Key points
- 'Vote for Reform would give blank cheque to Labour': Sunak reacts to Reform overtaking Tories in poll
- Farage says Reform UK now 'the opposition to Labour'|But minister 'not worried'
- Tracker shows crossover moment - as Sky analyst says poll is 'moment of maximum danger' for Tories
- Jon Craig:Tories' war with Reform is a fight to the death over the future of the centre-right
- Politics at Jack and Sam's:The Day... A poll made everyone uneasy
- Listen to the Electoral Dysfunction podcastabove as you scroll andtap hereto follow wherever you get your podcasts
- Battle For No 10:Catch up on key points from Sky leaders' event
- Live reporting by Ben Bloch
Election essentials
- Check parties' manifesto pledges:Conservatives|Greens|Labour|Lib Dems|Plaid Cymru
- Trackers:Who's leading polls?|Is PM keeping promises?
- Campaign Heritage:Memorable moments from elections gone by
- Follow Sky's politics podcasts:Electoral Dysfunction|Politics At Jack And Sam's
- Read more:Who is standing down?|Key seats to watch|How to register to vote|What counts as voter ID?|Check if your constituency is changing|Your essential guide to election lingo|Sky's election night plans
'Vote for Reform would give blank cheque to Labour': Sunak reacts to Reform overtaking Tories in new poll
By Tamara Cohen, political correspondent, in Puglia
Rishi Sunak has responded to a poll showing Nigel Farage's Reform party ahead of the Conservatives, saying a vote for the party would "give a blank cheque to Labour".
Speaking to journalists at the G7 summit in Italy, he said: "We are only halfway through this election, so I'm still fighting very hard for every vote.
"And what that poll shows is - the only poll that matters is the one on 4 July - but if that poll was replicated on 4July, 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."
Mr Sunak batted away the suggestion from Mr Farage that his party now represents the opposition to Labour - after a poll by YouGov put Reform on 19% and the Conservatives on just 18%.
The prime minister said voters on the doorstep "do understand that a vote for anyone who is not a Conservative candidate is just a vote to put Keir Starmer in No 10".
He attacked Labour's economic plans, saying taxes would have to rise, and said they would not control the borders or legal migration.
Asked if the Tory party is faced with an "existential" threat, he said the publication of the two manifestos "there's a massive difference on tax" between the Conservatives and Labour.
"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 PM said.
"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 going to raise the tax burden to the highest level in this country's history. And that's the choice for everyone at the election."
Corbyn on drive to recruit army of volunteers to beat Labour candidate
Jeremy Corbyn is on a drive to recruit hundreds more volunteers for his election campaign, believing he is "neck and neck" with his former party.
The ex-Labour leader is running to be an independent in Islington North, a seat he has held for 40 years.
He has managed to attract around 200 activists a day to help him canvas in the London constituency, but a source close to him told Sky News that this is "not enough to reach every single person before 4 July".
Mr Corbyn wants to double the number of people on his campaign to compete with Labour's resources and drum up his support.
The source said there has been "some confusion on the doorstep about Jeremy being an independent" with some of those planning to vote for him under the impression he is still part of Sir Keir Starmer's party.
"The conversations on the doorstep make a huge difference," they said.
Read more from our political reporter Faye Brownhere:
Minister: 'I totally understand why people are thinking Reform'
Johnny Mercer is out and about campaigning to be re-elected in his seat of Plymouth Moor View, and he has tweeted a video of him and his wife walking through the constituency this morning.
The aim of the video and the tweet is to make clear that a vote for Reform would see a Labour MP and "wall-to-wall socialists" in the area.
It comes in the wake of last night's YouGov poll showing Reform on 19% and the Tories on 18%.
But in the caption accompanying the tweet, the incumbent minister refused to criticise Reform at all, writing: "Poll out overnight. Totally understand why people are thinking Reform, you won’t find me slating them."
In the video, he did not make the case for why the Conservative Party should be re-elected to government.
He appeared to acknowledge that Labour will win, and so voting for Reform and, in his view, electing a Labour candidate would leave "no one to oppose anything or stand up for you here in Plymouth".
He added: "If you want me to continue as your MP and put you first in everything, you've got to go out and vote. It's not a done deal - we're fighting like hell down here."
Here are the other candidates standing in Plymouth Moor View:
- Shaun Hooper, Reform UK;
- Sarah Martin, Liberal Democrats;
- Georgia Nelson, Green Party;
- Fred Thomas, Labour Party.
Sky News Daily: Why were there no surprises in Labour's manifesto?
It was Labour's turn to launch its election manifesto today. It was a restatement of the party's main policies, with no surprise announcements in the 133-page document.
Sir Keir Starmer reiterated his key pledges including no new taxes on "working people" and a promise of "economic stability".
Niall Paterson digs into Labour's promise of economic growth with Ed Conway, Sky's economics and data editor, and speaks to political correspondent Serena Barker-Singh, who was at the launch in Manchester.
Plus, John McTernan, political strategist and former political secretary to Tony Blair, discusses the politics of their manifesto and whether it matters that there were no new announcements.
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Streeting: Reform UK 'part of the Tory party's psychodrama'
As we've been reporting, Reform UK has overtaken the Conservative Party for the first time in a new YouGov poll for The Times (more here).
We asked Labour's Wes Streeting for his reaction, and he replied that Reform UK is "very much part of the Conservative Party's psychodrama".
"We've seen Conservative candidates like Andrea Jenkyns putting Nigel Farage positively on her leaflets instead of her own leader.
"We've got to bear in mind if we have another Conservative government, that is the kind of chaos and division we're going to be saddled with for another five years."
Reform is also a threat to Labour, and Mr Streeting said they are going to "take them on".
"We're going to take them on in the battle of ideas and the battle of arguments.
"And I just urge people to bear in mind about Nigel Farage, that he is a formidable campaigner. I don't doubt that. I don't underestimate him.
"But he has never, ever had to deliver the change that he always says he's calling for. He's never really been tested as a politician."
Rise in hospital waiting lists 'have blown a hole in Sunak's credibility'
New figures show that the waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has risen for the first time in seven months.
It is estimated that 7.57 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of April, relating to 6.33 million patients.
That is slightly up from 7.54 million treatments and 6.29 million patients at the end of March, NHS England said yesterday.
We asked Labour's shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, for his reaction, and he replied: "They have blown a hole in Rishi Sunak's credibility."
"He said he would cut waiting lists when he became prime minister. They are now higher than they were when he became prime minister. And as we saw yesterday, they are rising."
He argued that the way to bring waiting lists down is to elect Labour to deliver their plan for 40,000 more appointments per week, which he insisted is "fully funded" in their manifesto.
"We've got a strong record on this. The last Labour government delivered the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS.
"We did it before and with the support of the voters on July the 4th, we can do it again."
Read more about Wes Streeting here:
Minister refuses to acknowledge tax burden will still rise under Tory plans
The Conservative Party has been consistently attacking Labour over their economic plans, claiming that taxes will rise under a Starmer government.
But analysis shows that the tax burden will rise under the Conservative Party's plans as well.
Treasury minister Bim Afolami defended their plans, saying they are "costed, detailed and show that we are cutting taxes for working people and for families".
We put to him that the overall tax burden will continue to rise under their plans, albeit a little less quickly, but he said on "working people", taxes are "being cut".
He's pushed for an acknowledgement that the overall tax burden is rising under the Conservatives, and it will be the highest since 1949, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
But Mr Afolami replies: "No."
And he attacked Labour, saying the burden will reach "the highest ever" under a Starmer government.
Politics at Jack and Sam's: The Day... A poll made everyone uneasy
Sky News deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico's Jack Blanchard are in your podcast feeds with their guide to the election day ahead.
This is day 23 of the campaign. Jack and Sam discuss the latest polling which shows Reform UK overtaking the Conservatives for the first time, the aftermath of Labour's manifesto launch, and what the Lib Dems are up to in the so-called Tory Blue Wall.
👉Tap here to follow Politics at Jack at Sam's wherever you get your podcasts👈
Email Jack and Sam: jackandsam@sky.uk
Tory minister 'not worried' about Reform - as he hits out at 'ludicrous' Farage comment
As we've been reporting, Reform UK has overtaken the Conservative Party for the first time in a new YouGov poll for The Times (more here).
We asked Tory Treasury minister Bim Afolami how worried he is about Nigel Farage's party, and he replied: "I'm not worried about it."
He said it's "one poll andthere are hundreds of others that don't show them at anywhere like that".
"But even in that one poll, it shows the danger that if you do not vote Conservative, if you're a Conservative-minded person, a vote for Reform is a vote for Keir Starmer."
Mr Afolami said it is "ludicrous" for Mr Farage to have stated last night that a vote for the Tories is now a vote for Labour.
He defended his party's offer of tax cuts and a strong economy as a "very clear and compelling programme" - and rejected any notion that they would make a deal with Reform to stave off the threat from them.
"It's an election - we're not doing deals with anybody."
Electoral Dysfunction: Behind the scenes of The Battle for Number 10
Beth Rigby has revealed how she decided on a "narrative" before quizzing the Labour and Tory leaders at Sky News's special event - and how a morning run almost scuppered everything.
Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak took turns for a 45-minute grilling at Sky News' Battle For Number 10 in Grimsby, with questions coming from a representative audience.
First to interrogate both leaders was political editor Rigby, who has lifted the lid on what it's like to prepare, execute (and almost miss) the big event.
"Kay Burley told me when I first came into telly 'fail to prepare, prepare to fail'," she told former Labour MP Margaret Hodge on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
"So, I took these two mottos into this very intense interview prep… you get loads of information and you start to try and work out what's the narrative that you want to tell."
The secret, she said, is to look at everything and then "distil it" until you have a clear "narrative arc".
"With Starmer, the thing really was - how can you trust this guy? That was the premise," she said.
"But for Sunak, it was like, you say you've got a clear plan, you say you're going to deliver… so, what's the Conservative record? But more importantly, what's your record?
"Because you've actually been prime minister. You made five pledges, and then there was a broader question about what were the betrayals to the British people."
But disaster almost struck before the event had even started.
"The night before, I woke up at, like, five in the morning, fully awake," she said, adding she could "feel the adrenaline".
So, she decided to go for a run.
"I just saw I'm coming to the end of the road. And I went to turn round, and, as I turned, I nearly ran into a moving car. So, I nearly got run over," she explained.
Not the kind of car crash anyone would have expected that day.
Listen to the full podcast here:
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Email the team electoraldysfunction@sky.uk, post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.
