Sunak: Brexit in peril under Labour

Rishi Sunak is in a rush. He has, in his own words, just four days left to save Britain.

Shuttling around the country for visits and events, he feels grateful to have spent a night in his own bed while in his constituency of Richmond, North Yorkshire – a rare moment of calm.

As the pace of his schedule ramps up, so does the severity of his warnings about the dangers of a Labour government.

Among Mr Sunak’s fears, one that particularly rankles is the legacy of Brexit. During the last but one Tory leadership contest, in which he was beaten by Liz Truss, he pointed out that, as a newly elected MP, he had risked his career to campaign for leaving the EU. Now he believes Brexit is in peril.

“They are pretty clear that they want to reverse Brexit,” he says. “Keir Starmer is now openly talking about sitting down with the EU to thrash out some cosy deal – which is just going to mean we’re going to have to accept more migrants, because we all know that is the price of any deal that the EU would do. He’s not being straight with people about that.”

The Prime Minister is speaking to The Telegraph while visiting a primary school near Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, where he is relaxing with a cup of tea after high-fiving excited schoolchildren.

He adds: “This is at a time when we are seizing the benefits of Brexit to grow our economy. Freeports just down the road from here in Teesside, attracting jobs and investment that we couldn’t do properly inside the EU. Brexit Britain has now overtaken the Netherlands, France, Japan, to become the fourth-biggest exporter in the world because of the trade deals that we’ve struck.

“And in all the fast growing industries of the future – whether that’s financial services, agriculture, technology, AI – we are taking advantage of the opportunities of Brexit to regulate in a way that supports businesses growth and competitiveness, and the choice of the election is whether to reverse all that progress with Labour.”

Sir Keir has called for closer cooperation with Brussels on education, defence and security. He has also said he does not want to diverge from EU standards on workers’ rights and food standards.

Labour has vowed to slash immigration numbers by training unemployed Britons to do jobs normally taken by overseas workers, among other measures, but the Tories have claimed it wants to go further with new concessions to the EU, such as agreeing a migrant quota scheme.

It is not just Brexit that Mr Sunak worries about. As the MP for a mostly rural constituency, he is also concerned about the fate of farmers under a Labour government, saying: “If you live in a rural community, you’re from a farming background, you’re going to get hammered by the Labour Party.

“They do not understand rural communities, the countryside, or farmers in particular. They’re going to abolish agricultural property relief. They’re not going to increase the farming budget – they’re going to cut it. They’re not going to focus, like I am, on food security and food production. I’m going to have a legal target.

“In Wales, they’re imposing top-down targets on farmers to plant trees and other things, which is decimating their incomes and causing enormous anxiety.

“The Labour Party will actively damage rural communities and farming communities up and down the country, and will sell out our fishing communities when they’re talking to the EU.”

Last week, it was reported that Labour had been drawing up options for ways in which it could raise money though extra wealth taxes.

One was reported to be making changes to inheritance tax to make it more difficult to gift assets such as farmland tax-free. The relief allows farming families to pass down land and buildings from generation to generation without having to pay death duties.

However, the Tory line of attack may not have the cut through for which the party had hoped. MRPs, polls of tens of thousands of voters which project outcomes at a local level, suggest once ultra-safe Conservative seats in rural heartlands may now be in doubt. Some are seeing growing support for the Liberal Democrats, while others could fall to Labour.

Even on the most generous reading, there has been a handful of slip-ups in the Tory campaign – to say the least.

Mr Sunak’s decision to leave the D-Day commemorations in Normandy early to carry out a broadcast interview led to a storm of criticism. So great was the clamour that he issued an apology, saying “it was a mistake” not to stay in France for the duration of the international event.

Opinion polls at the peak of the fallout revealed that two-thirds of voters believed that the Prime Minister leaving the commemorations early was unacceptable.

Then came the Tory betting scandal, which has so far seen five Conservative figures identified as being under investigation by the Gambling Commission for allegedly placing bets related to the election.

A Labour MP is also under investigation along with seven police officers – including one of Mr Sunak’s personal protection officers, who has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Craig Williams, one of the Prime Minister’s aides and the Tory candidate for Montgomeryshire, was the first to be named as under investigation by the commission. He apologised for placing a £100 bet on a July election three days before Mr Sunak announced that it would take place on July 4.

Tory party bosses initially said that they would not take any action until the watchdog’s inquiry had been completed.

But as more Tory figures got caught up in the scandal over the following days – including Laura Saunders, another parliamentary candidate, and staff members working at the Conservative campaign headquarters – Mr Sunak came under increasing pressure to act.

Almost two weeks after Mr Williams’ name had leaked out, announced that the party was withdrawing support from both Mr Williams and Ms Saunders.

When it emerged that Kevin Craig, a Labour candidate, had bet against himself, Sir Keir immediately announced that Labour would be withdrawing its support.

Some have criticised poor leadership by Mr Sunak over these scandals. But, asked whether that was the case, he bats the question away, and talks instead about the choice voters face at the election.

He is trying to focus their minds on what the first 100 days of a Labour administration would bring, and says: “They’ll put up your taxes, they’ll damage our economy and everyone, British families, will pay the price. I’d say again, do not surrender to that – do not surrender to the Labour Party.

“They are going to target Telegraph readers, specifically on tax. Everyone’s taxes are going up. If you’ve saved, Keir, Starmer thinks that you’re ripe for a tax rise. If you’ve got a pension, he’s going to come and raid it. Your home – he hasn’t ruled out whacking up council tax.”

Mr Sunak claims Sir Keir would make Britain the “soft touch” of Europe when it comes to small boat arrivals. As for schools, he warns that Labour’s plan to charge VAT on private education will increase class sizes across the state sector.

Labour’s net zero policies will “saddle” taxpayers with higher bills while damaging the UK’s energy security, he adds, and the party will “bulldoze” the green belt by imposing top-down housing targets on areas and “riding roughshod over the views of local communities”. This, he believes, will “destroy the green spaces that make our country so special”.

Last week, Sir Keir confirmed that he would stand down as Labour leader if the party loses. Will Mr Sunak make the same promise? Again, he refuses to be drawn, saying: “I’m not focused on all of that. I’m focused squarely on winning this election, talking to as many people as I can over the last four days about the choice that is in front of them.

“I’d say to everyone, do not sleepwalk into this. Wake up to the danger of what a Labour government means. Don’t surrender to their tax rises, don’t surrender our country’s borders to them. Don’t undo the progress that we have made.

“Support the Conservatives so we can continue to cut your taxes, protect your pension, control immigration and get to net zero in a sensible way. That is the choice in front of you.”