What to expect on the General Election campaign trail on Saturday
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will aim to win back support from veterans on Armed Forces Day.
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Your support makes all the difference.Here is your guide to the main developments in the General Election campaign on Saturday.
– D-day? Don’t recall
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was admonished for leaving the commemoration for the 80th anniversary of D-Day early, and will be eager to push his party’s promises to servicemen and women on Armed Forces Day.
He will hail their “duty, dedication and selfless personal sacrifice” and claim the Conservatives are the only party promising to meet the Help for Heroes Veterans’ Pledge.
As well as reiterating the Tories’ manifesto pledge to the armed forces including increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030, Mr Sunak will also reassert his party’s commitment to the Northern Ireland Legacy Act.
– Returning politics to service, with a government of service for those who serve
Sir Keir Starmer will promise Labour will be a “government of service, for those who serve” and that they will “always ensure that those who defend our country have their voices heard at the highest level”.
The Labour leader and shadow defence secretary John Healey will mark Armed Forces Day by joining a veterans’ coffee morning in the South East of England, where the pair will outline how the next Labour government aims to pay tribute through action.
They will announce new powers for Labour’s planned Armed Forces Commissioner who will be able to investigate and report on issues which affect the lives of service personnel such as substandard housing, faulty kit and poor discharge support.
On Saturday evening, Sir Keir and deputy leader Angela Rayner will tell an event in London that if people want change they have to vote for it, as Labour enters the final weekend before polling day fighting their toughest opponent yet – voter apathy.
– Davey goes the distance
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will embark on an epic 1,343-mile tour of seats from John O’Groats in northern Scotland to Land’s End in Cornwall in the final days of the campaign.
By the party’s calculations, the final marathon push will mean that by the end of the campaign, Sir Ed will have travelled further than the distance from London to California (a trek not novel to his Conservative counterpart).
The Yellow Hammer 1 will grace Lib Dem target seats as the party aims to show it is gaining in strength in communities across the country, from rural constituencies in the Highlands and West Country to former Conservative heartlands in the South East.
-Labour will win warning
In a rare overlap in messaging with Reform UK, the SNP will tell voters a Labour Government is a forgone conclusion.
SNP leader John Swinney will be campaigning in the seats of Falkirk, Alloa & Grangemouth and Bathgate & Linlithgow, as he claims only SNP MPs will hold the next Government to account on austerity cuts.
With less than a week until polls open and predictions of SNP losses to Labour, Mr Swinney will say that Scotland is the only place where the electoral outcome remains on a knife edge.