Political parties have taken to the road this weekend as the General Election battle bus tours get underway.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner launched her 5,000-mile UK tour on Saturday with help from party leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The trio was in Uxbridge, where voters went to the polls in July last year. Following the departure of former prime minister Boris Johnson, the Conservatives held on to the seat at a by-election by 495 votes.
Winner Steve Tuckwell will once again face Labour’s Danny Beales in the poll on Thursday July 4.
Labour’s bus is a brand-new, 73-reg Yutong coach – and it’s ultra low emission zone (Ulez) compliant, so did not incur a charge in Uxbridge. The word ‘Change’ – the party’s General Election slogan – appears on the bright red bus more than 30 times.
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak boards the Conservative campaign bus in Redcar, northeast England
Newly-defected former Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson MP campaigns for the Reform Party in his constituency of Ashfield
Supporters wait for Mr Sunak before he launches the Conservative campaign bus
‘I’m reliably told it has got a fridge in the back of it, so check that Boris Johnson isn’t in there,’ Sir Keir said at its launch. Mr Johnson hid in a fridge to avoid a TV interview in the run-up to the 2019 election.
The Labour leader told supporters: ‘All week (Ms Rayner has) been showing me photographs of her bus and now I’ve come to see this fantastic bus.
‘It’s rather like Tory defectors. You wait for ages and then three come along in a row.’
The party will use its bus to champion its ‘power up’ agenda, which could become a successor to the Conservatives’ flagship ‘levelling up’ thread if Labour is able to form a government next month.
Ms Reeves said ‘powering up’ means ‘wherever you come from, whatever your start in life, you have the very best opportunities and potential, and powering up too so that our economy can fulfil its potential’.
As midday approached, Rishi Sunak launched his bus in Redcar on the Yorkshire coast – home turf for the Conservative Prime Minister who will contest the new Richmond and Northallerton seat, within 10 miles of the town.
Conservative incumbent Jacob Young will go up against former Labour MP Anna Turley in Redcar.
The Mercedes-Benz Tourismo features the party’s General Election slogan – ‘clear plan, bold action, secure future’.
Once the transport for Oxford United, before the football team’s promotion to the EFL Championship, the vehicle is also Ulez-compliant.
In his Teesside speech, Mr Sunak took aim at his Labour rivals.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner at the launch event for Labour’s campaign bus at Uxbridge College
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey unveils the party’s general election campaign battle bus
The party leader said: ‘Just see what’s happened over this Diane Abbott situation. And it confirms what we know about him: it’s that he doesn’t stick by anything he says, just constantly changes his mind.
‘And it’s clear that Angela Rayner is in charge of the Labour Party and not him.’
The Liberal Democrats’ yellow coach has been rolling on the roads throughout the first full week of General Election campaigning.
Party leader Sir Ed Davey unveiled Yellow Hammer 1 in Whittlesford, near Cambridge – a Van Hool emblazoned with the words ‘Liberal Democrats for a fair deal’.
Sir Davey has recently been slated for his attention seeking publicity stunts, as he was recently seen falling repeatedly and deliberately from a paddleboard on Windermere.
Last week, Sir Davey could be seen lapping up a yellow ice cream on a seaside trip for the second day of the election campaign.
Earlier this year, Sir Davey also lived up to his usual antics by delivering a speech in front of a giant blue hour glass with the words ‘Time’s Running Out Rishi!’.
Launching the tour last Sunday, Davey made reference to hospitals ‘with dangerous crumbling roofs’ and ‘sewage pouring into’ wards and promised to introduce a 10-year rolling repair programme for the NHS estate.
He told supporters: ‘I’m not putting a ceiling on our ambitions.’
Reform UK began its campaign tour on an open-top bus this week.
Honorary president Nigel Farage was aboard in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, on Saturday with candidate and former Conservative MP Lee Anderson.
