UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has been accused of “squatting” in Downing Street by his political opponents after he downplayed the prospects of holding a British general election in the spring.
On Thursday, Mr Suank that it is his “working assumption” that he would trigger the vote for the “second half of this year”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused him of “dithering and delaying” while the Liberal Democrats claimed Mr Sunak had “bottled it” amid dire polling for the Tories.
Regardless of when the ballots open, the long election campaign was well underway as Mr Starmer and the prime minister both visited battleground areas on Thursday.
Mr Sunak dangled the prospect of future tax cuts to voters and attacked Labour’s green proposals as the two leaders set out their stalls at the start of the election year.
In Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, Mr Sunak told broadcasters: “So my working assumption is we’ll have a general election in the second half of this year and, in the meantime, I’ve got lots that I want to get on with.”
The Conservative leader declined to rule out a May election categorically, instead repeating his intentions to go for later in the year.
Rishi Sunak has yet again bottled giving the British public their say.
He’s squatting in Number 10 because he’s too weak to face the country. pic.twitter.com/IcCn5MEq8Y— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) January 4, 2024
Mr Sunak has until January 28th, 2025, to hold the election. Waiting gives him more time to turn around the Tories’ dire polling, but also risks another summer of small boat crossings as he struggles to get the Rwanda policy off the ground.
After giving a speech near Bristol, Mr Starmer said he wants the polls to open “as soon as possible”.
“We are ready for an election, I think the country is ready for election, people are crying out for change,” he said in an interview with Sky News.
“If he’s not going to set a date, what’s he hiding from the public? This has serious implications for the country because he’s basically saying he’s going to be squatting for months and months in Downing Street, dithering and delaying.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey accused the UK prime minister of having “bottled it” as he is “running scared” of a May election.
“Squatter Sunak is holed up in Downing Street, desperately clinging on to power rather than facing the verdict of the British people,” he said.
Mr Sunak set out his expectations for a later election after Labour started claiming that a spring vote is the “worst kept secret in Parliament” in a possible ploy to tee up the squatting allegations.
In his speech, Mr Starmer pleaded with voters to hang on to the “flickering hope in your heart that things can be better” amid the “understandable despair of a downtrodden country”.
He indicated that if he won the election he would wait to grow the economy before fulfilling a desire to cut taxes on working people, in a dividing line with the Tories.
Mr Sunak raised the prospect of further tax cuts after the incoming easing of national insurance, despite the Conservatives taking the overall tax burden to the highest since the Second World War.
Speaking to an assembled group in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, he said he would “keep cutting people’s taxes”.
“We want to do more because as we manage the economy responsibly, we can cut your taxes, give you and your family peace of mind, immediate relief from some of the challenges you’re facing and confidence that the future is going to be better for you and your children,” he said.
“That is going to be the single biggest difference between us and the Labour Party in the next election.”
Mr Sunak attacked Labour’s £28 billion-a-year green energy investment plans, which are designed to bring down bills, drive growth and reduce reliance on overseas fuels.
The prime minister claimed it cannot be done “without putting up inflation, without putting up mortgage rates or without putting up all your taxes”.
“We are going to keep talking about it because ultimately it’s going to impact everyone in this country and we’re going to cut their taxes and make sure everyone knows that if they ever get a lefty, your taxes are going up,” he said.
But after his own speech at a research facility near Bristol, Mr Starmer hit out at Tory attacks as “misconceived” and acknowledged the scale of the plans could be reduced.
The Labour leader said that “if the money is from borrowing, which it will be, borrowing to invest, that the fiscal rules don’t allow it, then we will borrow less”.
He said that “in principle I do want to see lower taxes on working people, I want people to have more money in their pocket”.
But he stressed that the “first lever that we will pull is the growth lever because in the end that’s the only way we’re going to get the money we need to fund our public services”.
In another possible dividing line, the Labour leader said he is “fundamentally opposed” to axing or reducing inheritance tax on the wealthy, a move being mooted by the Tories.
