Sunak and Starmer clash in testy final UK TV debate
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STORY: Britain's final debate before next week's general election was a testy standoff with current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose party is trailing in the polls going head-to-head with Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party. Polling puts Labour far ahead of Sunak's Conservatives, by around 20 points, and on Wednesday, the prime minister made a last-ditch attack on Starmer, accusing him of being dishonest on issues from tax and women’s rights to immigration. Starmer fired back saying that Sunak was too rich to understand the concerns of most ordinary Britons. A snap YouGov poll said the debate had been a 50/50 tie. "They cannot be returned to where they came from, can they, Prime Minister, if he wants to correct that, now is his chance to do that" On immigration – a top concern for British voters, Sunak rejected Starmer’s argument that he would try and return migrants to their home countries saying many are from Iran, Syria and Afganistan: “Are you going to sit down with the Iranian ayatollahs? Are you going to try and do a deal with the Taliban? It's completely nonsensical what you are saying, right? You are taking people for fools. I think that these people should not stay in our country. They will be on planes to Rwanda.” Starmer also argued the country was exhausted after 14 years of Conservative "chaos", and that he would better understand the challenges of many families who have struggled under soaring inflation and a cost of living crisis. Polls indicate Labour are on course to win the election with a whopping majority. Sunak's campaign has struggled since the beginning. He launched the election in pouring rain in Downing Street and was heavily criticized for failing to attend a D-Day memorial event. Sir Keir Starmer also attacked the prime minister over a recent betting scandal, which saw five Conservative party officials investigated over bets that were placed on the timing of an early election: "Because this isn't just, you know, what's happened this week, last week in the Gambling Commission, we saw Partygate earlier in this parliament. The prime minister himself was convicted and fined for breaking the rules, which he brought in and imposed on everybody else.” However Starmer has also faced criticism at public events, too. He's been accused by voters of sticking to a script and being robotic, and failing to give enough information on how he would fund much-needed improvements to public services. Ballot boxes open on July 4th.
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