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Rishi Sunak has insisted his plan to reintroduce national service for teenagers will become a ‘rite of passage’ in their lives as he visited the Red Wall today on the campaign trail.
The Prime Minister visited a pottery factory in Stoke-on-Trent where he claimed the policy will boost security and social cohesiveness.
Meanwhile, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has boasted Labour is the ‘natural party of business’ after more than 120 executives signed a letter endorsing its economic strategy heading into the July 4 vote.
Follow Mail Online’s coverage below of day six of the general election campaign
Watch: Sir Ed Davey falls off paddleboard on Lake Windermere
Rachel Reeves – I’m not a socialist
I’ve always called myself a social democrat, and what I mean by that is I believe children from whatever background should get an equal start in life.
Geeta Guru-Murthy profile: Who is the BBC journalist who apologised to Nigel Farage?
Breaking:BBC journalist apologises to Nigel Farage over ‘inflammatory language’ remark
Now an apology. Earlier today we heard live from Nigel Farage, speaking at that election event we just saw.
When we came away from his live speech, I used language to describe it which didn’t meet the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality. I’d like to apologise to Mr Farage and viewers for this.
In pictures: Day six of the campaign trail
BBC announce Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie will lead election night coverage
A truly fantastic line-up of journalistic talent, headed by Laura and Clive, will bring voters the results and help make sense of them.
We’ve assembled a fresh, dynamic team to bring insight, experience, and perhaps a little wit, to audiences for the whole election night and beyond. It’s incredible to have such breadth and depth of expertise to call upon, up and down the country, when it matters most.
Watch: National service would have helped my sons, mother tells Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak speech: Five things we learned from PM’s visit to the Potteries
Rishi Sunak urged to make St George’s Day a bank holiday
We all love to have days off, right. Let’s be honest, I would definitely love a day off, I can tell you that.
But there’s lots of other things that come along with bank holidays and the impact they have which we need to take into account.
But the thing that you touched on though, which is important, is that taking a moment to celebrate and be proud of who we are, and our country. And that is an incredible thing and whether we need bank holiday for that as a separate thing.
But we should never be ashamed to be proud of our identity, of who we are as a country. And actually what we’ve seen over the last several months in particular, is sadly there are forces who are trying to divide us, who are trying to emphasise all the differences. And I think that’s sad, and it’s wrong.
Rishi Sunak – National service will be ‘rite of passage’
I think all of us have felt that our society could do with being more cohesive, right, reminding us we’re all on the same side, bringing us together, and this will do that. It will foster that culture of service and make our society more cohesive.
But it also, in a very uncertain time, will make our country more safe, so in years to come, and we have thousands and thousands of people who have been trained and things that are practically helpful for our country’s resilience or our security.
And remember, there’s a choice, so if people want to they can do the military component of this, but it will be very competitive and selective.
And for everyone else, there’ll be civic roles, search and rescue, first aid, lifeboats, helping elderly people, but all of these things will just contribute to our country’s resilience and our security.
So I think it’s going to be fantastic. It will become a rite of passage and important part of who we are as a nation.
Rishi Sunak – Education is most powerful way to transform lives
I’ve been going on for a while now about the need for our society to prioritise maths because we’re not going to be able to train people in the skills of the future, the jobs of the future, particularly in things like material science and engineering, unless we have more maths.
And we as a country have not prioritised maths in the way that we should have done.
We’re one of the few countries in the world where we say to our young people ‘you don’t have to study maths up to 18’ and I want to change that.
That doesn’t mean everyone has to study maths A-level but just just being more familiar with maths is a good thing for the country.
Breaking:Rishi Sunak – Labour will run out of money and put up taxes
The only certainty you’re going to get with a Labour Party is that they are going to run out of money and put up your taxes.
Rishi Sunak speaking at campaign event in Staffordshire
In pictures: Sir Ed Davey takes a tumble in Lake Windermere
Day six on the campaign trail: What has happened this morning?
Watch: Reeves boasts Labour is ‘party of business’
Rachel Reeves – I’m ready to move into Number 11
To serve as chancellor of the exchequer would be the privilege of my life, not to luxuriate in status, not as a staging post in a career, but to serve.
I know the responsibility that will come with that – I embrace it.
As I travel around the country, I see great potential wherever I go, in dynamic great British businesses like this one, in labs and classrooms in our world-leading universities, and in the talent and the effort of working people.
It is time to unlock that potential, to turn the page on chaos and decline, and start a new chapter for Britain. Labour is ready.
Rachel Reeves – I won’t play Tory game of undermining Bank of England
I have been very clear that every policy that we announce, every line in our manifesto will be fully costed and fully funded – no ifs, no ands, no buts.
That is the attitude that I will take into the Treasury, because taxpayers’ money should be spent with the same care with which people spend their own money.
Stability will rest, as it always has done when Britain has enjoyed economic success, on strong institutions. I started my career as an economist at the Bank of England. I know why the stability that it brings and the independence from short-term politics matter to economic success and the battle against inflation.
So Labour will not play, I will not play the Tory game of undermining the Treasury or the Bank of England.
I will never play fast and loose with the public finances, because when you do so, you put family finances at risk.
Rachel Reeves – Sunak’s election call shows his plan isn’t working
The Conservatives are insulting the intelligence of millions of people like these forced to deal with the consequences of their failure. But we won’t let them get away with it. Because the Conservatives do deserve to be judged on their record of those 14 years.
Five prime ministers, seven chancellors, 12 plans for growth, each delivering less than the last.
To put it in perspective, if our economy had grown at the average rate of OECD countries these last 14 years, our economy today would be £150 billion larger, worth £5,000 for every household and providing £55 billion more investment for our public services.
That is their record and they deserve to be judged on it. The Conservatives have failed on the economy. The plan isn’t working. And Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a snap General Election is the clearest sign of that. If he doesn’t believe that his plan is working, why should you?
Rachel Reeves – Labour is natural party of British business
In five weeks’ time, the British people will go to the polls to make a profound choice about the future of our country.”
Today, I want to put forward a simple proposition: that this changed Labour Party is today the natural party of British business.
And I want to set out the central economic faultline in this election, the choice before the British people on July 4: five more years of chaos with the Conservative Party leaving working people worse off; or stability with a changed Labour Party.
Nigel Farage – Voting Tory is a ‘wasted vote’
This election is a foregone conclusion. Labour are going to win and they’re going to win quite big.
And therefore, you could argue actually, that a vote for the Conservative Party is a wasted vote. And given that, you know, Labour are going to win, why not vote for something that you actually believe in?
I hope and believe we can get a cohort of MPs in Westminster so that we can be the voice of opposition.
Watch: Farage doubles down on ‘radical Islam’ remarks
Nigel Farage – Women are being excluded from politics
I think what we ought to be doing with this situation here is declaring a national security emergency and this is an emergency.
I talked over the course of the weekend to Trevor Phillips, about the small but worryingly growing number of young men, predominantly young men in this country, adopting radical views, views that aren’t just un-British, but views that frankly are extremely anti-British.
You might have noticed that Angela Rayner yesterday was campaigning in her constituency, begging, begging a group of Muslim leaders to please vote Labour, you will have noticed not a single woman in the room.
So we’re moving into an age in our inner cities and towns, I’m afraid, I’m worried to say, of sectarian politics with women completely excluded.
Nigel Farage – I was right to use ‘invasion’ on migration
I said that I thought unless something dramatic was done, that there would be an invasion. Now, of course, for using that word, I was called all the names under the sun.
But 3,800 boats later, 125,000 people later, you can use whatever word you want. I happen to think that invasion, frankly, was pretty appropriate.
So I’ve campaigned hard on this issue throughout this four-year period. And I’m gonna say to you, frankly, I was ahead of the curve on this. I was right.
Nigel Farage – Election campaign has got off to ‘dullest start’ I can remember
Sunak’s national service plan mocked on social media
Lib Dems want guaranteed police response for burglaries
Everyone deserves to feel safe in their own home.
But last year there were 45,233 reported burglaries where a police officer didn’t then visit the scene of the crime. Too many victims are let down while criminals are getting away with it
No family should be denied justice after suffering the distress and trauma of being burgled. At the very least, people should know that if they are burgled, the police will attend the scene and investigate properly.
Why are business leaders backing Labour?
We, as leaders and investors in British business, believe it is time for a change. For too long, our economy has been beset by instability, stagnation and a lack of long-term focus.
The UK has the potential to be one of the strongest economies in the world. A lack of political stability and the absence of consistent economic strategy have held it back. The country has been denied the skills and infrastructure it needs to flourish.
We are looking for a government that will partner fiscal discipline with a long-term growth strategy, working in partnership with the private sector to drive innovation and investment to build digital and physical capital and fix our skills system. This is the only way to put us on track for sustained productivity growth.
Labour has shown it has changed and wants to work with business to achieve the UK’s full economic potential. We should now give it the chance to change the country and lead Britain into the future. We are in urgent need of a new outlook to break free from the stagnation of the past decade and we hope by taking this public stand we might persuade others of that need too.
Watch: Nigel Farage grilled over Muslim claims on Good Morning Britain
Dad’s Army jokes rumble on over national service plan
Businesswoman whose firm received investment from PM’s wife backs Labour
Whether the PM’s wife has invested in any particular business does not detract from the things that really matter, which is that this is the government that has turned the economy around.
Nigel Farage – Send boats back to France if they don’t ‘play ball’
What is a Christian socialist?
Shadow business secretary – We want Diane Abbott situation resolved
We want that situation resolved, we all want to see that resolved. I genuinely don’t know the circumstances that you’re describing.
I think in any disciplinary matter you need both sides to engage in it, I genuinely have no additional information other than that but we are all keen to see every situation like this resolved as soon as possible.
Shadow business secretary – I’m a Christian socialist
Yes, I would describe myself as a Christian socialist in the best traditions of that (term) because that’s about putting people first and to do that, you’ve got to have a set of policies that will deliver for people.”
I think it’s the best tradition of the things that have been delivered in the UK, whether it’s the national parks or the NHS, have come from people with a similar background to mine.
Cabinet minister – National service is a great idea
When it comes to the national service, I think this is a great idea. We’re not unique in putting this forward, it’s something that for example, is happening in Sweden, where those young people that go through their version of what we’re suggesting, 80% of them actually come out the other end of say they would recommend doing it to a friend.
And I think this is a real opportunity for young people to get experience that they wouldn’t otherwise have, to build friendships, to build skills, to build confidence, the kind of building blocks that will set them up give them resilience, to go forward in their lives.
Cabinet minister – I’ve got ‘no idea’ if Boris Johnson will campaign for us
Cabinet minister – Labour would drag millions of pensioners into paying income tax
We will not only up rate by the triple lock across the whole of the next Parliament, but we will also up rate something called the personal allowance, which is the amount you can earn without paying income tax by the triple lock as well.
And that will mean millions of pensioners are getting a tax cut through time. Now Labour have dismissed that, they say they wouldn’t do it, which will drag millions pensioners into tax.
Day six of the campaign trail: What is on the agenda
In pictures: Our favourite images from day five of the campaign trail
What happened yesterday?
Good morning