(London) One week before the July 4 legislative elections, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer faced off without holding back Wednesday evening in their last televised debate of the campaign.
As the poll draws closer, Labor is still promised an overwhelming victory according to polls which have changed little, with the Tories (conservatives) paying the price for a laborious campaign marked by controversies, and now a fraudulent betting scandal.
After an unsurprising first duel at the beginning of June, but where the two adversaries were offensive, will this debate broadcast on the BBC help move the lines?
“I think over the last 14 years politics has become too much about self-satisfaction and about MPs thinking about what they can get for themselves,” he said.
Rishi Sunak said integrity in politics was being “clear about what you want to do”, accusing his opponent “of not being honest about his plans to raise taxes”, one of his favorite lines of attack against Labor in the campaign.
Voters now know the programs of the two main parties, in particular on immigration, public services and purchasing power, the main concerns of the British.
On the other hand, it was the last chance for Rishi Sunak, 44 years old and in Downing Street for twenty months, to try to redress the course of a campaign marked by controversy over his shortened trip to France for the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, and the entry into the race of Nigel Farage, new leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party.
The latter is now hot on the heels of the conservatives in the polls, eroding its electoral base on the right.
And for the past week, the Tories have been embroiled in a betting fraud scandal, with the sector watchdog investigating whether party members took advantage of inside information to bet on the date the election would be held.
Many conservative leaders are threatened with losing their seats during these legislative elections, and many already have their eyes turned towards the future reorganization of the party.