UK election: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer hit campaign trail as race for 10 Downing Street begins
- Sunak, whose Conservatives trail Labour in opinion polls, shocked and angered many in his party when he gambled by calling a July 4 election
- At stake is control of the world’s sixth-largest economy, which has endured years of low growth and high inflation, and has not recovered from Brexit
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Labour Party rival Keir Starmer kicked off their election campaigns on Thursday, each arguing that only they can snap the country out of its economic and political malaise.
Sunak, whose Conservatives have trailed Labour by around 20 percentage points in opinion polls since he became prime minister in October 2022, shocked and angered many in his party when he gambled by calling a July 4 election, months earlier than expected.
UK commentators were virtually unanimous in describing his decision to hold a vote six months before he has to as a “gamble”.
“I can’t for the life of me imagine why he has done this,” former Tory MP Matthew Parris wrote in The Times newspaper. “Rishi Sunak surely cannot believe the Conservatives can win the election this summer.”
Sunak argued on Thursday that the economy was turning a corner, and he had a plan to tackle illegal immigration. But with prices in the shops up 21 per cent in the last three years and the national health service buckling under record waiting times, it may be hard to persuade voters that Britain is on the right track.
“Even though there’s more work to do, and I know it will take time for you to see the benefits, the plan is working,” Sunak told voters at an event with workers in central England.