Last night’s final debate of the election campaign saw Prime Minister Rishi Sunak give one of his most energised performances to date. His focus on borders, taxes and the welfare system appeared to land well.
But despite Sunak’s positive performance the result was a dead heat, according to YouGov’s snap survey. Ultimately, it is unlikely that last night’s performance will help close the massive 22-point gap in recent polls, especially with the current shadow of ‘gamblegate’ which doesn't look to be going away any time soon.
Labour is planning to introduce automatic registration for voting under plans to add millions more people to the electoral roll for future elections. An estimated seven to eight million people are missing or incorrectly recorded on current registers, many of them young, as well as a disproportionate number who are poorer or who live in privately rented homes.
Automatic voter registration (AVR) would come on top of planned reforms already announced by Keir Starmer’s party, such as extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds. Together, they could significantly shake up the voting franchise if Labour gets into power next week.
Shevaun Haviland, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), has urged the winner of next week’s election to deepen the current EU-UK trade and co-operation deal in order to boost economic growth. She argued “the current plan isn’t working for our members.”
Recent analysis published this month by the London School of Economics found that 20,000 small businesses had stopped exporting to the EU as a result of red tape created by the UK exiting the bloc’s single market.
BCC has published a trade manifesto that calls for a series of measures to improve EU-UK trade. This includes a youth mobility deal to allow young people to live and work in each other’s countries — a policy Labour has already ruled out.
Insight of the day
The Financial Times has published an article on Reform UK’s campaign. The piece highlights that while large donors have returned to the party, it has still only raised ~£860,000 in large donations, in comparison to £2.3 million in 2019. As a result, many party candidates have resorted to launching crowdfund pages to fund their campaigns.
It also argues that Reform’s reliance on one individual — even one on whose days stretch from dawn to the last orders bell at the pub — remains a critical weakness.
Moments of the day
Labour has secured the backing of the ‘cream of the cultural world’, who have entered the election campaign with a call to end the “political chaos of recent years”.
Leading actors, artists and directors from Bill Nighy to Grayson Perry have signed up to Labour’s pledges and its manifesto promise of a “creative education for every child”.
Visit MHP Groups's Election Hub, keeping you up to date with the twists and turns of the campaign.