Election latest: Minister says he 'stands by' Rishi Sunak's Labour tax rise claim (2024)

Sky News' deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico's Jack Blanchard provide you with their guide to the election day ahead.

This is day 15 of the campaign. Jack and Sam discuss the Conservatives on tax and if they have their figures on Labour right, the latest on new likely manifesto pledges, and what next for Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething after losing yesterday's vote of no confidence.

Email Jack and Sam: jackandsam@sky.uk

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Back to our interview with Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride now, who says he will "fight for every single vote" after a recent poll suggested he was among several cabinet ministers who could lose his seat in the election.

Asked how worried he is, Mr Stride says he has had "majorities with anything from about 10 to 21,500".

"In every single election... I fight for every single vote. I have great pride in the fact that I've stood up for my constituents over many years on many, many issues.

"I hope that will be reflected in the result," he says.

Asked by Sky's Kay Burley what job he would do if he lost his seat, Mr Stride says he won't speculate.

Labour is dropping its lawsuit against five former employees whom it had accused of leaking a controversial report into how antisemitism complaints were handled under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

The former staff members - including Mr Corbyn's former chief of staff Karie Murphy and his former director of communications Seumas Milne - denied the claims and previously said they would "vigorously defend themselves" in court.

A statement from their lawyers Carter-Ruck said: "The party is discontinuing its legal claims against Karie Murphy, Seumas Milne, Georgie Robertson, Harry Hayball and Laura Murray on a 'no order as to costs' basis.

"The five welcome the resolution of the claims."

The Work and Pensions Secretary is presented with analysis by our economics and data editor Ed Conway, who found that each household has experienced £13,000 in extra taxes under the Conservative government since 2019.

You can read that analysis in full here.

Mel Stride, in response, calls it a "number out of context that I haven't had a chance to properly look at".

He says the country has been through "two once-in-a-generation" external events with COVID and the Ukraine war.

"We supported the economy, if you go back to COVID, through furlough, millions of jobs, all that unemployment, that never happened because Rishi Sunak did the right thing," he says.

"We have seen some tax increases, but the trajectory now is downward," he adds.

Mel Stride has described Sir Keir Starmer's claim that Rishi Sunak broke the ministerial code by "lying" about Labour's tax plans as "utterly wrong".

He insists the £2,000 claim was in fact a "relatively conservative estimate".

The Work and Pensions Secretary says costing opposition policies is a feature of general elections "going back decades".

"Alistair Darling, then-Labour chancellor in 2010, carried out a very similar exercise.

"What is driving the animus of Keir Starmer and his colleagues is they know there were questions to be answered," he says.

We've just been hearing from Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, who has doubled down on Rishi Sunak's claim that Labour's plans for the country would lead to a tax rise equivalent of £2,000 per family.

Asked by Sky's Kay Burley whether he stands by the figure despite the UK's statistics watchdog revealing its is "looking into" the claim, Mr Stride says: "TheUK Statistics Authority has a role which involves looking at all sorts of statistics and coming to conclusions."

Pressed on whether that means he backs the figure, he says: "I stand by the numbers".

The prime minister's £2,000 claim was further called into question yesterday by a note from the Treasury's chief civil servant, which said the Conservative assessment "should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service".

Questioned on this, Mr Stride says that though the Tories never said the Treasury had signed off on it, a "substantial majority" of items in its opposition policy costings report "are actually a result of Treasury analysis".

"The report itself is very clear on all of this, absolutely crystal clear as to where the evidence is for each finding," he says.

Good morning!

We're deep into the second full week of the tooth-and-nail fight for all 650 parliamentary seats - and the keys to Number 10.

Political parties are spreading out across the country to get their message out ahead of polling day on 4 July.

Here's what you need to know, as campaigning takes a back seat as the nation commemorates the 80th anniversary of D-Day:

• Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is due to deliver remarks at the national D-Day commemorative event at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer today;
  
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will also be in attendance at the event, where veterans will be given a send-off by armed forces as they cross the Channel;
• Despite the reduction in active campaigning, Labour's Liz Kendall, the shadow work and pensions secretary, will meet with pensioners in Essex to discuss the Conservatives' track record on pensions;
  
• Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will meet with veterans to mark D-Day and continue canvassing later;
• The party is also set to reveal its pledge for cancer patients to have a legal right to start treatment within 62 days and improve conditions for veterans;
• Later this morning, Green Party co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer will announce that they want to put £20bn in capital investment into hospitals and equipment and invest £30bn in the NHS in the next parliament;
• Meanwhile,Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething has vowed to carry on despite losing a motion of no confidence tabled by the Welsh Conservatives.

Stick with us for all the latest political news throughout the day.

Thank you for joining us for live coverage of another busy day on the general election campaign trail.

For a short burst of everything that happened today, see our evening round-up here.

Join us again from 6am as the battle for the keys to No 10 continues.

The Liberal Democrats are tonight weighing in on the tax row that has engulfed the general election campaign since last night's testy debate.

Rishi Sunak claimed that Labour's policies will see a £2,000 tax hike if it wins power - but that is highly disputed by experts,including Sky's economics and data editor Ed Conway.

Sarah Olney, Treasury spokesperson for the Lib Dems, is seemingly siding with Labour in this row, saying in a statement that the Tories are "fooling absolutely nobody".

"Their chaos and mismanagement have damaged the economy and left British families worse off, saddling them with £41bn of unfair stealth taxes worth hundreds of pounds for every household," she said.

"Hard-working families deserve so much better. Voters will never forgive the Conservative Party for saddling them with unfair tax hikes and failing to tackle the cost of living crisis, while giving tax cuts to the big banks and oil and gas giants."

David Duguid has said on social media that the Scottish Conservatives have prevented him from standing again as a candidate for the party.

He served as the MP forBanff and Buchan from 2017 until parliament was dissolved for this general election, but has spent many weeks in hospital receiving treatment in intensive care for a spinal illness and pneumonia.

The general election "came as a surprise", but on 23 May, he announced that he would stand to win his seat once again.

Although he said he would be able to campaign, he also said he would not be able to canvass in person as he remains in a rehabilitation ward.

He said on social media this evening that although he was selected by local party members as their candidate once again, the Scottish Conservatives told him "that they have decided not to put me forward as their chosen candidate for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East" (the name of his former constituency following the boundary review).

A spokesperson for the Scottish Conservatives said: "David Duguid is unfortunately unable to stand in this election.

"David has been an excellent MP and great local representative for the last seven years.

"We thank David for all his hard work for the party, we look forward to his recovery to full health, and hope that he will want to rejoin frontline politics in the future."

It is understood that the party feels it is taking the decision in the best interests of Mr Duguid's health.