The Shadow Business Secretary has accused the Prime Minister of “huge hypocrisy” following claims he failed to declare gifts of clothing to his wife from a Labour Party donor.
Kevin Hollinrake told GB News: “We’ve made mistakes, no doubt about it, in the past, but the huge hypocrisy…Keir Starmer stands up in the House of Commons, says ‘oh, my God, Boris Johnson is a few days late with his declaration of interests.
“This is 72 days late…that’s rank hypocrisy from Labour. We’re here to hold the Government to account. Yes, we made mistakes in office. We deserved to lose the last election.
“We don't deserve a Labour government that is making decisions, both in terms of things like conflicts of interest, but also in terms of winter fuel payments, which is absolutely disgraceful policy.
“We'll see hundreds of thousands of people in poverty having their support withdrawn this winter.”
In a discussion with Camilla Tominey, he was asked if the Conservatives had lost its reputation as being the party of business: “That's a complete nonsense…£500 billion of support for businesses and households going through that Covid crisis and cost of living crisis.
“500,000 businesses were predicted to go under. That's what we provided whilst in office.
“You ask businesses today whether they prefer a Conservative government or a Labour government that's going to completely revolutionise the workplace, not in a good way - 60% of firms now think the UK has become, is going to become, a less attractive place to invest.
“The potential tax changes they're going to bring in, which might have very devastating consequences for businesses, every businessperson I speak to is incredibly nervous about the Labour government and would I think would welcome a Conservative government back in power.”
He also defended Rishi Sunak’s decision to call an early General Election: “Well, the easiest job in the world is to stand on the sidelines and criticise, isn't it?
“Rishi made the judgment of the best of intentions. Lots of you will say we should have gone later. He thought that was the best time to go. I've got the highest regard for Rishi.
“I think when he took over, and I was very close to him, when he took over back in 2022, he knew it was an almost impossible task to turn our fortunes around in what would have been a maximum of two years...
“He didn’t take that job because he thought he had a good chance of winning the next election, he did it because he wanted to serve the British people, and I have massive respect for him for doing that.”
