How Stormy Start Led To 6 Weeks Of Stunts, Shocks And Slip-Ups

PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak opened the floodgates on yesterday's poll during a downpour in Downing Street - and soon found his campaign was a damp squib.

- Giles Sheldrick

He revealed the date in a rain-soaked speech, as Labour's 1997 election anthem Things Can Only Get Better blared from a nearby street just as things could only get wetter for the hapless Tory leader.

It was his first misstep in the tricky bid to pull off a record-breaking fifth election win for the Tories while Labour tried to put clear blue water between it and the governing party after 2019's embarrassing drubbing.

And Mr Sunak, who posed at the stumps in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was already on a sticky wicket long before the announcement was made.

His campaign briefly sparked during increasingly tetchy exchanges between Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during TV debates in which they clashed on the NHS, tax rises and immigration.

But when Nigel Farage threw his hat into the ring, announcing he would stand as leader of Reform UK, the PM knew he was going to have to bat away some serious competition for Right-wing voters. Having initially said the timing of the election was too short to mount a serious push for Parliament, Mr Farage swiftly changed his mind and stood in Clacton.