Wes Streeting: ‘Do not give the matches back to the arsonist’
On Sky News this morning, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested there could be greater spending increases than promised in Labour’s manifesto, ‘if the conditions allow’, but said Labour wouldn’t ‘make promises we can’t keep’. Trevor Phillips argued that Labour’s manifesto doesn’t amount to real change, but Streeting accused him of a ‘wall of cynicism’, and called the Conservative manifesto ‘Liz Truss’s mini-budget on steroids’.
Mark Harper: ‘We’ve got a strong record’
Laura Kuenssberg asked Transport Secretary Mark Harper why Conservative candidates and their election material are avoiding using official branding. She suggested there might be embarrassment in the party. Harper disagreed, saying the Tories had a ‘very strong offer to set out’. He claimed that anyone who wants lower taxes and controlled migration should vote for the Conservatives, and that a vote for any other party will lead to a Labour government with a large majority ‘and a blank cheque’, which will ‘literally do the opposite of what you want’.
Ed Davey: ‘We fought the Conservatives every day’
The Liberal Democrats have put adult social care reform at the heart of their manifesto, but Laura Kuenssberg pointed out to Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey that during the coalition government there were significant cuts to welfare support. Kuenssberg asked Davey whether he regretted his party’s role in those cuts. Davey refused to answer directly, but said his party had produced the Care Act in 2014, which he claimed would have provided proper care, had the Conservatives not reneged on their commitment. Davey said the Liberal Democrats had fought to reduce welfare cuts, which increased once the Conservatives were in government alone.
Plaid Cymru leader: ‘I’m not an isolationist… I’m an internationalist’
Head of Plaid Cymru Rhun ap lorwerth told Kuenssberg that he had not moved away from hopes for Welsh independence, and that it was his ‘firm belief’ that Wales could not reach its full potential until it controlled ‘all those levers of change’. Rhun ap lorwerth said he saw independence as ‘part of the redesigning of the UK’ where the independent nations would work very closely together. Kuenssberg asked why the Plaid Cymru manifesto did not include a demand for a referendum. Rhun ap lorwerth said the demand was ‘implicit’, and suggested there was ‘no reason’ why independence could not be achieved in his lifetime.
Labour committed to government’s cap on care costs
On the BBC, Streeting spoke to Laura Kuenssberg about his plans to build a national care service over the next 10 years. In the short term however, he said Labour would continue with the government’s plan to introduce a cap on the amount a person spends on their own care costs, which is expected to be introduced in October 2025. Streeting said he was ‘not interested in tearing things down’ until they had something better, and that he hopes for cross-party cooperation.
Nadine Dorries: public are very angry about the two unelected prime ministers
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries claimed that a large factor in the Conservatives’ bad polling numbers was public anger at the removal of Boris Johnson and the transition to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak without a general election. Dorries argued that people were not ‘in love’ with Labour, but were very angry with the Conservatives.
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