General election 2024 live: Nigel Farage accuses Sunak over Rwanda flights as Tories could just win 72 seats in next Parliament

Wes Streeting has declined to rule out council tax hikes or re-evaluations.

Pressed on whether this could happen under a Labour government on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour frontbencher repeated the party’s line: “We don’t want to see the tax burden on working people increase…

“None of those pledges in our manifesto requires increases in council tax or increases in fuel duty or any of the other number of taxes the Tories are claiming we want to increase.”

Mark Harper is that warning people about a Labour “supermajority” is not an admission of defeat.

He told Laura Kuenssberg: “It is simply pointing to the polls and if the polls are true then that is what you are going to get.”

But he clings on to Professor Sir John Curtice’s analysis that there are still 44 percent of voters who still have not made up their minds.

He denies Kuenssberg’s suggestion that the Tories are “a bit desperate.”

Two new polls have signalled disaster for Rishi Sunak, with one showing that his party are on course to win just 72 seats.

A poll by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph showed the Tories down four points to just 21 per cent of the vote, with Nigel Farage earning 13 per cent of the vote with Reform UK.

A separate Survation poll for Best for Britain, published by The Sunday Times, predicted the Tories would win just 72 seats in the next parliament, compared with 456 for Labour.

This would give Labour a larger landslide victory than the one achieved by Tony Blair in 1997.

Wes Streeting tells BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that with the Labour manifesto there were two questions which needed to be answered.

“Can we keep this promise and can we afford this promise?”

He insisted that if the answer was no on one of those questions for anything then it did not make it into the manifesto.

That maybe explains why some feel that the Labour manifesto was lacking in ambition, especially Unite the union who have refused to endorse the manifesto.

Most of all though this is his answer to the failure to end the unpopular two child benefit cap.

Tories have been watching Sky and believe that Wes Streeting has “let the cat out of the bag” that the Labour manifesto may be hiding a number of tax rises.

A Conservative spokesman said: “After a three-day long conspiracy of silence, Wes Streeting has finally said what we all know: Labour’s manifesto is just window dressing for the election campaign and they are planning to spend and tax more than they are telling the public.

“Wes Streeting has let the cat out of the bag on Labour spending policy signalling that Labour simply aren’t telling the truth about their plans.

“Labour is trying to get through this campaign by not being honest with families about the true cost of their plans and the cost to families up and down the country in higher taxes on your home, your car, your business and your pension.”

Mark Harper on the defence about a terrible Tory campaign so far.

“One thing I have learnt is taking the British people for granted and that the election is over is not very wise.”

He admitted that the polls show “Labour is going to win a very large majority” but doubled down on Labour tax and spend plans.

“We know there’s a black hole,” he insists.

Nadhim Zahawi sums up Labour’s offer on Sky as: “It’s ‘trust us we are safe, don’t worry we’re not the Corbyn Labour Party’.”

But he warns that the election so far “has been based on sentiment”.

He says if they win “Labour will be coming after you” in terms of council tax or capital gains tax.

The former chancellor suggests Rishi Sunak’s problem is incumbency.

“All incumbents are under pressure.”

Wes Streeting manages not to laugh when Trevor Phillips plays the clip of Starmer being told he is “robotic” by an audience member on Sky News.

The shadow health secretary admits that more people will be thinking about the football this weekend, and is obviously looking forward to the England match later today.

Sir Trevor Phillips quotes the Nuffield Trust to Wes Streeting and points out that a Labour government “will spend less on the NHS than Cameron and Osborne”.

It is quite a statement given that Labour’s main attack on the Tories is “14 years of austerity”.

Streeting insists “we need to be brutally honest about the state of the public finances…we are making hard choices we make no apology for that”.

He again suggests Labour may prioritise tax cuts ahead of more cash on the NHS.