TORY Penny Mordaunt went nuclear on Labour’s Angela Rayner during last night’s debate between key players from Britain’s biggest political parties.
She started on the defence when she admitted that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been “completely wrong” to leave the D-Day commemorations in France early.
But she went on the attack again by criticising Ms Rayner’s flip-flopping on Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
Labour’s deputy leader voted against renewing our vital Trident submarines in 2016 — but last night she claimed she now backs them.
The seven-way debate on the BBC immediately exploded into a row about defence of the realm, with Leader of the House of Commons
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Ms Mordaunt attacking Ms Rayner for putting Britain in danger.
In an opening battering, she said: “Imagine what Putin is thinking. Without credibility, we become a target. If we become a target, you are less safe. It’s too late for this generation of Labour politicians, that credibility is shot. Do not vote these people in.”
Ms Rayner hit back: “You’ve just said we need a strong economy but you backed Liz Truss, who crashed our economy.”
Ms Mordaunt said: “Even Liz Truss, on her worst day, still recognised we needed a nuclear deterrent in this country.”
Ms Rayner meekly insisted “So do I”, but it was clear first blood had gone to the Tories.
The BBC tried to make the first 15 minutes of the debate about the row over the PM flying home early from D-Day.
And Ms Mordaunt, a former Defence Secretary and honorary captain of the Royal Navy reserves, did not avoid criticising her boss.
She said: “What happened was completely wrong and the Prime Minister has rightly apologised for that, apologised to veterans but also to all of us, because he was representing all of us.
“But what I also think is important is we honour their legacy — they fought for our freedom, and unless we are spending the right amount on defence we can’t honour that legacy.”
The debate also included the Lib Dems’ deputy leader Daisy Cooper, Stephen Flynn from the Scottish National Party, leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, and Green Party leader Carla Denyer.
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Mr Farage accused the PM of “deserting” veterans on Thursday as well as attacking what he called a “catastrophic recruitment” record in the Armed Forces.
Ms Cooper said Mr Sunak’s decision was “unforgivable”.
But Ms Mordaunt wrangled the debate back to Ms Rayner for voting to abolish Trident in 2016 under former leader Jeremy Corbyn before it quickly moved on to the NHS.
On reducing waiting lists, Ms Mordaunt said: “There are many things we need to do, but there are two really important things.
“We have to keep the budget strong. We need a strong economy.
“Labour’s plans to tax your future pension, senior nurses and doctors, is going to get healthcare professionals to leave the service. That is going to lead to more waiting lists.”
Ms Rayner responded: “Penny, that’s rubbish and you’ve just said we need a strong economy — you backed Liz Truss and crashed our economy.
“We will never go fast and loose with public finances because it’s working people that pay the price for that. The Tories should never be allowed to forget that it’s because they crashed the economy.”
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn received the first audience applause of the night after he said medical students in an SNP- controlled Scotland would not have to pay tuition fees.
Imagine what Putin is thinking. Without credibility, we become a target. If we become a target, you are less safe. It’s too late for this generation of Labour politicians, that credibility is shot. Do not vote these people in
Penny Mordaunt
Mr Farage stepped up his attacks as the debate moved on to immigration.
He accused former Labour PM Tony Blair of “opening the doors”, with the Tories following the broken open borders policy.
He said “we are living through a population crisis” pointing to “an increase of ten million people since Mr Blair came to power, and frankly, it’s making us poorer”.
He warned: “It is diminishing our quality of life, and it’s nothing to do with race or any of those issues. It’s to do with actually putting the interests of our communities first.”
Mr Farage added: “We need to get net migration — and that means, by the way, people come and people go — we need to get net migration down to an even figure then we can hope to catch up with housing, with health and many of those things.”
Ms Mordaunt agreed that immigration is too high and said that the choice at the election was “controlled numbers and a cap under us or uncontrolled numbers under Labour”.
She added: “Keir Starmer spent most of his life campaigning for free movement. These people do not want to control migration.”
Sparks also flew between Ms Rayner and Ms Mordaunt as they continued to scrap over the contested £2,000 figure on Labour tax rises.
Sir Keir has accused Mr Sunak of lying about how the sum was calculated, but the Tories have doubled down with their warning.
Ms Mordaunt told the audience: “Angela Rayner’s party — as Keir Starmer confirmed this earlier this week — they are going to put up your taxes by £2,000 per working household.”
Ms Rayner replied: “That is a lie” — adding that the Government has raised taxes to a “record level”.
The pair then began to shout over each other before BBC presenter Mishal Husain cut them off.
Eventually, Green Party co-leader Ms Denyer managed to interrupt, to joke: “That was terribly dignified, wasn’t it?”
Mr Farage also scored a round of applause when he joined in the attacks on the Conservatives’ record on tax.
He said: “Even during Tony Blair’s time, the top rate of tax was 40p and about one and a half million people paid that.
“By the end of 2027, eight million people will be paying 40p tax, dragging more and more people doing middle- income jobs into higher and higher taxation.”
He went on: “To hear Penny Mordaunt, whose government have put the tax burden up to the highest level since 1948, pretending they’re a tax-cutting party, is dishonesty on a breathtaking scale.”
