'Laughably pathetic and desperate': Starmer hits out at Tory attacks on his working hours

An ugly row has broken out over how long a prime minister should work, as ITV News Political Correspondent Romilly Weeks reports

Sir Keir Starmer has said it is "laughably pathetic and desperate" that the Tories have attacked him over his preference to avoid working after 6pm on Fridays to spend time with his family.

The Tories have claimed the Labour leader's working preferences would make him a "part-time prime minister" - despite Starmer acknowledging that getting away at a reasonable hour at the end of the week is not always possible.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “there’s always work to do” and that “entails sacrifice”, adding: “I haven’t finished at six ever.”

Cabinet ministers also mocked the Labour leader suggesting he would refuse to go to work if there was an international crisis on a Friday evening, with Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis, saying: “Let’s hope Putin doesn’t choose 6.01pm when he wishes to go any further with his illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine.”

The Labour leader, whose wife is Jewish, has talked about making sure his children are aware of their heritage. Friday night Shabbat dinners are important in the Jewish faith.

The prime minister’s antisemitism adviser, Lord Mann, has warned that attacks on Starmer over his stance are “dangerous” and "insidious", adding: "I’m the independent adviser to the prime minister and my advice would be this is not an area to stray into.”

Starmer told reporters on Tuesday at a campaign event that he tries to carve out Friday nights "as best I can" for his wife, children and father-in-law as "protected time", saying it made him more relaxed and a better decision-maker.

“Her dad’s side of the family is Jewish, as people will appreciate, and we use that for family prayers – not every Friday, but not infrequently," Starmer said.

“That doesn’t mean I’ve never had to work on a Friday, of course it doesn’t, plenty of times I haven’t been able to do it. But I’ve tried to protect that time. I’d like to try and protect it in the future but I know very well, it’s going to be really difficult to do it.

“And that we’re even having a conversation about it is laughably pathetic and desperate.

“Is that really what Rishi Sunak wants to be talking about two days before the polls close? I mean, it’s a pretty terrible indictment of the negativity of their campaign.”

In an interview with ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston, Sir Keir Starmer said he needed a "strong mandate" to "serve the country"

Sunak told reporters at a campaign event in Oxfordshire "everyone will have their own way of doing this job", but added: "I can just tell you, from my experience having done it, that there’s always work to do, there’s always decisions that need to be made. That’s just what the job requires, and that’s what public service is about.

“It entails sacrifice, and yes, family, of course, matters to me enormously. But I’ve also spoken about this job being an enormous privilege, and public service of this nature requiring sacrifices.”

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said on X: “Virtually every military intervention we’ve carried out has happened at night, partly to keep our servicemen & women safe.

“The British people will wonder who would be standing in for Starmer between 6pm & 9am – Angela Rayner, David Lammy, Ed Miliband? Defending Britain’s security isn’t a daylight hours only job.”

A Labour source said: “The only person who’s clocked off early in this campaign is Rishi Sunak at the D-Day commemorations.”

The row comes after Starmer said a big majority would be “better for the country”, as the Conservatives continued to urge voters to proceed with caution and not hand Labour a “blank cheque”.

With two days to go until polling day, Rishi Sunak has warned that Labour could achieve a “supermajority”, allowing the party to raise taxes, which he claimed is in its DNA.

In an interview with ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston, Starmer said he needed a “strong mandate” to "serve the country".

Asked if he cared about the size of a majority, he said: "First we need to win," but added, "of course we need a mandate for that."

"That means we can roll up our sleeves and bring about the change we need.”

Starmer continued: "There's tough yards ahead in terms of the inheritance if we come in to serve the country, almost everything is broken, nothing is working, nothing is better than it was 14 years ago."

"We need a strong mandate for that."

This follows weeks of warnings from the Conservatives of a Labour “supermajority”, in a bid to prevent bleeding votes to Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats.

Sunak said: “Once you’ve given Labour a blank cheque, you won’t be able to get it back.

“And that means that your taxes are going up: your car, your pension, your savings, your work, you name it, they will tax it thousands and thousands of pounds.

“It’s what they always do. It’s in their DNA.”

Asked if he had given up trying to win during an earlier visit, he said: “No, absolutely not.

“I’m fighting hard for every vote. I don’t take a single place or person for granted, but I don’t want Britain to sleepwalk into the danger of what an unchecked Labour government with a supermajority would mean.”

He faced more difficult polling as half the public said their opinion of Sunak had got worse since he called the election, including a third of 2019 Tory voters, according to a Savanta survey of 2,867 people.

Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Every day in the run-up to the election Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda…

The Labour Party’s main focus on Tuesday was on the risk facing the nation’s eye health, as Wes Streeting claims thousands are waiting more than a year for treatment.

The shadow health secretary said: “High street opticians have the kit and staff to do basic checks and scans. Labour will partner with them to get patients the treatment they need.

“This is just one way Labour will reform the NHS and use spare capacity in the private sector to beat the Tory backlog and cut NHS waiting lists.”

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are calling on voters to “end the sewage scandal” and vote for “historic change”, after the party leader Ed Davey undertook a bungee jump on Monday to encourage others to also take a “leap of faith” on July 4.

Ahead of his visits to the South West of England, Sir Ed said: “In just 48 hours’ time, the British public can vote to end the sewage scandal and kick the Conservatives out of power.

“Filthy sewage dumping has caused untold damage to our precious environment and left people feeling unable to swim in their local rivers and beaches because they’re worried about getting sick.”

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