Election latest: Reform deny tax plans are 'Trussonomics on steroids' - as Lib Dems launch manifesto 'to save the NHS' (2024)

Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson were at a school today to launch one of Labour's key retail offers of the campaign - 100,000 new nursery places.

By repurposing 3,000 "surplus" primary school classrooms, particularly in disadvantaged areas where childcare demand is not being met, they say it will help parents into work, and ease children into life at school.

'We will deliver'

Speaking to Sky News, Sir Keir clarified for the first time that the scheme announced by Jeremy Hunt to expand the 30 "free" childcare hours to all pre-school children from age nine months would be honoured by Labour.

Asked if he would deliver it, he said: "Yes, we will deliver. Our plan is actually better than the government's... they haven't planned for it, and therefore they haven't got the spaces for it.

"But of course we want to complete on the government's plan, but actually do it in a way that's planned and deliverable."

This is a change of tune, after Labour had claimed they would pursue a different system. Ms Phillipson called it a "shoddy plan" back in February.

This expansion has been rolled out only in part - with nine-month-olds due to receive 15 subsidised hours from September, in what the childcare sector says will be an enormous challenge to fund and staff.

Nurseries have been warning they will be driven out of business, which could exacerbate pressures.

Delivering it will be an enormous staffing challenge - with the government's figures showing 40,000 extra people would be needed.

Getting it right could be key to economic growth and closing the attainment gap between the most and least advantaged children.

But the workforce and infrastructure needed to make it happen will require major investment.

Nigel Farage is asked what he makes of suggestions over the weekend that Rishi Sunak was considering resigning because of the reaction to him leaving D-Day commemorations last week.

The prime minister has today insisted it didn't cross his mind.

Mr Farage says he'd be "very surprised" if the PM does quit before the election on 5 July, but says if we weren't in the midst of a campaign "he would have resigned already".

Were he to quit, the Tories' poll ratings would fall even lower, he says.

Asked if he was willing to work with Tories like Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch, Mr Farage says if he establishes an "electoral beach head" in the Commons by winning in Clacton for Reform, he will welcome any Conservatives who want to join him.

The other candidates in Clacton are:

• Matthew Bensilum, Lib Dems;
• Craig Jamieson, Climate Party;
• Tony Mack, independent;
• Natasha Osben, Greens;
• Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, Labour;
• Tasos Papanastasiou, Heritage Party;
• Andrew Pemberton, UKIP;
• Giles Watling, Conservatives.

Sky political correspondent Gurpreet Narwan asks the Reform leadership more about their policy to change how the Bank of England pays interest on the debt it holds.

As a reminder - this is the money, about £800bn worth, that the Bank has printed since 2008 to keep the UK economy healthy by lending it to the government.

In late 2022, it started to sell the debt off, but this process will take years to complete.

Nigel Farage and Richard Tice want to see an end to interest being paid on the figure, as they say it means billions is going from the taxpayer to high street banks through the Bank of England.

Mr Farage singles out Rishi Sunak for his acts as chancellor during COVID, in which the Bank lent £400bn.

He says the then-chancellor should have locked in the interest rate at which the money was borrowed by the government. The base rate stood at 0.1% at the time, and is now above 5%.

He says it was "financial mismanagement on a gargantuan scale" and is costing tens of billions.

The pair say they want to see the Bank pay zero interest on the debts.

'Trussonomics on steroids'

Asked if Reform's plans equate to "Trussonomics on steroids", with the former prime minister's tax cut agenda having caused economic chaos which led to her resignation, Mr Tice and Mr Farage said they will be laying out more of their policies next Monday.

But they say they will not call it a manifesto as people equate that to mean "lies".

Richard Tice, the Reform UK chairman, is giving a speech in London about his party's economic policy.

He says he wants to get more people into work, as it will reduce the burden on the exchequer.

People in the UK are "literally suffocating" because of tax, he says.

His party wants to raise the threshold for paying income tax to £20,000, up from which he says will cost £40bn.

Mr Tice claims it will be paid for by overhauling the Bank of England.

He specifically singles out the interest paid on the £800bn of debt held by the Bank following quantitative easing.

The interest payments on this debt have soared since the base rate went up as the Bank tries to return inflation to 2%.

'Great British tax cut'

It is money taken off the taxpayer and paid on "institutions" in the city, among others.

The money would be used for a "great British tax cut".

Mr Tice says he also wants to raise the VAT threshold for small businesses to £150,000 from £90,000.

Other pledges include abolishing IR35, or off-payroll working, saying we can't "tax our way out of a crisis".

Party leader Nigel Farage takes over, and says the government may have difficulties issuing gilts if the current system of borrowing continues.

The Liberal Democrats have wrapped up their manifesto launch event, and you can scroll back through the Politics Hub to read more on their announcements and leader Sir Ed Davey's answers to the media.

We'll have more reaction and analysis to the manifesto throughout the afternoon.

Shortly we'll have live coverage of a Reform UK event with party leader Nigel Farage, where he and predecessor Richard Tice will be outlining their economic policies.

Stay with us for updates.

Speaking to broadcasters at the Dog and Bacon pub in Horsham, West Sussex, Mr Sunak is asked if contemplated stepping aside.

It is the first time he has answered on-camera questions since Friday, when he apologised for leaving last week's D-Day commemorations at Normandy before they had finished.

He says: "No, of course not.

"I'm energised about the vision that we're putting forward for the country.

"This campaign is not even halfway through yet, and I'm finding an enormous amount of support for the policies that we're putting on the table."

He says lots of people are saying the election is a "foregone conclusion" - and have been saying so since he took over.

But the PM says he is "not going to stop going - I'm not going to stop fighting for people's votes".

Reacting to the outlining of the Liberal Democrats' election manifesto, our deputy political editorSam Coates says the party seem confused.

"A party leader desperate, it seems, to show how serious he is about British politics says he's come up with a manifesto to save the health service, a series of tax rises and proposals that he insists are fully costed," Sam says.

"He (Sir Ed Davey) wants the Liberal Democrats to be taken seriously, but then in the next breath, he says: 'I'm off to go on a rollercoaster'."

A bit of tonal whiplash, to say the least.

The Lib Dem battle bus is heading to Thorpe Park this afternoon.

Sir Ed spent much of today asking the public to "take a chance" on a serious party in the Lib Dems, but much of his campaigning has been focused on social media stunts - and he opened his speech by joking he'd become "a meme".

"I think that kind of encapsulates a bit of where we are with the Liberal Democrats at the moment," Sam says.

Politico asks the Lib Dem leader about the fallout from the party's coalition government with the Tories.

Sir Ed - who was a minister at the time - says the party "fought the Conservatives every day, but we didn't win everything - and we paid a price for that".

He points to how he lost his parliamentary seat, and the three "bad" general election results the Lib Dems have endured since.

Sir Ed says that when he became leader he said people "needed to wake up and smell the coffee".

He said he instilled "iron discipline" in the party and people have "seen the disaster of the Conservatives".

Times Radio asks the Liberal Democrat leader how he will pay for specific policies in the manifesto.

They list ending the two-child benefit limit, doubling statutory maternity and paternity pay and paying compensation to Waspi women.

Sir Ed says the manifesto has been costed, and there is a policy costing document online that goes through the figures.

We'll be hearing more about that later from our economics and data editor Ed Conway.

Back to the politics, and Sir Ed says taxes will be put up on big banks, oil and gas companies, social media giants and the wealthiest people in the UK.

He adds that, in his view, some parties "are not really telling the truth about the funding of their policies".

The Lib Dems' costings document can be found here.

Sky deputy political editor Sam Coates asks Sir Ed Davey what success looks like to the Liberal Democrats.

He says that in the first instance, success is "lots of liberal MPs getting elected".

Sir Ed says he wants people to "take a chance on us" - and see the Lib Dems have "got great ideas, great candidates".

"And the more of us they vote for, the more we can get real change because we are the party offering change - whether it's on the political system or health and care".

He says his policy on health is "the most ambitious" of any party.

Sir Ed later tells GB News that in many seats, the Lib Dems are the only party who can beat the Tories.