Rishi Sunak slaps down claims Nigel Farage's party is real opposition to Labour

Rishi Sunak has denied Reform is the real opposition to Labour, warning a vote for anyone else will hand them a “blank cheque” to whack up taxes.

The Prime Minister came out fighting this morning after Nigel Farage’s party overtook the Tories in a shock poll.

The YouGov survey put Reform UK at 19%, compared to the Conservatives at 18%.

Mr Sunak brushed off the poll, insisting there is a long way to go before the polling day on July 4.

Brexit architect Mr Farage crowed about his one-point lead over the Conservatives during last night’s seven-way debate on ITV.

He kicked off the clash saying: “Just before we came on air we overtook the Conservatives in the national opinion polls. We are now the opposition to Labour.”

But Mr Sunak hit back this morning telling journalists at the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy: “We’re only halfway halfway through this election right? So I’m still fighting very hard for every vote.

“I always say the poll that matters is the one on July 4 – but if that poll was replicated on July 4, it would be handing Labour a blank cheque to tax everyone.

“Tax their home their pension, their car, their family, and I’ll be fighting very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. "

Pressed on whether he thinks it’s “existential” for the Tories, he added: “I think at the end of the day on July 5, one of two people's going to be Prime Minister - Keir Starmer or me - and this week the most important thing that happened was you saw both major parties manifestos that's their programme for government if they were elected

“So now everyone has a very clear sense of what each of us would do and as you saw from our manifesto, as we were discussing yesterday, say what you want about it, but it's a very clear plan, a detailed set of bold actions. “That's how you deliver a more secure future for people and crucially, there's a massive difference on tax.

“We want to cut your taxes at every stage of your life in work, setting up a business, buying your first home, when you're retired, you're a pensioner or if you have a family cutting taxes for everybody.

“The Labour party consistently can't tell you which taxes they're going to put up but they are going to put them up and as we saw yesterday, they're gonna raise the tax burden to the highest level in this country's history. And that's the choice for everyone at the election.”

The poll, carried out for the Times, had Labour on 37%.