LABOUR SUPERMAJORITY IS UNLIKELY, MINISTER CLAIMS

THE Labour lead is narrowing and a supermajority of 200 seats or more is not a realistic prospect, according to Women’s Minister Maria Caulfield.

She told GB News: “I think there’s a story about 130,000 voters switched their votes and that actually the 200 or so majority that there’s been proposed is not actually that realistic any longer.

“We’ve seen in the last 24 hours, the polls starting to narrow as people are really thinking about the implications, should they have a Labour government after Thursday. But if they did get what’s called a supermajority, it does mean there is absolutely no scrutiny of them.

“We have what’s called select committees in the House of Commons, which are usually kind of over overseen by opposition MPs. Now, if you haven’t got many of those, you’re not going to get scrutiny of the government.

“And so there is a danger with a supermajority that means that they govern without any opposition at all, or any credible scrutiny of their policies.”

She added: “As we haven’t seen much of a plan from Keir Starmer about what he will do, there is a serious risk that taxes will go up.

“I know he said that Income Tax and VAT won’t go up, but he’d been very silent on fuel duty, on the tax thresholds, particularly for pensioners whose state pension will go above that, and Council Tax re-branding.

“So there’s real concern that if they bring in some of the policies they’re suggesting that there’s absolutely no scrutiny of those policies.”

Asked if the Tories have resorted to fear-mongering, she said: “I’m on the doorsteps each and every day for hours at a time and it’s not fear-mongering.

“People are genuinely worried about having a Labour government that, particularly on taxation, is not being clear how they will raise the money to pay for the things they say they want to do in their manifesto…

“We are selling a positive message, we are turning a corner as a country. NHS waiting lists are down six months in a row, 200,000 people have come off those waiting lists since January.

“We’ve opened up over 100 rapid diagnostic centres, 100 surgical hubs, more nurses than ever before, over 70,000 extra nurses, there’s really positive news.

“Often the media don’t want to hear that but perhaps we’ve not been as good at rolling the pitch as we should have been, but there is a real positive message to be sold.”