Rishi Sunak sends major tax and immigration warning if Labour wins election

Rishi Sunak warned voters that taxes and migration will rise under Labour as he faced a grilling at the hands of the public.

In a febrile televised debate, the Prime Minister set out July 24 as the date of the first deportation flight to Rwanda if he is returned to government.

Mr Sunak said: “If you’re someone who cares about cutting taxes, protecting pensions, an approach to net zero that prioritises cutting your bills, I’m the person that’s going to deliver for you, not Keir Starmer.

“Keir Starmer doesn’t have a plan on immigration, Keir Starmer is not going to cut your taxes... That’s the choice for you and everyone else thinking about it.”

Mr Sunak and opponent faced back-to-back questioning at a fiery event in Grimsby hosted by Sky News and faced a turbulent time at the hands of frustrated audience members.

Quizzed about the country’s high tax burden, Mr Sunak said: “What our manifesto announced is the tax cuts for people at every stage of their life – for people in work, for people that are setting up small businesses, that are self employed, for those young people who wanna buy their first home, for pensioners and for families.”

Mr Sunak admitted it has not been an easy 18 months but vowed he will “keep going to try and do my best for people”.

And the PM insisted he will “keep fighting hard until the last day of this election”.

He told the audience he was “incredibly sad” to have caused people “hurt and upset” over his decision to miss an international ceremony at the D-Day commemorations.

Over a 45 minute grilling by host Beth Rigby and the audience on the Battle For Number 10 programme, Mr Sunak insisted he understood public cynicism about the small boats crisis as he was challenged about his pledge to end the crossings.

He said: “We have already started detaining people, airfields on standby, planes are booked, the date for the first flight is out on July 24.”

Told net migration over the last three years is more than double compared to the three-year period before the 2016 EU referendum, he replied: “It’s too high. I have been very clear that it’s too high and I’m sure people feel frustrated and angry about it.”

Pressed on why the public should believe what he says on immigration, replied: “I can completely understand people’s cynicism about this.

“Since I have been in charge, numbers down 10% and visas issued this year down by a quarter. I’ve had this job for 18 months, numbers were down last year, they’re down considerably at the start of this year and they will keep coming down because of the measures I’ve already announced.”

Sir Keir Starmer faced voters first and floundered when an audience member accused him of being a “political robot”.

After explaining how “in touch with the public” the Labour leader appeared when he was director of public prosecutions, the man he had changed over the last year.

Sir Keir eventually replied by explaining that he did not apologise for changing the Labour party and told the audience: “I think it probably is a result of coming into politics late, because I am not tribally political, I actually do believe there are good people who vote other than Labour who want their family, their community, and their country to go forward.”

“You don’t seem to answer the question,” the audience member said.

Sir Keir has clashed with a junior doctor during the Battle For Number 10 Sky News programme.

The Labour leader was attacked by a parent for punishing working parents with his plan to hike up taxes on private schools.

He said: “I have nothing against private schools, I absolutely recognise that many parents work hard and save hard to send their children to private schools because they have aspiration for their children.

“I equally accept that every parent has aspiration for their children whether they go to private school or not."