Episode description

Devastating polling, the return of Nigel Farage and more talk of defections - it was almost looking like a truly nightmarish week for Rishi Sunak, but then came the TV leaders debate with Keir Starmer and the Conservative’s claim that a Labour government will raise taxes by £2,000 per household.

Keir Starmer failed to effectively deny the Conservative attack line until the second half of the debate and called it a lie. 

Today, Labour are again saying it is a lie and the Treasury have distanced themselves from it - but, perhaps, as the old saying goes, a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has got its shoes on.   

Two weeks into the election campaign, are we entering a new dirtier phase to this campaign? 

Joining me in the Fourcast studio, Labour's shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry, the Conservative's Home Office Minister Chris Philp, and pollster Luke Tryl from More in Common.   

Produced by Shaheen Sattar, Calum Fraser, Rob Thomson, Nick Jackson and Silvia Maresca