Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at the UK’s national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day
The Labour leader and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper are expected to promote the plans on a visit on Sunday.The party also promised to deliver 14,000 more prison places as it blamed Conservative inaction for the prison estate “bursting at the seams”. And in a bid to kill off the Tories’ much-disputed claim that Labour would hike taxes by £2,000, Sir Keir will include a cast-iron pledge in the manifesto not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT for five years, The Sunday Times reported.
Those already floated measures include a £700 million investment in NHS mental health treatment, a pledge to reform the disability benefits system and a tightening of the criteria for work capability assessments. He added: “Delivering an additional £12 billion saving from this set of measures relative to what was forecast in the March Budget looks difficult in the extreme.”The Prime Minister is campaigning in Yorkshire without media on Sunday after facing accusations of “dodging” reporters’ questions the previous day amid continuing criticism over his D-Day snub.
Rishi Sunak has been criticised for leaving Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron to pose with world leaders Elsewhere, the Liberal Democrats are vowing to tackle ambulance delays as they turn their attention to health and care.The party’s manifesto pledge features an upfront capital investment of £280 million to expand urgent treatment centres and A&E wards, and an additional £400 million a year to add an extra 1,000 staffed beds in hospitals.