consequence of the manifesto strategy. This manifesto makes the first year in government for Labour very difficult.”

Labour’s manifesto places Sir Keir Starmer’s prospective government in a “fiscal straitjacket” which means that little in the country will change over the next parliament, the Green Party has said.

The environmentalists published their manifesto on Wednesday, in which they pledged to spend billions more on public services by raising national insurance for those earning over £50,270 and implementing a wealth tax on those with assets of more than £10 million.

Carla Denyer, the party’s co-leader, said: “[Starmer has] bound a future Labour government in a fiscal straitjacket which means very little will change … Their refusal to increase taxes on the super-rich means they will be forced to resort to more public spending cuts. With our public services already on their knees after 14 years of Conservative government, we can’t afford to let this happen.

She added: “While Labour say they will hold the door open for the private sector in the NHS, Greens have made a cast-iron guarantee that we will fight privatisation and invest an extra £50 billion per year by 2030 into health and social care.”

The leader of the Liberal Democrats having a go at an assault course during a visit to Arena Pursuits in Wadsworth, Kent

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Sir Ed Davey has run the gauntlet at an assault course near Tunbridge Wells where he promoted his party’s pledge to support young carers.

The 58-year-old was seen scrambling under and over wooden obstacles before participating in a “friendly competition” against other intrepid attendees.

As the party leader crawled underneath a lattice of rope, the course’s owner remarked: “That was quite fast.” Asked by observing journalists whether he had been practising, Davey chuckled: “Does it look like I’ve practised?”

The Liberal Democrats have pledged extra funding to ensure young people with caring responsibilities are better able to continue their education. The policy would support 50,000 such children. Davey helped care for his ill mother when he was a schoolboy. She died when he was 15.

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said it was not the time for Labour to be timid

IAN FORSYTH/GETTY IMAGES

Unite, the only affiliated union which did not endorse the Labour Party’s manifesto, has called on the party “to make government count” and said it was capable of “real change”.

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said Labour needed to be “realistic about where we are and the scale of the challenges we face”.

“Whilst we all want growth and Labour’s proposed changes may move the dial somewhat, that alone is not likely to be enough”, she added.

Graham said the cost of living crisis and “rampant inequality” meant it was time for Labour to be bold and “not the time to be timid”.

Craig Williams has been asked by a reporter whether he had any inside information before placing the bet

Craig Williams has been asked if he had any inside information when making a bet on the date of the general election by a reporter

Labour’s manifesto does not indicate how it will pay to fix the problems the party says the country faces, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said.

Paul Johnson, the IFS director, said the tax and spending increases announced were “trivial”.

“The biggest commitment, to the much vaunted “green prosperity plan”, comes in at no more than £5 billion a year, funded in part by borrowing and in part by “a windfall tax on the oil and gas giants,” Johnson writes.

“Beyond that, almost nothing in the way of definite promises on spending despite Labour diagnosing deep-seated problems across child poverty, homelessness, higher education funding, adult social care, local government finances, pensions and much more besides.

Johnson says the party has left itself “no room” within fiscal rules for “any more spending than planned by the current government”.

The IFS warned that if growth does not come then Starmer will have to make cuts, fudge the fiscal targets, or hike taxes.

“Like the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, Labour continues in a conspiracy of silence on the difficulties they would face,” Johnson writes.

Labour will also prevent those over 80 from sitting in the upper chamber

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/PA

Labour has committed to scrapping 91 of the 92 hereditary peers in the House of Lords, and expel those over the age of 80 from sitting in the upper chamber.

The manifesto argues that the existence of hereditary peers is “indefensible”.

A spokesman defended the use of an age limit to cut the size of the chamber, saying it is a common practice in public service, such as with high court judges.

One hereditary peer must stay to fulfil a ceremonial duty in the House of Lords. It is unclear who that would be.

The social care cost cap will come in next year, despite its omission from the Labour manifesto, a spokesman has said.

The party will implement the Tory policy of an £86,000 cap on people’s lifetime liabilities for their personal care.

A spokesman said: “That’s the basis on which local authorities and care providers are planning so in line with our commitment to [stability] then that will continue.”

Labour is stepping up its charm offensive on the City, bringing together the bosses of some of Britain’s biggest businesses to discuss its manifesto.

Sean Doyle, the chief executive of British Airways; Clare Barclay, the chief executive of Microsoft in the UK; Nicola Hodson, of IBM UK and Ireland; and Rob Perrins, the chief executive of Berkeley Group, are among those who are expected to attend at an office in the City to meet Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, and Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, for breakfast on Friday morning.

Others on the list, seen by The Times, include Jody Ford, chief executive of Trainline; Sebastian James, managing director of Boots UK; Mark Allan, chief executive at LandSec; Shai Weiss, managing director of Virgin Atlantic; and Simon Carter, chief executive of British Land.

• Keir Starmer steps up UK business charm offensive with CEO conference

A Labour spokesman has refused to say that the total tax burden will go down in the first term of Starmer’s government.

“Fundamentally what we want to do is grow the economy”, he said.

Labour insists that analysis by experts works on the assumption, that it rejects, that growth will flatline.

4,500 words are committed to growth, the spokesman said, adding: “We have been very prudent in the assumptions we have made.”

Sir Keir Starmer channelled his inner Liz Truss, as he gambled everything on growth.

The Labour leader insisted it was “defeatist” to question whether turbocharging Britain’s economy could really pay for the public services the party’s supporters crave without putting up taxes.

He reeled off a long list of policies ranging from planning reform to a national investment fund which would grow the economy quickly.

Yet his this boosterist argument was at tension with Starmer’s attempt to present himself as the sober, sensible choice, dismissing with contempt the Westminster obsessions with “rabbits” in the manifesto, of which there were duly none. “I’m running as a candidate to be prime minister, not to run the circus,” he said.

He warned that there was no “magic wand” and that Britain’s problems “won’t disappear overnight”.

Ultimately these arguments will come into conflict. By then, the polls suggest, Starmer will be safely ensconced in No 10.

Labour are offering the most cautious economic policies to prove to voters they can be trusted with the nation’s finances.

They have left a gap of £4 billion in their costings.

The Conservatives are spending £11 billion more on policy announcements, and the Lib Dems £22 billion more than Labour.

Labour’s planned income-raising measures add up to almost £8.6 billion.

The figures £5.2 billion from changing non-dom tax rules, £1.5 billion from applying VAT and business rates to private schools, and £1.2 billion from a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.

The amount raised will not be enough to cover the spending plans listed, and Labour says the difference will be made up by borrowing.

That borrowing will have to be within its “fiscal rules”, which specify that debt must fall as a share of GDP by the fifth year of the economic forecast.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has labelled Labour’s plans as the “tax trap manifesto”.

He said the manifesto “contains only tax rises and no tax cuts” and claims that “under Labour’s published plans, taxes will rise to levels never before seen in this country.”

Hunt adds: “So what’s most important is not what’s in Labour’s manifesto, but it’s what they have kept out of it. They are refusing to rule out taxing your job, your home, your pension, your car, your business and they think they can get away with it without anyone holding them to account. Be under no illusion, from cradle to grave you will pay more taxes under Labour.”

Labour wants to make this country a clean energy superpower in just five years. Here’s the manifesto’s plan:

– Create 650,000 new clean energy jobs by 2030.
– Set up GB Energy, a publicly owned clean energy company, with £8.3 billion of capital.
– Complete nuclear power plants.
– Tougher regulation on energy companies to improve performance.
– Upgrade the national grid.
– Introduce a Local Power Plan to allow communities to set up renewable energy projects.
– £6.6 billion for insulation in five million homes.
– Meet Environment Act targets to stop biodiversity loss.

“There are no tax rises we haven’t already announced,” Starmer emphasises.

The manifesto details more than £7 billion in tax rises, but promises no raise in income tax, national insurance and VAT.

“I accept that there is no magic wand”, Starmer says when asked what would happen if the economy does not grow at the scale he hopes.

“This manifesto is a total rejection of that defeatist approach.

“It is the absolute opposite of the hope that we inject through this manifesto.”

Starmer has accused the Tories of running a cynical campaign.

Asked whether the election will result in a “one-party socialist state” as one Tory claimed yesterday, he said: “Reject the cynicism of the Tory campaign, all they want to do in a general election is to suppress [the] vote.”

He adds: “Polls don’t predict the future, and every single vote has to be earned.”

Sunak is in Italy for the G7 summit

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Sunak has been warmly received in Bari, Italy by the Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni.

The right-wing Brothers of Italy leader has previously supported Sunak’s Rwanda policy.

Here is a glance at the Labour manifesto’s economic plans:

• A ‘triple tax lock’ to not raise income tax, VAT or national insurance
• An end to non-dom tax free status
• Corporation tax capped 25 per cent
• Hitting private schools with VAT bills and business rates
• A 1 per cent levy on foreign house purchases
• £1.2 billion windfall tax on oil and gas giants
• A total of £7.3 billion tax rises

The manifesto also details how the party’s National Wealth Fund will invest in growth and clean energy projects with public and private money.

• £1.8 billion to upgrade ports
• £1.5 billion to build new gigafactories
• £2.5 billion for the steel industry
• £1 billion for carbon capture and storage
• £500 million for green hydrogen

“I know what it feels likes to be embarrassed to bring your mates home,” Starmer says, as he moves to his personal experience growing up in a working class family.

He adds: “What always used to comfort my parents was the idea that Britain would give their children a fair chance.”

“You can choose a different path — you have the power”, Starmer says referring to the party’s devolution plans.

“You can choose to take back control from Westminster. More democracy for your community. New powers over transport, skills employment.”

Beyond a pledge to crack down on tax avoidance — which is also a key pledge of the Tory manifesto — there is very little detail on tax pledges in the manifesto.

“I don’t believe it’s fair to raise taxes on working people, when they’re already paying this much”, Starmer says.

The manifesto is clear the party would not raise income tax, national insurance or VAT – but it leaves significant room for other measures, instead saying it will keep taxes “as low as possible”.

Labour will “end the 8am scramble” for a GP appointment, Starmer says.

“It doesn’t matter how many new policies the Tories throw at the wall, hoping some of them stick,” Starmer says.

He argues Labour has a “laser focus on our case — stability, growth, investment and reform.” Labour will “return to the serious business of rebuilding our country”, Starmer says.

He adds: “The mandate we seek from Britain in this election is a mandate for economic growth”.

Growth is Labour’s “core business” and wealth creation is the party’s “number one priority”, Starmer says. He adds: “Redistribution cannot be a one-word plan for our poorest towns and regions. We are pro-business and pro-worker, the party of wealth creation.”

“Britain has lost its balance”, Starmer says.

“Too many communities are locked out of the wealth that we create,” he adds, saying the Tories “give tax cuts to the richest one per cent”.

“Don’t get me wrong, these challenges don’t disappear overnight if Labour win”, Starmer says after listing issues with the cost of living and the NHS.

But he argued the manifesto represents a “credible long-term plan”.

Starmer says the manifesto is a “plan that is much more than a list of policies”.

He adds it is an attempt to end “sticking plaster politics”.

Starmer’s speech has been interrupted by a protester with a yellow banner saying “youth deserve better”.

The protester, from climate action group Green New Deal Rising, shouts: “Young people deserve better … it is the same old Tory policies”.

“My generation is being let down by the Labour party and this manifesto. You say that you’re offering change but its the same old Tory policies. We need better. The climate can’t wait. The climate can’t wait. We need a Green New Deal now,” she said.

The heckler was quickly escorted out of the venue

“We gave up on being a party of protest five years ago, we want to be a party of power,” Starmer interjected.

The heckler was quickly escorted out of the venue and drowned out with applause and cheers from the crowd.

But is an embarrassing moment for the Labour leader, at what is a strictly controlled event.

Labour plans to raise about £7 billion in revenue from tax, its costings document confirms.

Some £5.2 billion would come from closing the non-dom loophole and cracking down on tax avoidance and £1.5 billion from VAT and business rates on private schools, according to its calculations.

The rest would come from closing the carried interest tax loophole and increasing stamp duty on purchases of residential property by non-UK residents by 1%, the document says.

The cover shows a black-and-white image of Starmer with his sleeves rolled up

ANTHONY DEVLIN/GETTY IMAGES

Labour’s A5 manifesto has been handed to journalists and supporters in the room.

It comes to 136 A5 pages, has more than 23,000 words and has 33 photographs of Starmer, including one of him meeting President Zelensky at the D-Day event Sunak missed. It has been worked on by Starmer and his team since February, a spokesman said.

The cover shows a black-and-white image of the leader with his jacket off.

Richard Walker, the executive chairman of Iceland supermarkets who quit the Tories to back Labour earlier this year, says: “In business, I like to see a plan. The country needs a clear and credible plan too.
He praises Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, for pledging “the most pro-growth pro-business Treasury our country has ever seen.”

Walker says his workers at Iceland “ache for change”, and that Labour can deliver it, including by “ripping out crime at its roots” and “ensuring out health and social care service help everyone life life to the full”.

Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, has started proceedings by saying “we just cannot afford five more years of high tax, low growth and broken Tory promises”.

Reading off an autocue at the back of the room, Rayner said: “The Tories have shown you can’t tax our way to growth. Our plan for growth means investment and reform.”

“If you place your trust in us we are committed to never taking that power for granted,” Rayner said.

She told activists that three Labour manifestos — of 1945, 1967 and 1997 — asked a question of what people wanted and answered that question, before delivering a victory for the party.

Sir Keir Starmer, pictured this morning with the shadow cabinet including the chancellor Rachel Reeves and the deputy leader Angela Rayner for the launch of the Labour party’s manifesto in Manchester

STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA

The entire shadow cabinet has now gathered to watch the manifesto launched. They are rarely all seen in the same place.

Sir Keir Starmer has walked out, sleeves rolled up, along with Angela Rayner, his deputy leader.

Labour has ruled out council tax reforms despite properties being taxed based on their value 33 years ago.

Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator, Pat McFadden, said reforming council tax is “not something that we’re planning to do” in an interview on the Today programme.

“Because the priority for us is to get the economy moving, to get our first steps in place, which are economic stability, cutting NHS waiting times, secure border plans, setting up GB Energy, cracking down on antisocial behaviour and having more teachers in our schools.

Council tax bands are based on the property value of the house and how much a local council charges for that band. It is estimated the levy will raise £46.9 billion this year.

NHS waiting lists have risen for the first time since last year to reach 7.6 million, new figures have revealed.

The monthly NHS data, covering April, will be seized on by Labour to highlight Rishi Sunak’s failed promise to bring down hospital waiting times.

NHS England announced this morning total hospital waiting lists reached 7.57 million at the end of April — up slightly from 7.54 million treatments at the end of March.

Last January waiting lists were 7.21 million, when Sunak pledged they would fall under his government. They reached a record high of 7.77 million in September but had fallen slightly every month until now.

The prime minister, pictured with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, in Italy today ahead of the G7 summit, admitted his party had not “made as much progress” on reducing waiting lists as he would have liked

CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGES

In a Sky interview last night, the prime minister admitted: “We’ve not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked.”

Sunak has sought to blame industrial action for the slow progress on waiting lists, but there were no strikes in April, the period covered by the latest data.

The Reform leader said the Conservative Party “may be dead”

AARON CHOWN/PA

Nigel Farage has said he wishes to lead a “merged” Conservative and Reform party if the Tories collapse at the general election.

“I think something is going to emerge on the centre-right, I don’t know what it’s called, but do I think I’m capable of leading a national opposition to a Labour party with a big majority, where I can stand up and hold them to account, on issues, yes,” he told LBC.

He said he would lead a “merged party” of the Tories and Reform, but not the Conservative Party as it “currently is”.

“They may be dead. This may be the end of their journey. I would be prepared to lead the centre-right in this country,” he said.

Labour has published a promotional video ahead of the manifesto launch at 11am, promising to “rebuild” Britain and grow the economy.

It reminds viewers of Liz Truss’s premiership and shows party leaders looking purposeful in hard hats.

The prime minister was laughed at when making basic political points

ALISON JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES

A snap YouGov poll put Sir Keir Starmer ahead on 64 per cent to Rishi Sunak’s 36 per cent (Lara Spirit writes).

In fairness, both leaders suffered mild indignities in Sky News’s leaders debate last night. Starmer was asked if he was boring and stiff. Then if he was a robot. Sunak was asked if there was anything that might make people like him more and he told them he eats lots of sugar. Starmer was laughed at when he said his dad was a toolmaker. Sunak was laughed at, even more humiliatingly, when making basic political points. Both will have left the stage feeling bruised and battered.

But it was Starmer who will find that debate comes back to haunt him this morning. His answer on prior support for Jeremy Corbyn — that he was certain Labour would lose the 2019 election anyway as a defence for recommending him as prime minister — felt weak.

A vote for Reform will hand Labour an “even bigger” majority, the chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said.

The chancellor has followed the defence secretary Grant Shapps in playing up the potential of a Labour “super-majority”, suggesting that some in the party have given up on winning the campaign.

“All that a vote for Reform does is give Labour an even bigger majority,” he said. “And that is a polar opposite of what most reform voters want. So it doesn’t solve any problem to vote Reform,” he told Politico.

He acknowledged that his own previously safe seat is in danger: “It could be a strong Conservative majority or it could be a seat that falls spectacularly to the Lib Dems.”

Geoffrey Cox, the former attorney general, was on the airwaves on Wednesday making gloomy predictions of a Tory wipeout. He told the BBC that Britain is “sleepwalking into a one party socialist state”.

The foreign secretary, pictured today on Sky News, told Times Radio earlier this morning that the Conservative Party has a plan for reforming welfare, which includes back-to-work tests

SKY NEWS

The increase in migration is due to a lack of welfare reform, Cameron said.

“The biggest thing that we need to get right, and the biggest cause of this increase in migration, is the fact that so many people decided to leave the workforce after Covid, we haven’t been effectively reforming welfare”, he tells Times Radio.

“Because ultimately we all want British businesses to be more productive, but ultimately if you lose a million workers from the workforce, they’re going to have to come from somewhere and that’s why I think we have seen such high levels of migration.

“Now in this election, as far as I can see, the Conservative Party has got a plan for reforming welfare, with back-to-work tests and all the rest of it, and Labour have got no plan for reforming welfare.”

The foreign secretary with the president of France, the chancellor of Germany and the president of the US at the June 6 D-Day commemorative event that Sunak decided to leave early

PATRICK VAN KATWIJK/GETTY IMAGES

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton said a photo of him with Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz at a D-Day commemoration event was suggested by the French president and not pre-planned.

“President Macron said he wanted to have a word with me, and I went up and we had an exchange, and then he said let’s have a photo of the ‘quad’ which is Britain, France, America and Germany, and so there we were having a photograph.

“It wasn’t an event or a meeting, or anything as substantial as that,” he told BBC Breakfast.

He refused to say whether he gave specific advice to Sunak that he should attend the event and denied that he was “apoplectic” with him for not attending, as was reported in The Sunday Times.

“I absolutely wasn’t at all,” he said, describing the report as “hearsay” to Sky News.

The chancellor, centre, challenged Labour to rule out the tax hikes

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

The Conservatives have pledged not to increase National Insurance, capital gains tax or corporation tax.

Launching the party’s “new Family Business Tax Guarantee”, Jeremy Hunt challenged Labour to rule out the same tax hikes.

The chancellor said: “Ultimately it’s not businesses that pay taxes, it’s people. That’s why we’re guaranteeing not to raise taxes on businesses and jobs in the next parliament, and I’m challenging Labour to rule these tax hikes out too.”

At the leaders TV event on Sky News last night, Sir Keir Starmer repeated his line that Labour will not raise taxes on working people, but pressed on other taxes he said he had “no plans” to raise them and nothing in the manifesto required additional tax rises.

Sir Keir Starmer will say the mandate Labour is seeking from the country is for economic growth as he launches his party’s manifesto in Manchester today.

The Labour leader will say: “Some people say that how you grow the economy is not a central question — that it’s not about how you create wealth, but how you tax it, how you spend it, how you slice the cake, that’s all that matters.

“So let me be crystal clear — this manifesto is a total rejection of that argument, because if you transform the nature of the jobs market, change the infrastructure that supports investment into our economy, reform the planning regime, start to unlock the potential of billions upon billions in projects that are ready to go, held up by the blockers of aspiration, then that does so much more to our long-term growth prospects.”

Labour say their “plan to kickstart growth” will restore economic stability, unleash investment, reform planning rules and the jobs market, and shift power away from Westminster.

The party says it will put a cap on corporation tax at 25 per cent, create a National Wealth Fund to invest in industries for the future, and introduce a modern industrial strategy.

Labour will “turbo-charge the efforts of mayors across the country” with new powers over transport, skills, housing and planning, and employment support.

The immigration and skills system will also be reformed to “ensure Britain is developing home-grown skills”.

Alongside their New Deal for Working people, Labour will introduce a new childcare offer and “tackle health and mental health challenges to get people back to work”.

The foreign secretary Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton is putting the focus on national security today

THOMAS KRYCH/ZUMA PRESS WIRE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

With Rishi Sunak at the G7 conference in Italy, the Tories are focusing on their plan to meet the challenges of a less secure world.

Alongside increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030 and their national service plans, the Conservatives have an ambition to become the largest defence exporter in Europe by 2030 and will appoint a minister for British citizens overseas.

David Cameron, the foreign secretary, said: “The world today is more dangerous, more volatile than many of us have ever known. And what happens abroad matters here at home.

“In a time of danger and insecurity, Rishi Sunak and I are clear that we must adopt a harder edge for a tougher world. We can determine our own destiny if we have the courage to act — and we have demonstrated that courage.”

During Wednesday night’s leaders interviews, the prime minister faced derision, while Sir Keir Starmer seemed unclear on what comes after the general election (Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright write).

Sunak apologised again for leaving the D-Day commemorations early and said that “trust takes time to rebuild through actions”. The problem for the prime minister, though, is that time is one thing he no longer has.

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer went head-to-head on Sky News on Wednesday evening, in the second election debate featuring the prime minister and Labour leader.

They faced 20 minutes of questions from Beth Rigby, Sky’s political editor, followed by 25 minutes of questions from the live audience.

Both party leaders made key claims about their plans for the country — Times experts looked at the facts.

With three weeks to go before polling day, Sir Keir Starmer will set out Labour’s plans for the next five years if the party wins power at 11am today.

Although no significant new policies are expected, we know a fair amount about the party’s priorities — so what would a Labour government look like?