Mr. Sunak visited a distribution depot in Derbyshire and a brewery in south Wales and was due to head to Scotland and Northern Ireland on a whistlestop tour of all four nations.
Sunak Scores Own Goal in Wales
Attempting to make small talk, Mr. Sunak mentioned the Euro 2024 football tournament, which kicks off on June 14.He asked, “So are you looking forward to all the football?”
One brewery worker replied, “We’re not so invested in it,” and another responded, “That’s because you guys aren’t in it.”
Wales did not qualify for the tournament, unlike England and Scotland.
Mr. Sunak, who is a teetotaller, was shown brewing processes and told the workers they were “part of a proper industry that we’re keen to support.”
He pointed out his government had made a “Brexit pubs guarantee” and given support with their business rates.
It also emerged on Thursday that Dame Eleanor Laing, the deputy Commons speaker and Conservative MP for Epping Forest, would not be seeking reelection on July 4.
Posting her resignation letter on social media platform X, Dame Eleanor wrote, “I love this job, but it’s time for me to move aside and give others the opportunities that I’ve been fortunate to have.”
A new Conservative candidate will have to be selected for her seat in Essex, where she had a majority of 22,000 at the 2019 election.
Starmer Says Election Is About ‘2 Different Futures’
Sir Keir, flanked by deputy leader Angela Rayner, kicked off his campaign at Gillingham football club in Kent.The Labour leader said: “This election is about a choice: Two different countries, two different futures. Decline and chaos continuing under the Tories, or rebuilding our country under Labour.”
The Conservative MP Rehman Chishti had a 15,000 majority at the last election and victory for Labour candidate Naushabah Khan, a local councillor, would put Mr. Sunak on course for a landslide defeat.
Sir Keir said the Tories’ record in government was “unforgivable” and said voters “do not have to put up with this.”
In Cheltenham—which is sixth on the Lib Dems’ list of target seats—Sir Ed said, “For far too long people across the UK have been let down and taken for granted by this Conservative government and this out-of-touch Conservative Party.”
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk had a majority of just 981 over the Lib Dems in Cheltenham in 2019 and Sir Ed said, “Across the country we’ve seen so many parts of the country where it’s a vote for the Liberal Democrats that will get rid of the Conservative MP.”
Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney kicked off the SNP’s election campaign by targeting Labour and the Tories.
He said: “I expect over the next six weeks we’ll see the Tories and Labour really going at it. They’ll be going hammer and tongs to discredit each other.”
Following Mr. Sunak’s announcement on Wednesday, King Charles III formally approved an Order in Council on Thursday to prorogue Parliament ahead of the election.
It means the House of Commons will not sit beyond Friday evening, meaning any important legislation will have to be rushed through.
The mother of 29-year-old Martyn Hett, who died in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, said she felt “a bit misled” by Mr. Sunak, who she met on Wednesday after a 200-mile walk to Downing Street.
Figen Murray urged him to pass the so-called Martyn’s Law, a new piece of terror legislation that would require venues and local authorities to have training requirements and preventative plans for terrorist attacks.
Ms. Murray said he had promised her he would introduce Martyn’s Law before the summer recess.
Only hours later he announced the general election.
Ms. Murray told ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” on Thursday, “During the meeting yesterday we shook hands, he actually agreed, he promised that he will bring it into Parliament before summer recess but he could not guarantee that it’s going to be done by the next general election.”
“We shook hands and he looked me straight me in the eyes so I don’t feel I was being lied to because he at that point knew what he was going to do later that day, but he must have been in a really difficult position,” she added.
“However he could have maybe handled it slightly differently. I feel a bit misled rather than lied to,” added Ms. Murray, who also met with Sir Keir, who also told her he would pass Martyn’s Law.
