BBC Verify Examines Election Claims on Taxes, NHS, and Immigration

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer debated taxes, the NHS, and migration in their first election debate. Sunak claimed Labour policies would add two-thousand pounds in taxes per family, a figure experts questioned. Starmer said Conservatives aim to abolish National Insurance, costing forty-six billion pounds, but Sunak clarified it as a long-term goal.

During their first televised election debate, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer exchanged claims about taxes, the NHS, and small boat crossings.

BBC Verify scrutinized these statements.

Sunak stated that Labour's policies would result in an additional two-thousand pounds per family in taxes, a figure based on assumptions that civil servants questioned.

Starmer countered by accusing the Conservatives of planning to abolish National Insurance at a cost of forty-six billion pounds, but Sunak clarified it was a long-term goal.

On taxes, Sunak claimed cuts while Starmer pointed out they are at a seventy-year high as a proportion of GDP due to frozen thresholds.

Starmer noted NHS waiting lists are higher now than when Sunak pledged to reduce them.

Sunak stated small boat crossings fell by a third last year, but the reduction was actually about a quarter.