After months of speculation, Rishi Sunak has finally named the date of a general election many expect him to lose.
Over the next six weeks, he and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will battle over key issues in order to prove to the country they are fit to lead the nation through a period of global uncertainty.
The prime minister will hope to use an improving economic outlook as proof his plan is working and people should stick with him, while Sir Keir will use the Tories’ record of 14 years in government to make the case for change.
Here are they key issues that will decide who will come out on top.
Politics Live: General Election campaign kicks off
Economy
This is the number one issue the election will be fought on. The question many voters will be asking themselves is, after 14 years of Conservative governments, do they feel better off?
Mr Sunak will point to inflation coming down and recent tax cuts to make the case that there is positive news, and the public should not “risk recovery” by voting Labour. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has also hinted at further tax cuts, tilting the prospect of abolishing National Insurance altogether in a bid to woo voters.
Labour, however, has plenty of ammunition – from rising food and energy bills to the mortgage chaos trigged by Liz Truss’s mini-budget.
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Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will make the case that only Labour can deliver economic stability after three prime ministers and five chancellors in one parliament, and that her strict fiscal rules will help bring down debt and grow the economy.
Her insistence that she won’t turn on the spending taps has worried many Labour MPs who want to see greater investment in public services. Ms Reeves has committed to £5bn a year on green projects to make the UK a “clean energy superpower” and create jobs, but this is down from an initial target of £28bn.
NHS and social care
Mr Sunak made one of his key pledges cutting NHS waiting lists. While they have recently started to reduce from a record 7.77 million in September 2023, a huge backlog remains and the number of people waiting more than a year is over 200 times higher than it was before the pandemic.
There is also a crisis in dentistry with reports of people pulling their own teeth out, while social care leaders have warned that rising demand and staffing issues have brought the system to its knees.
The Conservatives have sought to blame the pandemic and the as yet unresolved junior doctors pay dispute on lengthy waiting lists, while pointing to the record funding of nearly £165bn it will have provided by the end of this parliament to help reduce the backlog.
Labour’s headline pledges include promising to cut waiting times with thousands of extra appointments each week, paid for by cracking down on the non-dom tax status and tax avoiders, and creating shared waiting lists so hospitals can pool resources.
However, it is worth noting that healthcare leaders have warned that neither party’s plans currently go far enough to protect the long-term future of the NHS. And little has been said about social care – with the Lib Dems urging Sir Keir and Mr Sunak to commit to a cross-party solution.
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Labour pledges 700,000 extra appointments
Immigration
Mr Sunak staked his premiership on a promise to “stop the boats” and after years of set backs, the government’s Rwanda Bill became law last month, paving the way for deportation flights.
But after going to the polls much sooner than expected, he has been forced to admit that planes won’t take off until after the election – meaning his plan might literally not get off the ground at all.
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With small boat crossings continuing in the Channel, Mr Sunak will have to rely on the prospect of the scheme working to convince voters he can be trusted on the issue, while attacking Labour for not backing the policy.
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to scrap the deal with the east African nation and use the money instead for a new Cross Border Police Unit to tackle small boat crossings.
Education and childcare
Education is a key dividing line between the two main parties. One of Labour’s flagship policies is to end tax breaks enjoyed by private schools to raise £1.7bn to invest in state schools.
Sir Keir has used the policy to launch a personal attack on Mr Sunak, who attended the £49,000-a-year Winchester College. However, the prime minister has accused Labour of punishing aspirational parents by stocking a “class war” that could lead to the closure of some independent schools.
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Childcare, too, is a divisive issue. With the UK facing some of the highest childcare costs in Europe, the government has extended its free provision in a move it hopes will save working parents an average of £3,450-a-year.
But Labour has called this a “pledge without a plan”, saying there is not enough staff to accommodate the extra places.
The party has committed to keeping the government’s free scheme if it wins power, and has commissioned former Ofsted head Sir David Bell to carry out a review on ways to increase levels of childcare provision.
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Housing
The UK’s housing crisis is a huge concern for many voters – especially young people facing a precarious rental market whilst struggling to get on the property ladder.
The Tories pledged in their election manifesto to build 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s, but that figure has never been achieved and in December 2022, it was watered down after a backlash from backbenchers concerned about unwanted developments in local communities.
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Nevertheless, the Conservatives insist they are committed to housebuilding, with Housing Secretary Michael Gove announcing last year he would intervene when local councils are “dragging their feet” over processing planning applications.
Labour has vowed to be on the side of “builders not blockers” and has announced its ambition to create 1.5m new homes through the creation of “new towns“, saying the sites for these will be identified by the end of their first year in power.
Questions also remain over the government’s flagship renters reform and leasehold reform bills, neither of which look likely to pass before parliament dissolves this week.
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Labour has backed both pieces of legislation but wants to go further and says it will abolish no-fault evictions. The Tories promised to do this in their 2019 manifesto, but last month said the move would be delayed indefinitely, in what was widely seen as a concession to landlords.
Labour has also said it will abolish the leasehold system – something Mr Gove initially said his party would do but later rowed back on, reportedly following pushback from the Treasury.
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Crime
The criminal justice system is facing a number of major issues, with prisons overflowing, knife crime on the rise, a record-high crown court backlog, and prosecutions at an all time low.
The Conservatives have passed legislation to crack down on protest disorder to help free up police resources, and have also announced plans for tougher sentences for the most serious criminals and measures to force offenders to appear in the dock.
Labour has evoked former prime minister Tony Blair with a promise to be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”.
Its pledges include funding more community police officers and youth clubs and giving parents classes to handle anti-social behaviour.
