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Rishi Sunak at the brewery today. Stefan Rousseau/PA

Sunak asks Welsh workers if they're looking forward to Euro 2024 (even though Wales haven't qualified)

Sunak and his opponent have started touring the UK ahead of the general election.

UK PRIME MINISTER Rishi Sunak was met with silence today when he asked workers at a Welsh brewery whether they were looking forward to the upcoming Euro 2024 tournament, despite Wales not having qualified. 

Sunak asked the workers at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in south Wales whether they were looking forward to the football later this summer as a potential source of revenue.

There was an awkward pause after Sunak asked: “So are you looking forward to all the football?”

One brewery employee answered: “We’re not so invested in it,” to which another responded: “That’s because you guys aren’t in it”.

 The Prime Minister nonetheless insisted that “it’ll be a good summer of sport”.

Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer kicked off their election campaigns this morning, six weeks before the UK goes to the polls. Sunak announced the surprise election yesterday in the pouring rain, taking many observers by surprise. 

He his broadcast studios this morning before embarking on a two-day whistlestop trip across the UK. Keir Starmer is headed to south-east England in a sign he wants to make inroads in Tory areas.

Speaking on a visit to Gillingham in Kent, a traditional Conservative heartland, Starmer took aim at Sunak’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

“I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election,” Starmer said.

“We have to deal with the terrible loss of control of the border under this Government, we have to tackle the small boats that are coming across but nobody should be making that journey.”

Meanwhile, Sunak insisted that the Rwanda scheme would provide a deterrent, telling GB News: “Unless you’re able to deliver that, people will keep coming.”

On a visit to a distribution centre in Derbyshire, Sunak sought to hammer his message that the Tories have a “clear plan” while Labour would go “back to square one”.

Sunak highlighted his record as pandemic-era chancellor in arguing voters should back him at the polls if they want to see economic stability.

But speaking to LBC, the Prime Minister admitted that flights to Rwanda, which are central to the Government’s ambition to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel, will now take off “after the election”.

“If I’m elected, we will get the flights off,” he said.

Pressed further on timing, he said: “No, after the election. The preparation work has already gone on.”

Starmer has said Labour’s plan to curb small boat crossings would involve a new “border command” that would work with other countries to coordinate in tackling people-smuggling gangs.

Preparations for Rwanda deportation flights persist, Downing Street said, as Whitehall “continues to deliver existing Government policies”.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the timetable “hasn’t changed” and that “we’ve always said those early weeks of July.”

The spokesman denied timings had been affected by a recent court ruling in Belfast that provisions of the UK’s Illegal Migration Act should be disapplied in Northern Ireland

And they’re off 

In London, Reform UK’s leader Richard Tice staged a press conference during which he claimed the PM was “absolutely terrified” of the threat of his party drawing voters on the right.

Honorary president of the party Nigel Farage said he would be focusing instead on getting Donald Trump re-elected rather than stand as an MP.

“I will do my bit to help in the (Reform) campaign, but it is not the right time for me to go any further than that,” he said.

“Important though the general election is, the contest in the United States of America on November 5 has huge global significance.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is expected to visit a target seat as he launches a campaign expected to focus on winning Tory-held seats following a series of eye-catching by-election successes.

Mr Sunak surprised many in Westminster, who had expected an autumn poll, when he fired the starting gun for the summer election.

The news caused disquiet among Tory MPs fearful of losing their jobs, and those who have already said they will not stand are having to say goodbye to Parliament sooner than expected.

Despite speculation at Westminster about a Tory rebel effort to oust Mr Sunak and call off the election, one prominent critic of the Prime Minister said it was “too late” to get rid of him.

Just two more days of Commons business have been scheduled, during which important legislation will have to be rushed through.

Party whips from the Conservatives and Labour are holding talks to work out what outstanding legislation can become law before prorogation – the end of the current parliamentary session – on Friday.

That includes the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which includes measures to establish a compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal.

The Prime Minister could not guarantee this would be authorised, or that Martyn’s Law and the Renters Reform Bill would be passed before Parliament is prorogued.

But he told LBC he would “do absolutely everything in my power to make sure that we do get that through”.

In his Downing Street statement, the Prime Minister said the election would be a question of trust, warning that Sir Keir was not the man to lead the country through “uncertain” times.

Sunak hopes that Consumer Prices Index inflation falling to 2.3% in April and a recovering economy will help overturn a 20-point opinion poll deficit.

Starmer said the election would be a chance to turn the page on 14 years of Conservative rule and “stop the chaos” at Westminster.

With reporting from Cormac Fitzgerald

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21 Comments
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    Mute Padhraic McLaughlin
    Favourite Padhraic McLaughlin
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    Jan 14th 2025, 1:19 PM

    I don’t see the issue here. Giving back to society after being jailed for taking something from it. Better than sitting in a cell playing the PlayStation.

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    Mute Padhraic McLaughlin
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    Jan 14th 2025, 1:27 PM

    @Luke Littler: I should’ve clarified, that part of my comment was inferring to the scr0tes in Irish prisons.

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    Mute Michael Reilly
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    Jan 14th 2025, 2:21 PM

    @Padhraic McLaughlin: Take it easy Padraic – you will have the Irish Council for civil liberties for prisoners and law breakers and that outfit penal reform on ranting for the evening.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Jan 14th 2025, 1:14 PM

    Prisoners being useful to the community that the committed crimes against. A good idea.
    They are trained and when released have new skills to help them stay on the straight and narrow.
    Yu cannot pay them the same but they could be insured in case of serious accidents or worse.
    A lot better than making coffee tables and cake stands like our lot do!

    69
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    Mute Des Hanrahan
    Favourite Des Hanrahan
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    Jan 14th 2025, 1:36 PM

    Cheap prison labour is economically important in the USA and it is not about Rehabilation or Giving Back to the Community. That is PR. It is a big part of why the USA has such a high imcarceration rate.

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    Mute Kieran Fogarty
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    Jan 14th 2025, 2:07 PM

    @Des Hanrahan: the so called ‘Land of the Free’

    6
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    Mute Jack Dermody
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    Jan 14th 2025, 5:20 PM

    @Dave G Doe: Prison is about rehab, not revenge..

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    Mute William Jennings
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    Jan 14th 2025, 4:00 PM

    Now this might seem harsh, but I honestly don’t think that they should be getting paid at all. We don’t pay people for community service, why should taxpayers foot the bill for people who have committed even more heinous crimes which required incarceration? The fact that some inmates are getting $30 per day despite possibly being serial abusers or violent murders/robbers just doesn’t sit right with me. Incarceration is not meant to be a reward but a consequence of their actions. Taxpayers are already funding their housing, food, healthcare, and security, why add a paycheque on top of that for work that’s part of their restitution? Work in prison should be seen as part of paying their debt, not as an opportunity to draw a salary funded by the very people they’ve wronged.

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    Mute Fergus O'Donnell
    Favourite Fergus O'Donnell
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    Jan 14th 2025, 1:36 PM

    A morally bankrupt country

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    Mute alan dunne
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    Jan 14th 2025, 2:03 PM

    @Fergus O’Donnell: should help with the DEI inclusion targets also !

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    Mute thomas molloy
    Favourite thomas molloy
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    Jan 14th 2025, 2:40 PM

    Activity is part of helping people In institutions cope with waiting to get back on track. Laundries were a standard activity for girls gardening for boys but firefighting is another level.

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    Mute Stephen Wallis
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    Jan 14th 2025, 5:20 PM

    The 13th amendment to the US Constitution is widely taught to have ‘ended’ slavery, but it merely converted it into “convict leasing”, and US prisons need a steady supply of prison labour so the US has one of the highest proportions of its population incarcerated, and all of the work they do is for profit, not for rehabilitation: https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-alabama-3b2c7e414c681ba545dc1d0ad30bfaf5 Of course, work placement can be an essential part of prisoner rehabilitation, but that’s not what’s happening in the US.

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    Mute David S
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    Jan 14th 2025, 5:47 PM

    @Stephen Wallis: All work is for profit. Anyone who works for nothing will never be out of work.

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    Mute Chutes
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    Jan 14th 2025, 1:46 PM

    Bodie will get the gal, it’s all gonna be just fine! Don’t look up!

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    Mute Dominic Leleu
    Favourite Dominic Leleu
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    Jan 14th 2025, 4:55 PM

    some things never changed.

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    Mute K H
    Favourite K H
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    Jan 14th 2025, 9:54 PM

    This is what you get when you prioritise paying for wars in foreign lands

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