Camilla Tominey has stopped the Labour Party chairwoman in her tracks while the two clashed over Rachel Reeves’s tax-raising Budget.
Discussing Labour’s decision to postpone local elections in 63 areas across England and Wales, the GB News host hit out at the “extraordinary” move to ignore the Electoral Commission’s criticism of the party.
“You are under much more threat in the South than you may be in the North from Reform particularly. Therefore, it cannot be coincidence that these mayoral elections have been postponed,” she told Anna Turley.
“And now there’s the mooted postponement of 63 areas. I mean, that’s extraordinary. Surely voters should just have their say?”
In response, Ms Turley defended her party, insisting that elections across the country, as well as its Capital, will be taking place next May, facing opponents on the left and the right.
She added: “We’re proud of our record in Government. We’re proud of the change we’re making.
“And with every single day that comes before the election, we know people will feel more and more in their pockets about the change we’re delivering, and we’re confident to go out and fight for every vote.”
But Ms Turley’s claim appeared to perturb Camilla, with the GB News host pressing: “Are you proud of your record in Government so far?”
Sir Keir Starmer has received the lowest approval rating of any Prime Minister in history, YouGov’s pollsters have found, plummeting to -66 last week.
Camilla asked Ms Turley if she was ‘proud’ of Labour’s record in Government
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GB NEWS
“So you’re proud of his record? The country isn’t. The country would rather somebody else was Prime Minister right now,” Camilla fired back.
While Ms Turley argued that it “takes time for the change we wanted to see”, she further insisted that Labour had put “£500 more in people’s pockets than there was at the election last year”.
She added that they were bringing inflation down, while bringing in breakfast clubs and free school meals.
Then the chair claimed the NHS was “getting back on its feet” – just days before a nationwide doctors’ strike.
But Camilla interjected: “The NHS is about to be clobbered, isn’t it, by a doctor’s strike, even though you’ve given them 29 per cent, they’re now want another 26 per cent.
Ms Reeves bludgeoned Britons with £26billion of tax rises in her Budget
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GETTY“This wage inflation has largely been fuelled by the fact that the Labour Government has given money to public sector workers, so public sector wages have increased by 7.6 per cent. Private sector pay is at 3.6 per cent.
“But what’s the point in giving public sector workers more pay if they’re still going to go on strike? Some 93,000 appointments lost to strikes.”
Ms Turley reeled off several of Labour’s top lines, including £150 off energy bills and freezing prescription charges, Camilla simply stopped her in her tracks.
“Hang on, hang on,” Camilla said. “You’re talking about putting more money in people’s pockets. The last Budget delivered record tax hikes.
“We had this absolute fallacy that you weren’t taxing working people more. Of course you are. You’re taxing working people to the tune of £26billion,” she fumed.
“What’s the point in wages going up if the freezing of tax thresholds for an extra three years fiscally drags medium income workers into higher tax rate bands?
“If you use any tax calculator online, you’re actually going to be worse off because you’re paying more tax. So that just wipes out any wage growth.”
Nevertheless, the Labour MP simply brushed off the claim people feel worse off, shifting the blame onto the Tories’ fiscal policy which they “inherited” 18 months ago.