KEIR FACTOR
Starmer ‘super majority’ would be bad news…Labour will have uncontrolled power & a blank cheque to ruin UK, Shapps says
The latest polls show the Conservatives some 20 points behind Labour - which could hand Sir Keir a huge majority
VOTERS have been warned not to give Sir Keir Starmer a “blank cheque” by handing Labour a “super-majority”.
Grant Shapps warned a crushing election victory for Sir Keir would give him “unchecked power” while top Tory Miriam Cates told our Never Mind The Ballots show the Labour chief would be Tony Blair "on steroids".
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The Defence Secretary blasted that the “country doesn’t function well” when either party has a three-figure majority in the House of Commons.
Mr Shapps insisted the Tories were still fighting for “every seat” and “no one’s cast a vote” as the election campaign hits the halfway stage.
Speaking to Times Radio, he said: "You want to make sure that in this next government, whoever forms it, that there's a proper system of accountability.
“You don't want to have somebody receive a super majority.
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“And in this case, of course, the concern would be that if Keir Starmer were to go into No.10 and that power was in some way unchecked.
“It would be very bad news for people in this country… A blank cheque approach, allowing (them) to do anything they wanted, particularly when their particular set of plans are so vague.
“They say change, but you've no idea what they actually want to change to, other than the fact that they'd outlined plans which would cost £2,094 to every working family in this country.
“If you ended up with a party with a massive majority, unchecked power, able to do anything that they wanted.
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"With the instincts of... Keir Starmer’s party on all sorts of things, from raising people's tax to their lack of support for increased defence spending, we think that would be a dangerous place to put this country.”
The most recent YouGov MRP poll, which predicts seat-by-seat results across the country, predicted Labour would win a mammoth majority of 194 – larger than Blair’s in 1997 and more than double the 2019 Tory majority.
The Tory vote share has also been stung by Nigel Farage’s return to lead Reform and stand for election in Clacton, with the upstarts scoring a four-point poll boost.
A poll released by YouGov last night put Labour on 38 per cent, with the Tories on 18 per cent and Reform only one point behind on 17 per cent.
And in a poll conducted by Lord Ashcroft, the Tories’ vote share fell further from 23 per cent to 21 per cent last week, while Reform were just six points behind on 15 per cent.
There are major fears in Tory circles of a 'crossover' point when Reform overtakes the Tories.
Asked if his plea to voters was effectively an admission the Conservatives could not win, Mr Shapps insisted: “No one's cast a vote. Even postal votes haven't gone out.
“There is everything to fight for, and we are fighting for every single seat in this country.
“The polls have been wrong before.
ANALYSIS: Stuff of nightmares
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
Labour winning a 'super majority' at the election is giving the Tory party nightmares.
Sir Keir Starmer could be heading back to the Commons with a majority of 416 seats if one weekend poll is to be believed.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps says he fears there could a real lack of accountability from other parties if they are destroyed.
The Tories have described this as a "blank cheque" approach which would allow Labour to pass whatever legislation they want.
Polling has shown the Tories could win less than 100 seats and this could mean they won't be an effective opposition.
There could literally not be enough people to fill all the shadow positions for the next Tory leader.
Miriam Cates says Labour may even create "constitutional vandalism" by being given such a majority.
She fears a new Labour government would take even more power out of the hands of Westminster and giving it to technocrats and the civil service if given the chance.
The talk of a super majority also speaks to another predicament the Tories find themselves in.
Concern is growing within Tory circles that they will receive an almighty hiding from the electorate on July 4.
Look at how the language has changed in recent weeks.
Rishi Sunak told The Sun at the start of the campaign that he was eyeing up an election win and England would win the Euros.
That now seems like a pipedream.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has been touring the TV and radio stations this morning telling voters not to hand Sir Keir Starmer a "blank cheque".
He told the public that Labour shouldn't be given "unchecked" power especially when their plans are vague.
He put on a brave face telling Times Radio saying there was still "everything to fight for".
The seats both parties have been visiting tell their own story.
On Monday, I visited Horsham in West Sussex, which has a 21,000 Tory majority.
Sir Keir Starmer has visited Monmouthshire which features way down the list of Labour target seats.
For Labour are on the attack and for the Tories it appears to be a damage limitation exercise.
“But I think it's perfectly legitimate to say the country doesn't function well when you get majorities the size of Blair's or even bigger.
“And we would say there are a lot of very good, hardworking MPs who can hold the government of the day to account.
“And we'd say those are Conservative MPs."
It came as the PM was under fire again for his call to leave D-Day commemorations in Normandy early last week after he said the event “ran over” in his ITV interview filmed on the same day.
Asked if the PM was “tone deaf” on the 80th-anniversary event, Shapps said: “The part that he didn’t attend had no British veterans at it at all and he has rightly, I think, issued his apology for it.
“We can carry on going round and round in circles. I think the more interesting thing is what does he really think about our veterans?
“He is a Prime Minister who has from day one of his administration had a veterans’ minister in his own Cabinet.”
Meanwhile, Ms Cates told our show that “the prospect of a Labour government doing these things again… is an alarming one.
Ms Cates warned: "Very, very large majorities are not necessarily good for democracy.”
"People can vote how they want to vote, and they should do – it's completely up to them.
“They shouldn't be frightened by the prospect of one party having a particular majority when they go to the polls.
“I do think it's a fair warning, particularly to Nigel Farage, actually, that if we had an enormous Labour majority, they would embed all sorts of things in our political system, in our constitution like Blair did.
“Things that we have not yet managed to repeal – which is why the judges have had so much power and we haven't been able to sort out illegal immigration.
“The idea that a left-wing government wouldn’t do that on steroids, with an enormous majority… It’s for the birds.”
Ms Cates continued: “In the last year, the government, the Conservatives have started to wake up to the consequences of what Blair did.
“Look at the row about biological sex.
“That is a direct result of the Equality Act, the Gender Recognition Act.
“These are the things that have allowed women's rights to be squashed, allowed children to be put in danger.
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“Yes, of course, we should have reformed it but at least we're waking up now.
“The prospect of a Labour government doing these things again, bending these things further and further into our system, taking power out of the hands of Parliament, therefore the people, and putting it with technocrats and civil service is an alarming one."
What pledges are in the Tory manifesto?
Mr Sunak’s manifesto includes pledges to:
- CUT National Insurance by a further 2p by 2027, taking the main rate to 6 per cent
- ABOLISH National Insurance entirely for self-employed workers by 2029
- PROTECT pensioners from ever paying income tax with a new Triple Lock Plus
- GIVE working parents 30 hours a week of free childcare by September next year
- CREATE a mandatory new form of national service for 18-year-olds
- IMPOSE a ban on any new green levies that make Brits pay for Net Zero
- BAN mobile phones in classrooms as well as clamping down on sex education
- BOOSTING defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030
- SLAP an annual cap on legal migration while pledging immediate Rwanda flights
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