Labour is eyeing the green belt for housebuilding as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the opposition party would do “irreversible damage” within 100 days if it wins the election next week.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said he’s concerned about claims that Russian bots have been expressing support for Reform UK, whose leader Nigel Farage dismissed it as “the Russia hoax.”
With polling day approaching in less than a week, the Tories made a series of claims about the impact of Labour’s announced policies and speculation about further measures Sir Keir Starmer could introduce.
The Conservatives claimed up to 134,000 children in private schools could be forced into the state sector by September, although the 2018 report on which this assertion is based points to that figure as a possibility over five years.
The Tories also pointed to a series of tax rises which Labour has not ruled out, but which are not party policy, along with speculation about other measures such as a Europe-wide youth mobility scheme and granting votes to E.U. citizens, which are also not Labour policies.
The attacks come as the Conservatives battle to close Labour’s opinion poll lead, which has remained at around 20 points despite the Tory campaign.
Mr. Sunak said it’s “clear that Labour would do irreversible damage within just 100 days of coming to power.”
Urging voters not to trust Labour, the prime minister added, “ We must not surrender our taxes, our borders and our security to them. Only the Conservatives will deliver tax cuts, a growing economy and a brighter, more secure future for everyone.”
Appearing on Sky News’s “Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips” show, his deputy Mr. Dowden also said, “Mark my words: Dogs bark, cats meow, Labour put up taxes.”
Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden argued that it was the Tories who had already delivered chaos, and his party which offered the hope of change.
If the Conservatives stay in government, the NHS won’t get any better, and the loop of low growth and high tax won’t change, he said.
“The Tory Party itself won’t change—the lessons from Partygate, dodgy COVID contracts, and the insider betting scandal won’t be learned.”
Mr. McFadden added: “We’ll get to work on our first steps including restoring economic stability and cutting NHS waiting lists. And we will break with recent years by putting country before party, every time.”
House Building on the Green Belt
Sir Keir and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves used an interview with The Times of London to float Labour’s plan to accelerate housebuilding.“I want to make sure that we can make a start on this on day one,” Sir Keir said.
Asked whether Labour can deliver 300,000 homes in the first year—the target the Tories had set but have never met—Sir Keir said: “It’s more likely, I think we’ll ramp up over the Parliament. Therefore, towards the end of that, we’ll be doing more than the 300,000.”
Russian Bots
In a statement to The Sunday Times, Mr. Dowden reacted to claims by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that a suspected Russian influence campaign involving five Facebook pages has expressed support for Reform, saying it’s “gravely concerning.”The deputy prime minister told Trevor Phillips on Sunday that the claim “should just be a salutary reminder for all of us: When you engage on social media, are these people that you think are posting stuff, are they real or are they bots generated by hostile state actors? It’s something we all need to be aware of.”
Mr. Downden stressed he’s “not remotely suggesting there’s some sort of direct collusion” between the Reform leader and the alleged Russian operation.
He added that he’s “deeply concerned” about Mr. Farage’s recent remarks that NATO expansion and the European Union had provoked Russia into invading Ukraine, which sparked furious backlash from Labour and the Conservatives.
Pressed about the issue on the same programme, Mr. Farage said: “Vladimir Putin is a very, very dangerous, dangerously clever, man. I abhor what he’s done in Ukraine, totally and utterly, but I was far sighted. I saw this coming.”
The Reform leader said the opinion was held by many senior politicians including former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, but it “doesn’t matter [as] we are where we are.”
Mr Dowden said: “These revelations reveal the real risk our democracy faces in this uncertain world.
“Malign foreign actors, promoting British political parties, policies, and views that fit their agenda is just another example of the challenges in the increasingly volatile cyberspace of the 21st century and is gravely concerning to see during an election campaign.”
Asked about Reform candidates who have been dropped over racist and other offensive comments, Mr. Farage said: “ I have inherited a startup. I’ve not even been doing this a month, and I’ve got some people there I'd rather weren’t there, and they won’t be after next Thursday at all.”
On Saturday, Reform said it had dropped three candidates over their previous comments on social media.
The party also reported Channel 4 to the elections watchdog after the broadcaster aired footage filmed in an undercover operation that showed Andrew Parker, an actor by trade, calling the prime minister by a racial slur and saying illegal immigrants should be used as “target practice.”
Reform accused Channel 4 of planting Mr. Parker, an allegation Channel 4 rejected.
Channel 4 News has said it did not pay Mr. Parker who was “not known” to the broadcaster and was “filmed covertly via the undercover operation.”
Mr. Parker declined to say whether he has been paid, having previously told the PA news agency that his volunteering for Reform was separate from his acting job.
