Rishi Sunak: Don’t surrender your voice to Labour

Entering the final few days of campaigning, the Prime Minister will today (Monday 1^st July) warn of the dangers of an unaccountable and unchecked Labour government and implore voters “don't surrender your voice to Labour”. 

If the polls were reflected on election day, the UK would be headed for an unaccountable Labour supermajority – meaning higher taxes and uncontrolled migration. And Labour would seek to lock themselves into power for good by lowering the voting age and expanding voting rights to prisoners and EU migrants. 

The Prime Minister will warn that the prospect of a permanent Labour government means this could be the last time people's votes can really affect the outcome – and if they don't like the reality of Labour in power, they could find themselves unable to simply get rid of it in five years' time. 

He will say that an unchecked Labour government “would be a disaster from which it would take decades to recover” and will vow that every Conservative MP elected “will stand up for you and make sure your voice is heard, your values represented”. 

Throughout the election campaign Labour have not being straight with people about what they want to push through if they got in unopposed. Labour's top team have themselves let slip that their manifesto ‘is not the sum of their ambitions'. This has raised fears about what a Labour government with a large majority might mean for the country. 

There would be higher taxes. Independent costings have shown Labour has a £38.5 billion black hole in their finances, meaning they need to levy £2,094 in extra taxes on hardworking families. They have not ruled out dozens of different tax rises when pressed on the airwaves. In fact, in a briefing to The Guardian, it was revealed that Labour are plotting 13 tax rises from the outset.  

There would be higher migration. Labour has said they will renegotiate the UK's deal with the European Union. But the EU has already said that a migration deal would have to be on the table in any negotiation. Analysis reveals that this could be as many as 100,000 extra migrants to the UK every year. Meanwhile, Labour would scrap the Rwanda plan and make us the soft-touch ellegal migration capital of the world. 

Being unaccountable for five years isn't enough for Starmer. As well as being able to ram through extreme policies, unchecked power has the potential to lock a Labour Government for a generation. He will rig the system for a generation by lowering the voting age to 16 and giving votes to migrants and prisoners.  

However, this is not a foregone conclusion. Independent analysis has demonstrated just 130,000 voters currently considering a vote for Reform or Liberal Democrat voted Conservative could prevent this. 

Speaking later today at a rally, the Prime Minister will say: 

“We have 4 days to save Britain from a Labour government. Labour would hike taxes by more than £2,000 for every working family, would shunt our politics to the left and change the rules to ensure that they can stay in power for decades.  

“If they get the kind of majority, the super majority that the polls suggest, they will set about entrenching themselves in power. They will rewrite the rules to make it easier for them to stay in office and harder for anyone to replace them. So, don't surrender your voice to Labour on Thursday.  

“I tell you this: once you have handed Keir Starmer and Labour a blank cheque, you won't be able to get it back. 

“A Labour government would be bad for our country, and an unchecked Labour government would be a disaster from which it would take decades to recover.  

“We Conservatives will stand up for you and make sure your voice is heard, your values represented.” 

 And: 

“We already know that they want to give 16 years olds the vote. They don't want to do that because they think they are adults, but because they think they will vote for them. What other changes will they make to make it harder to remove them from power?   

“Votes for EU nationals? Votes for prisoners? A whole new voting system designed to allow politicians to stitch things up behind closed doors and shut you out?  

“Don't let them do that. Don't take that risk. Don't surrender to Labour.” 

ENDS 

For further information, please contact the Press Office on 020 7984 8121 or email us at press@conservatives.com. 

Notes to Editors 

Changes to voting rules under Labour

• Labour would lower the voting age from 18 to 16 years-of-age, rigging our electoral system so they can desperately cling onto permanent power. ‘We will increase the engagement of young people in our vibrant democracy, by giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all elections'.[1]
• Labour would give full voting rights to EU nationals, rigging our electoral system so they can desperately cling onto permanent power. Keir Starmer said he wanted to give full voting rights for EU nationals in 2020, Labour would give 6.7 million EU nationals the right to vote.[2]
• Keir Starmer has argued for prisoners to be given the vote. In The Three Pillars Of Liberty in 1996, Sir Keir and his co-authors wrote: ‘The denial of voting rights to most convicted prisoners… comes close to violating evolving human rights standards'.[1]

Higher migration under Labour

• Labour want to ‘revisit' the Brexit deal. Rachel Reeves said Labour ‘would look to improve our trading relationship with Europe, and do trade deals around the world'.[3]
• Labour have been warned there will be no new deal with the European Union without a return of free movement, taking us back to square one on immigration. Michel Barnier insists EU would block Labour from ‘cherry-picking' terms of a new Brexit deal and would reject a future Labour government's Brexit plan unless there was a return of free movement.[4]
• Labour will grant an illegal immigration amnesty to tens of thousands of illegal migrants with no right to be in the UK. The Illegal Migration Act, which passed in July last year, effectively bars anyone who comes to the UK illegally from claiming asylum. Labour has clarified that those people — presently about 90,000 and expected to rise to more than 115,000 by the end of this year — will be entitled to claim asylum if it wins the election. It would effectively increase the asylum backlog sevenfold overnight, based on current figures.^[5]
• Labour would scrap the Rwanda scheme even if it deters the number of small boat crossings. When asked whether he would stick to his commitment to cancel the Rwanda plan even if it led to a reduction in small boat arrivals, Starmer said: ‘Yes I think it's the wrong policy'.^[6]

Higher taxes under Labour

• Labour's Tax Trap manifesto made clear they are still committed to the policies that make up the £38.5 billion of unfunded spending commitments – meaning an extra £2,094 of tax rises for every working household in Britain. Using HM Treasury Costings, HMG figures, Labour's own numbers, and a publicly quoted investment bank; Labour have a £38.5 billion black hole in their spending plans over the next four years, equivalent to £2,094 in extra taxes for working families.[2]

• A recording of the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury has revealed Labour are plotting to spend ‘hundreds of billions' extra than they set out on their green plans. As revealed by The Daily Telegraph, Keir Starmer is not being honest about the ‘hundreds of billions' of pounds of unfunded spending he has hidden from Labour's manifesto to pay for their unfunded green plans.[7]

• The Guardian reported that Labour have drawn up plans for extra taxes to raise at least £8 billion, including Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax. Reported in The Guardian, Labour are seeking up to £10 billion in ‘significant changes to Inheritance Tax' and ‘increases in Capital Gains Tax'.[8]

• Labour cannot rule out hiking 17 taxes on families, taxing people's cars, savings, homes and businesses. By making tax guarantees, the Conservative Party Manifesto rules out a range of tax rises – Labour have been unable to rule out raising 17 of these taxes including a hike to council tax, business taxes and road tax.[9]

• Multiple shadow ministers, including the Shadow Chancellor cannot rule out hiking up council tax.STUDIO: ‘So just to be totally clear on council tax bands…So you're saying there will be no change'REEVES: ‘There's nothing in our manifesto, nothing in our plans that requires further changes. Of course,I'm not going to write five years of budgets before we've even got to a general election, before people have even voted in that general election'.[10]  

• Labour will introduce a Retirement Tax, dragging the State Pension into income tax for the first time ever. Labour will not match our manifesto commitment to increase the personal tax threshold for pensioners – meaning that under Labour people on the basic state pension will be paying a Retirement Tax for the first time in history.[11]

Gabriel Millard-Clothier | Political Press Officer

Conservative Campaign Headquarters, 4 Matthew Parker Street, London SW1H 9HQ

Mob: 07711978086

[1] The Labour Party, Labour Party Manifesto 2024, 13 June 2024, link.

[2] The Telegraph, 19 June 2024, link.

[1] The Daily Mail, 12 January 2020, link.

[3] The Financial Times, 16 June 2024, link.

[4] The Daily Telegraph, 23 June 2024, link.

[5] The Times, 2 May 2024, link.

[6] The Daily Telegraph, 8 October 2023, link.

[2] The Conservative Party, Labour's tax rises, 17 May 2024, archived; HM Treasury, Opposition Costings, 17 May 2024, link; Tax Trap: Labour's 18 Tax Rises, accessed 14 June 2024, link.

[7] The Daily Telegraph, 26 June 2024, link.

[8] The Guardian, 21 June 2024, link.

[9] The Conservative Party, Labour's 18 Tax Rises, 14 June 2024, link.

[10] BBC Breakfast, 19 June 2024, archived.

[11] Sky News, 30 May 2024, archived.