Sunday shows: Starmer hoping to make gains from “clapped-out” Conservatives

Sophy Ridge on Sunday

Labour leader Keir Starmer told viewers that his party is looking to “make gains” at the local elections next week, describing the Conservatives as the “dying drones” of a “clapped-out government”. Starmer also defended the decision to have Tony Blair endorse him in a video released today, and rejected that Labour has made a pact with the Lib Dems or that he broke Covid rules during the pandemic.

• Asked what success in the local elections would look like: “We want to make gains. We want to hold the good seats that we’ve got. We want to make gains… I don’t want to predict what’s going to happen but the teams are in good shape.”
• On Scotland: “There have been some recent suggestions that we might overtake the Conservatives… Whether it’s in Scotland or anywhere else in the country, we have to earn every vote. I’m not taking anything for granted. I know that we’ve got a lot of work to do from where we landed in the last general election.”
• Put to him that Labour should be “storming ahead of the Conservatives” given recent events: “They are the dying drones of a sort of clapped-out government… whether it’s Owen Paterson, the scandal there, whether it’s ‘partygate’…”
• On his leadership: “When I took over… we were over 20 points behind in the polls and we’d lost a general election – the worst loss for us since 1935 and in two years, we turned the Labour Party around, we changed the Labour Party… and we’ve now got ourselves to a position where we’ve now got a poll lead.”
• He added: “More work to do, of course. We’re going to fight for every vote in these elections. I go nowhere expecting people to vote for Labour – gotta put a positive case on the table, say what we would do about the cost-of-living crisis.”
• On a pact with the Lib Dems: “There’s no pact. Everybody knows there’s no pact.”
• Pressed on why Labour is standing fewer candidates in seats in the South West of England: “I think, and I’ll happily have this checked out, that we are standing more Labour candidates in this election that we’ve ever stood…
• On the video released this morning of Tony Blair endorsing Starmer: “Tony Blair won three elections and the Labour Party doesn’t win elections very often, so I think having the endorsement of Tony Blair is very important, very valuable.”
• He added: “[The endorsement] further demonstrates the amount of work we’ve done in the past two years, the change that we’ve made. But I’m very happy to talk to and with someone who has won three elections, because I didn’t come into politics to be in opposition. I came into politics to win elections.”
• On allegations that Starmer broke Covid rules: “We were in the office, we were working, we paused for something to eat – there was no party, no rules were broken and that is the long and the short of it. And Durham police looked at it and decided there was absolutely nothing wrong.”
• He added: “I know what’s going on here. We’ve got an election on Thursday and there’s just Tory MPs just trying to throw mud around because they’ve got nothing to say on the central issue of the cost of living.”
• Asked why Starmer previously said Angela Rayner was not present: “There was a mistake. We made a mistake in the office… I didn’t even realise we’d made a mistake before until it came out this week. We’re a busy office. We made a mistake. It’s a genuine mistake. And I take responsibility for it.”
• On sexism in Westminster: “There’s a cultural issue that we have to get to grips with and cultural change has to be led from and modelled from the top. We need to listen to women and I’ve spoken to a number of women in the last few days about this and they are very clear that whilst there does need to be culture change, those who are engaged in this sort of activity… have to take responsibility. We can’t run this argument [that] somehow this high-pressure culture place – take responsibility. Neil Parrish chose to watch porn in parliament. Tory MPs chose to make disparaging comments about Angela Rayner.”
• Asked what specifically has to change: “The Speaker is suggesting that there’s some sort of review, the independent process we put in place is a good thing and I’m supportive of that. The Speaker I think wants to pull parties together to see what else can be done. I’m very happy to participate in that.”

Kwasi Kwarteng rejected the reports from women working in parliament that there is a culture of misogyny, with the Tory minister arguing instead that “the problem we have is people work in an intense environment with long hours”.

He said that Neil Parrish – the Conservative MP who was reported by fellow Tory colleagues for watching pornography while sitting in the House of Commons – “did the right thing” to resign. He added: “His position was very difficult”.

The Business Secretary also told viewers that the Conservative Party will “fight for every vote” in the local elections, saying that “there is all to play for”, but also said “there is a lot of pressure” and “we do face challenges”.

Sunday Morning

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy refused to say whether Labour in government would scrap the National Insurance rise. Asked about the event Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner attended in Durham and whether Starmer should resign if he is found to have broken the law, Lammy stressed that the event was “well within the rules”, demanding of host Sophie Raworth “why are we even talking about this?” when they could be talking about issues such as the cost of living.

• On why Labour initially said Angela Rayner was not at the event in Durham: “I think Keir Starmer has made clear that that was a mistake that came from his office. We apologise for that mistake. She was there.”
• Pressed on why it took so long for Labour to reveal Rayner had been in attendance: “It’s a busy office. There was some discussion at the time a few months ago. We said she wasn’t there but she was there. But the truth is, whether she was there or not is not the point. This was within the rules as they were stated at that time in Durham. That’s the point, and that’s why there’s been no police investigation. I understand why the Conservatives want to throw some attention on this this week because they don’t actually want to talk about the cost of living. They don’t actually want to talk about the issues that matter to people on the doorstep across the country.”
• On what the difference is between the Starmer event and those attended by Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak that Labour has put a focus on: “I’ve got to take issue with you saying that it’s the attention we’re putting on. Sue Gray has done a report – we haven’t seen it. The police are investigating 16 parties of which it’s alleged that the Prime Minister may have been at 6. We’ve had 50 fixed-penalty notices. We’ve never had a Prime Minister that’s accused of misleading parliament… We’ve never had a Prime Minister that’s broke the ministerial code, and we’ve never had a Prime Minister that’s effectively a criminal because he’s received criminal sanction. Of course, that’s a subject that is coming up on the doorstep quite rightly because everybody else followed the rules, everybody else who couldn’t go to visit their loved ones in care homes, everybody else who couldn’t go in to a hospital, go to funerals. For all of those reasons, of course, this is an issue of much controversy.”
• On whether Starmer should resign if he is found to have broken the law: “Well, he hasn’t broken the law… I don’t know if you’ve looked at the rules as they were at that time. This was well within the rules and that is why there is no police investigation. Why are we even talking about this?”
• On whether Durham police should look into the incident: “I think it’s rather depressing that as people head to the polls you are raising an issue where there is no police investigation, where there was no breach of the rules. And that basically is what you’re questioning me on this morning. We could be talking about cost of living, we could be talking about rising inflation, we could be talking about a windfall tax, we could be talking about the scrap or the discount we want to make on business rates for small and medium-size businesses. We could be talking about abolishing non-dom status. Instead, you’re talking about an incident where there is no police investigation.”
• On whether Labour in government would scrap the National Insurance rise: “The election before us at the moment is the local elections, and we’ve said it’s absolutely the wrong time for people to face a National Insurance rise and let’s be clear, we’ve had 15 tax rises over the last decade from this Conservative government, at a time when four in ten people are buying less groceries, we’ve got rising fuel prices. This is a government that should be supporting people at this time. That’s why we’ve been absolutely clear that there should be a windfall tax on the increased profits that oil and gas companies are facing.”
• Pressed on whether Labour would scrap the rise: “It would be quite wrong if me, as Shadow Foreign Secretary, came onto your show maybe two and a half years out of the general election and set out our fiscal plans at this time.”
• Pressed again on whether Labour would scrap the rise: “We said we wouldn’t do it. Sophie, repeating the same question over and over again is not going to get a different answer.”

Asked about rising prices, Kwasi Kwarteng stressed that it was a “global issue” and “not something that is just happening in Britain”. On increasing energy bills, the Business Secretary said: “We obviously have to prepare for any eventuality.” Asked whether prices could rise for years, he said: “No, I don’t think it necessarily has to go on for years,” and highlighted the government’s energy security strategy.

On whether it is the government’s role to help people with increasing bills, he said: “I think the government’s role is to help people with the cost of living.” Asked whether the government would step in in October, he said that it would be “up to the Chancellor to come up with a package”. Pressed on whether the government had ruled out introducing a windfall tax, Kwarteng said: “I’m not going to be here on the programme ruling out what the Chancellor is going to do or isn’t going to do in an October Budget.”