‘Nigel Farage is a Putin appeaser’

An example comes in the form of Labour’s planning reforms. Press figures close to Sir Keir and sitting behind their belief that improved economic growth can ease difficult trade-offs on tax and spending is a plan to significantly loosen planning rules.

It is offered as the explanation for how, by the end of the decade, Labour can deliver its promises to build 1.5 million homes, double the country’s onshore wind output, triple its solar power, and improve connectivity to the National Grid.

The Prime Minister says the implications of that approach have not yet sunk in with voters, not least on the Green Belt, parts of which – such as old car parks – Labour has said it will reclassify “grey belt” to boost home-building.

Mr Sunak says: “I think it would be very damaging for the Green Belt. I think as you’ve seen from the reporting they use words like ‘concreting over the countryside’, ‘bulldozing over the Green Belt’. Those are the words that are emanating from their discussions and that should really worry people.

“That is your green space, your view, your walk, all of that just carpeted over with building that is imposed top down. Because they’ve also been clear that they will impose top-down planning targets on areas to ride roughshod over the views of local communities. I think that will change the fabric of what we think is special about our country and our countryside.”

Labour argues their changes would protect green spaces while utilising parts of the Green Belt which do not amount to the countryside, such as disused tarmacked areas.

Few specific details on how planning rules will change under Labour have been published. 

The Prime Minister has tried to force focus onto the future, the policy choices that will shape voters’ lives ahead, rather than – as Labour is framing it – the election being a judgment on the past.

Mr Sunak acknowledges “frustration” with him personally as well as his party, including on the tax burden, which has risen to its highest point in 70 years after the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up public spending. 

‘Difficult few years’

“I can,” the Prime Minister says when asked if he can understand why people are disillusioned by the Tory record on tax. “It’s been a difficult few years. But we’re now cutting taxes.”

He mentions the National Insurance cuts, which have saved a worker on the average salary £900 this year, and the “biggest tax cut to business in decades”, which was a major expansion in how companies can write investments off against tax. 

The approach has been real Thatcherism, Mr Sunak insists: “I was always clear, as were Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson before me, that the priority was control borrowing, get inflation down and then cut taxes. That’s what I’ve done.

“That’s what Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson did. That’s what I’ve done. We’re now cutting taxes and if I’m re-elected we’re going to keep cutting taxes at every stage of your life.”

Despite the forward focus, the past cannot be fully escaped for the Tories. There are those – not least some close to Boris Johnson – who have not forgiven Mr Sunak for quitting as chancellor in July 2022, triggering Mr Johnson’s downfall.

Does he stand by that decision? At the second time of asking the Prime Minister says “yes”, but moves on swiftly: “That’s in the past. This election is about the future.”

The present, too, is proving uncomfortable for the Tory high command. The scandal about Conservatives betting on the summer election date is now widening to include police officers and even a Labour candidate who laid a wager on their own defeat.

The headlines on Wednesday morning are filled with news that Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary sitting round Mr Sunak’s own cabinet table, placed a bet on the election date.

Mr Jack said in a statement that the bet was made way back in April and he is not being looked at by the Gambling Commission.