Manifesto overload
News was dominated by the
launch of Labour’s Manifesto in Manchester, which set out the party’s
plan to “end the desperate era of gestures and gimmicks” with a
“credible” long-term plan to “rebuild our country”. The document,
which was centred around wealth creation, had few if any surprises in
it, something Starmer refused to apologise for after Sky’s Beth Rigby,
asked whether it was a “Captain Caution” manifesto designed to protect
Labour’s poll lead. Starmer rejected this characterisation explaining,
“It is not about rabbits out of
the hat, it's not about pantomime, we've had enough of that. I'm
running as a candidate to be prime minister, not a candidate to run
the circus." Plaid Cymru also chose Thursday to publish their
manifesto, which focused on fair funding for Wales, with one of the
party’s key manifesto pledges being a £4 billion payout for Wales to
account for HS2.
Sunak overseas
Fresh from a bruising at
the Sky leader’s debate, Rishi Sunak jetted off to Italy to mix with
other world leaders at the G7 summit in the coastal town of Bari. He
particularly seemed to enjoy his time with Italy’s own populist PM
Georgia Meloni, with whom he put on a rather chummy
display.
Gambling gone wrong
After it came to light that Tory
candidate Craig Williams - one of Rishi’s closest aides - had placed a
hefty £100 bet on a July election just three days before the PM named
the date, he was forced to admit that he had made a “huge error of
judgement.” The Gambling Commission is in the process of investigating
Williams.
Latest laugh
Providing yet more comical
content was Ed Davey who, this time, took a break from falling into
water to get all dolled up on ITV’s “This Morning”. Australian actor
and fellow guest on the show Jason Donovan was certainly a fan,
letting the audience know that he thought the Lib Dem Leader’s new do
was “sexy”.
Round two
After testing each other with tentative jabs in the first
gathering of the seven party representatives, the gloves came off at
last night's televised debates with those on stage making more direct
attempts to chip away at Labour's polling lead. Penny Mordaunt
attempted to reverse the trend of her party haemorrhaging voters to
Reform by openly declaring that voting for any party other than the
leading two is a wasted vote (only a matter of time before she backs
our call for electoral reform, right?), whilst Nigel Farage made it
all but clear that he intends to manoeuvre himself behind the
opposition despatch box after July 4th by declaring his party the
'opposition to Labour'. Good grief.
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