Rishi Sunak comes up EMPTY - Panicked Tories smashed the emergency glass weeks ago
Rishi Sunak stood in front of party members, ministers and journalists today in Silverstone to unveil the party's manifesto. And it was filled with... nothing new.
A national insurance cut that was trailed in the last budget, a triple lock plus for pensioners, cutting net migration through policies that have already been announced, and national service - announced weeks ago.
We also saw the Prime Minister lean on plans to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP - also old news. And their plan to axe stamp duty on properties worth 425,000 and less was trailed before today's speech.
Asked today if the Conservative manifesto was a “last-chance saloon” to change the party's fortunes, Sunak said the election was “about the future”.
Rishi Sunak stood in front of party members, ministers and journalists today in Silverstone to unveil the party's manifesto
PA
While some may question Sunak's response, he certainly got one thing right - it's not a last-chance saloon. They began this pitch to voters weeks ago.
The Tories have been reaching for far more ambitious policies than Labour this election campaign, with the latter attempting to present themselves as a safe pair of hands with a fully costed and funded plan for the UK.
Even before today's plan was published, Starmer accused Sunak of publishing a "Corbyn-style manifesto".
Speaking about Tory proposals for a furhter National Insurance cut, Starmer said: "The money's not there for the Tories' desperation. What theyre producing is a recipe for five more years of chaos."
He added: "We have been absolutely clear that all our plans are fully costed and fully funded... But this is coming from the party that has put tax at the highest level for 70 years.
"They're building a Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto where anything you want can go in it. None of it is costed. It is a recipe for more of the same."
The party's approach of trailing most of their policies ahead of the official manifesto launch - and making the policies more eye-catching than most of what is being offered by Labour - was almost certainly an attempt to start clawing back some of the Opposition's lead in the polls.
But with Labour still at least 20 points ahead of the Tories, it has simply not had the desired effect.
The Tories have been throwing as much as they can at voters - going above and beyond with their policy offering - but it has done little to persuade voters to get onside.
And now, today's manifesto showed, they have got nothing left in the tank. They smashed the emergency glass weeks ago when they begun unveiling their policy plans for after the election.
So now, all that is left to do is look to Starmer. Without a major misstep from Labour in the coming weeks, it seems unlikely there will be anything to help the Tories avoid a doomsday scenario on July 4th - the party simply has nothing left in the tank.