And they're off Fired-up leaders hit campaign trail

Far from the bedraggled figure who announced an election outside No 10, Rishi Sunak positively bounced into a biscuit factory for his first stump speech of the election campaign.

- Rowena Mason

The prime minister had given a tetchy performance on the broadcast round yesterday morning, bristling at those challenging his economic record and failure to carry out his Rwanda plan. But he had a spring in his step as he approached a large audience, most wearing hi-vis vests, to set out his stall in the marginal seat of Erewash in Derbyshire.

"I got our country through Covid, and that's because I was prepared to do some bold things and I was prepared to do some difficult things," he told the crowd, stressing his own record rather than that of the Conservatives.

Sunak may have been feeling extra confident because of the number of friendly faces in the audience. "Who's got some hands up? Brilliant, let's go!" he chirped.

Answering the questions, he gave a series of mini-lectures on his favoured topics - getting the Rwanda scheme off the ground to prevent "queue jumpers", slowing down the pace of reaching net zero emissions, and how he had brought down inflation. He then answered a query on how he likes to relax at times of stress, with a lengthy aside on why it is necessary to toughen disability benefits for people with mental health conditions.

Only later did it emerge that at least two of the questions had come from Conservative councillors, nestled among the warehouse workers wearing company-branded fluorescent jackets.