Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are bracing for another crucial TV election grilling tonight as the PM desperately tries to shake off a series of gaffes.
As the campaign reaches the halfway point, the PM and his Labour opponent will both be interrogated on Sky News and face questions from a live studio audience.
The programme could be a pivotal moment for Mr Sunak, after another difficult day on the campaign trail. Mr Sunak has apologised for coming back early from D-Day commemorations last week to do an ITV interview, but footage has emerged showing him apologising that the events ‘ran on’.
He also told the broadcaster that hardship in his childhood was going without Sky TV so his parents could afford to send him to elite public school Winchester.
Some Tories are nervous that Mr Sunak is showing a propensity for blunders, with one gloomily observing it seems like ‘everything he touches turns to sh**’.
The party veteran suggested Mr Sunak was in a doom loop where ‘nothing is a gaffe for Labour and everything is a gaffe for the Tories’.
The Conservative website previously featured a big photo of Mr Sunak with a button asking voters to ‘join Rishi’. However, since the manifesto launch yesterday his images are much less prominent.
A YouGov survey today laid bare the scale of the task Mr Sunak faces, with Labour 20 points ahead. Sir Keir’s outfit were supported by 38 per cent of voters, with the Conservatives on just 18 per cent.
The Tory vote share was the joint lowest since 2019 and only one point ahead of Reform UK (17 per cent) and three points ahead of the Lib Dems (15 per cent).
The PM is expected to hammer home his tax-cutting plans on the Sky News programme this evening, after unveiling the Conservative manifesto yesterday.
If he stays in power, he has promised to oversee another 2p cut to National Insurance to reduce the tax to 6 per cent by April 2027.
The PM also pledged that NICs will be abolished altogether for four million self-employed over the next Parliament, as part of his £17billion of tax cuts.
Both the PM and Sir Keir will be quizzed by Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby and audience members in a live show from Grimsby later today.
Last week’s ITV debate between Mr Sunak and the Labour leader saw the political rivals clash over tax in fiery head-to-head exchanges.
Labour figures were left fuming at the PM’s ‘lies’ about their tax plans, after Mr Sunak berated Sir Keir for plotting to hike the tax burden for Brits by £2,000.
The PM was dealt a blow ahead of tonight’s Sky News programme as the UK economy was shown to have flatlined in April, according to latest figures.
The Office for National Statistics reported that growth domestic product (GDP) was flat during the month following growth of 0.4 per cent in March.
The data will present a headache for the PM, who told voters the economy had ‘turned a corner’ after it emerged from recession in the second half of last year.
Mr Sunak is also facing a fresh row over D-Day after it was revealed how he blamed the late-running commemoration events for his delayed arrival to a TV interview.
The PM has suffered days of outrage after he skipped a major international ceremony with other world leaders in Normandy last week.
The row deepened when it later emerged Mr Sunak had conducted an ITV interview on his return from northern France last Thursday.
In a clip of that interview now released by the broadcaster, the PM has been shown apologising for his late arrival – suggesting he wanted to leave Normandy earlier.
‘Very nice to see you, sorry to have kept you,’ Mr Sunak said to journalist Paul Brand, adding of the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations: ‘It all just ran over.
‘It was incredible but it just ran over… so apologies for keeping you.’
Mr Sunak’s political opponents seized on the ‘insulting’ exchange to claim it showed how the PM viewed D-Day as an ‘inconvenience’.