Listen: Ashworth slams Sunak’s debate ‘lies’

Well, well, well. The gloves are coming off as election campaigns ramp up. Both Conservative and Labour politicians have launched into heated post-match analysis following Tuesday night’s ITV leaders’ debate — and they’ve taken their spin to the airwaves this morning.

Shadow Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth was one of the Labour spinners hard at work in the ITV press room on Tuesday evening and has continued the job on today’s morning round. Talking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Ashworth blasted the Prime Minister as ‘lying’ about Labour’s tax plans in a scathing tirade:

The reality is Rishi Sunak lied last night. He lied out of desperation, presumably because he thinks he’s got nothing to lose by lying, although he could still lose his reputation, of course. This figure is categorically untrue. Labour will not put up income tax, will not put up national insurance, will not put up VAT and what we saw last night was Rishi Sunak exposed as lying because he’s in a corner, and what do people do when desperate and in a corner? They lie. Just as Boris Johnson lied about the parties in Downing Street in lockdown, and Rishi Sunak has exposed himself as no better and no different than Boris Johnson with his lies last night.

Oo er. It’s the line Ashworth continued to push on BBC Breakfast and the Today programme as he hit out at Sunak’s claim that Labour will increase taxes by £2,000 to decrease the spending blackhole. ‘Mark my words,’ the PM told ITV viewers on Tuesday night. ‘Labour will raise your taxes. It’s in their DNA.’

An initial YouGov snap poll found Sunak to have come out on top during the debate, by 51 per cent to Starmer’s 49 per cent — but further surveys put the Labour leader in the lead. Savanta found Sir Keir won by 44 per cent to 39 per cent, while JL Partners widened the gap further, putting Starmer 20 points ahead of the PM on 53 per cent. And there’s more to come, with a series of leader debates scheduled to span the next few weeks. Stay tuned….

Listen to the clip here:

‘The reality is Rishi Sunak lied last night.’

‘He’s exposed himself as no better than Boris Johnson’, Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth tells @NickFerrariLBC, in reaction to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer’s debate. pic.twitter.com/xCh6hLG18Y