RISHI'S TAX CUT PLEDGE KICKS OFF ELECTION BATTLE

I want to keep going, managing the economy well, cutting taxes, tackling illegal migrants

- Martyn Brown

RISHI Sunak has pledged to make more tax cuts as he fired the starting gun on the election race.

Laying down the gauntlet to Labour with a vote-winning gambit, the Prime Minister said he will likely go to the polls in the "second half of the year".

Determined to keep delivering for the British people, Mr Sunak said he had "lots I want to get on with", including "cutting people's taxes".

They would be the "single biggest difference between us and the Labour Party in the next election" he said.

It paves the way for another giveaway in just nine weeks' time at the spring budget. Mr Sunak's decision to all-but rule out holding a vote in May was widely seen as a shrewd move.

It neutralises likely future opposition attacks that Mr Sunak had bottled a spring election.

Former Labour PM Gordon Brown suffered a fatal blow in 2007 when he allowed election rumours to take off - before deciding not to hold one the following year.

With the Tories trailing by 20 points in some polls it also gives the PM more time to turn things around.

Waiting until the autumn will give the economy a chance to get back on track and for the Government to finally get Rwanda migrant flights off the ground.

Small boat crossings, down by 36 per cent in 2023, could fall much further by then too.

The last October general election was in 1974 while Boris Johnson's landslide victory in 2019 came in December.