Leaders of the UK’s main political parties were dispersed across England on Tuesday as they campaigned hard for every vote. Labour’s Keir Starmer, likely Britain’s next prime minister, stuck to the same core message calling for a change of political leadership during traditional election campaign event at a football ground in Nottinghamshire.
As he stressed the importance of every vote, he said reports of delays to the arrival of postal ballot papers to some voters were concerning and accused the Conservative party of “desperation” in their attacks on him.
“I actually can hardly believe that 48 hours before an election, the Conservative Party has got nothing possible positive to say as they go into this. I’ve been arguing throughout this campaign. You’ll have heard me many times saying, “they haven’t changed. They’re just the same. Nothing’s going to change.
And they’re proving it because they are not saying, look, if you vote Tory, vote Conservative on Thursday, these things will happen. They’re just in this negative, desperate loop. And it is really desperate. My family is really important to me, as they will be to every single person watching this. And I just think it’s increasing desperation bordering on hysterical now.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told workers in a warehouse in Banbury, southern England that a new Conservative government would expand the use of private healthcare providers to bring down long waiting lists for treatment in the UK’s National Health Service.
“So, there is a challenge in the NHS and, you know, one of the areas we haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked is on tackling NHS waiting lists. Look, children, as you’ve heard me talking about, are really important to me, making sure they get the support they need is vital. So, one of the things that we’re doing before I get into the macro stuff, you said you chose to go private. So, one thing we’re actually doing now is making that available on the NHS in more and more areas, because I don’t have any ideological disagreement with the private sector, the independent sector providing NHS care.
That’s the difference between me and the Labour Party. So, what I tell the NHS is, look, if there’s a private provider that can do the thing, whatever it might be, whether it’s a assessment or a hip replacement, and they can do it at the same tariff rate that we have, the price, then people should be able to choose where to get their treatment and get it done there.”
Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, continued with his more novel approach to campaigning, toppling a line of giant blue dominoes with an orange Liberal Democrat-branded domino in Somerset, southwest England.
“If we knocked down that blue wall, I think the Tories could fall like dominoes to the Liberal Democrats across the West Country,” he told supporters.
Source: BBC
In other news – The election issues you care about that manifestos barely mention
Key issues such as the NHS, the economy and immigration have dominated this election campaign. They are well covered in all the parties’ manifestos, but some other topics only get a few words, or none at all.
The BBC’s Your Voice, Your Vote project was an invitation to tell us what matters to you. Read more
