Sir Keir Starmer has warned Labour MPs that Rishi Sunak could still call a surprise general election in the spring.
The Labour leader told his troops to get ready to campaign within months, despite Mr Sunak saying he wanted to go to the polls later in the year.
It comes Labour increased its mammoth poll lead – with the latest YouGov survey putting Sir Keir’s party on more than double the support of the Conservatives.
Speaking to his MPs at the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday night, Sir Keir also warned of a potentially dirty election campaign – having vowed to fight “fight with fire”.
Sir Keir said: “In their desperation, they will attempt anything. We will be prepared for any eventuality, ready to take them on whenever they find the courage to give the public a say.”
The Labour leader also said Mr Sunak’s party would “unleash a gauntlet of fear and doubt” – arguing that Tories know that “belief that things can be better” is their biggest threat.
Sir Keir also made a joke about Mr Sunak’s meetings with former No 10 strategist Dominic Cummings, according to The Sun.
“We’ve even learned he is trying to get the old gang back together by getting Dominic Cummings involved,” he said. “Sadly for Sunak, Cummings’ eyesight seems to have improved enough that he can spot a car crash when it’s presented to him and he turned them down.”
Mr Sunak raised the prospect of a lengthy and bitter campaign when he said last week that it was his “working assumption” that he would call the election in the second half of the year.
Labour enjoy a 5-point poll bounce, increases its lead over the Tories to 24 points lead, according to new YouGov polling. Sir Keir’s party is on 46 per cent – more than double the level of support for Mr Sunak’s party on 22 per cent.
Sir Keir has a big lead over Mr Sunak on the question who will make the best PM with 30 per cent support to 18 per cent.
Meanwhile, Labour will table a vote in parliament on Tuesday calling for the release of documents relating to the Mr Sunak’s Rwanda deportation policy.
The vote – which will be part of a humble address on the opposition day debate in the Commons – will ask for any documents that show the cost of relocating each individual asylum seeker to Rwanda, as well as a list of all payments made or scheduled to be made to the country’s government.
It will also ask for the government’s internal breakdown of the more than 35,000 asylum decisions made last year and an unredacted copy of the confidential memorandum of understanding ministers reached with the East African country.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government’s refusal to “come clean” on the cost of the Rwanda scheme is “totally unacceptable”.
It comes after the BBC said it has seen No 10 papers from March 2022, a month before the Rwanda plan was announced by then prime minister Boris Johnson, which showed that Mr Sunak had doubts over the impact of deporting migrants to Kigali.
Rishi Sunak under pressure to release Rwanda plan documents
