- Sunak says UK on 'downhill slope' over inflation and tax
- Second Reform candidate defects
- Starmer aide dismisses 6pm Friday jibes
- What happened last week
Sunak on 'downhill slope'
Rishi Sunak's efforts might have made not one jot of difference to the polls, but he dismissed claims he had thrown in the towel today by getting up 4.30am for a factory visit before a busy day of PR.
Speaking to workers in Oxfordshire, the PM said: “We’re on the downhill slope” on inflation, taxes and energy bills.
“Because of everyone’s hard work and resilience, and our policies, we’ve got inflation back to normal, back where it should be at 2%, which also means now interest rates can start to be cut.
“So, you’re going to start to feel the benefits of that. Those pressures of the past few years are now dissipating.”
“Now we’re cutting your taxes, inflation’s back to normal, energy bills coming down, interest rates to follow.
“We’re on the downhill slope now. And we can look forward with confidence and with optimism. But not if there’s a change in government and all those things are reversed.”
Second Reform candidate defects
Sunak has been getting plenty of flak for not being right-wing enough for hardcore Tories, but there was some good news for his stance as a second Reform candidate switched to join him.
Georgie David said the "vast majority" of [Reform] party nominees are "racist, misogynistic and bigoted" which sparked accusations from Robert Tice, Reform’s chair, that the Tories were offering candidates “jobs and safe seats” to defect.
Given the state of polls, however, it might be hard to identify two guaranteed safe seats for the government with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt now tipped to lose his seat.
Starmer defends going home on Friday
Keir Starmer, meanwhile, will not stop work at 6pm on Friday and head off for the weekend after the Tories accused him of being “part-time”.
Starmer said he wanted to avoid work after 18:00 on a Friday to spend time with his family but his spokesperson Wes Streeting told the BBC that he [Streeting] would be working after 6.00 pm and he was “sure Keir will be doing so too."