Rishi Sunak demolishes Keir Starmer's empty promises in TV election showdown

Rishi Sunak exposed the punishing tax hikes Labour is plotting if it takes power in a brutal television showdown with Keir Starmer.

A fired-up Prime Minister warned voters directly “you name it, Labour will tax it” in the first the first live head-to-head of the general election campaign,

Sir Keir refused repeatedly to rule out planning a £2,000 raid on family finances as he dodged questions over how he will fill the massive blackhole in his spending plans.

Mr Sunak said: “Labour will raise your taxes. It’s in their DNA. your work, your car, your pension, you name it, Labour will tax it.”

Mr Sunak told the public that In five weeks, only him or Sir Keir will be prime minister.

He added: “Beyond raising your taxes and raiding your pensions, no one knows what Labour would actually do.

“But you know what I would do? I’ll cut your taxes, protect your pension and reduce immigration.

“I have a clear plan for a more secure future for you and your family.”

In fiery exchanges over the hour-long ITV debate, both leaders were reprimanded for talking over each other by host Julie Etchingham.

She was forced to repeatedly intervene on the pair as they clashed over a range of issues.

Tensions heightened as the debate turned to the small boats crisis, with Mr Sunak challenging Sir Keir: “What are you going to do with illegal migrants?”

Etchingham intervened: “Please gentleman, we will lower our voices.”

Mr Sunak insisted he is prepared to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if the Rwanda plan was blocked in the courts.

He said: “I’m crystal clear, I believe all our plans are compliant with our international obligations, but if I am forced to choose between securing our borders and our country’s security, or a foreign court, I’m going to choose our country’s security every single time.”

But Sir Keir ruled out breaking ties with the court in Strasbourg, claiming the UK risked becoming a “pariah” state if it left international conventions.

“We will not pull out of international agreements and international law which is respected the world over,” he said.

“Because I want the UK to be a respected player on the global stage, not a pariah who doesn’t agree with international law.”

Mr Sunak won the first applause of the night when he said he would not give junior doctors a 35% pay rise.

And he repeatedly questioned Sir Keir on what he would do to end the stalemate.

The Labour leader said: “There’s only two ways forward: one is a continuing strike, which is what we’ve had for a very, very long time – we’re now four-and-a-half weeks from election. He’s going to kick it into the long grass.

“Or you get grown up, you go in the room and you resolve this. That does not mean you agree with the 35%, we can’t afford that.”

Sir Keir said voters had the chance to move on from the “chaos” of the Tory era and claimed he has “changed” the Labour Party to “put it back in the service of working people”.

“Now I’m seeking your backing to change our country, to make it work once again for you and your family,” he added.

Mr Sunak went on the attack over Sir Keir’s plans to drag millions of pensioners into paying income tax for the first time in history.

The Labour leader has refused to match the Prime Minister’s triple lock plus promise, which includes a tax break to keep the state pension away from the grasp of HMRC.

It means more than two million retirees whose sole income is the state pension will never pay income tax because both the payment and the pensioner tax-free allowance will rise in line with the highest of earnings, wages or 2.5% in each year of the next Parliament under the Tories.

Mr Sunak also attacked Sir Keir’s plans to tax private education, which schools have warned will lead them to collapse.

The Labour leader said one of his first steps would be to recruit 6,500 teachers to fill gaps, and he “will get rid of the tax break on private schools to pay for it, that’s a tough choice, I do understand that”.

But Mr Sunak responded: “I think people who work hard and aspire to provide their education for their kids should have that freedom, that’s what my parents did and I’ll support it.

“But you heard him, Keir Starmer is going to raise taxes, but that’s just the start because there’s a long list of other things that he needs to find the money for. So it’s not just going to start and stop there, there are £2,000 worth of tax rises coming for every working family in this country.”

It comes after two tax cuts for working age adults in the last two financial statements, when national insurance was cut by a total of four pence in the pound.

Ahead of the debate, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) issued its assessment of both parties’ spending plans and said neither appears “serious about the underlying principle of getting debt falling”.

Its analysis shows that under current forecasts Labour could instigate extra borrowing without missing its debt target.

But it warned that it is not possible to conclude this will be possible at the time of the next budget as there will be a new set of forecasts and other “moving parts”.