Story by Vivian Bangamu
THE leaders of the United Kingdom’s top political parties have faced off in their first live television debate of the election campaign, focusing on several issues from tax to immigration and the National Health Service (NHS).
Conservative party leader and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer Tuesday night in the north-western town of Salford with a month to go before the July 4 election.
Sunak, whose party is 20 percentage points behind in opinion polls, took a combative approach, lashing out at the Labour party over tax, noting that inflation has eased to two percent and adding that he plans to boost the sluggish economy.
Starmer pointed to the austerity of the Conservatives’ early years in government and chaos of the more recent past, which saw the removal of the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson amid financial and ethics scandals.
The United Kingdom is set to go to polls on the 4th of July.
