Starmer may have won day 1, but Rishi claimed day 2 victory thanks to Farage standing back – watch Reform’s numbers dive

BARELY a week ago, Rishi Sunak assured Sun columnist Jane Moore and her fellow Loose Women we were safe to book our summer holidays.

Hapless Tory MP Matt Warman was yesterday cleared by Downing Street to dismiss rumours of an early election.

Hours later, a rain-sodden PM startled the nation — including his own Cabinet and Tory MPs — by asking the King for a snap general election on July 4.

The only upside about going so early is that the downside of hanging on is so bleak.

How will that go down with millions of footie-mad punters as wall-to-wall Euros coverage is interrupted by political hustlers ringing their doorbells?

Sure, inflation — 11.1 per cent in October 2022 — plunged this week to 2.3 per cent, the lowest for three years, with more falls to come.

Interest rates and mortgage costs will follow suit.

UK growth is outpacing our European rivals.

But we will not see planeloads of illegal migrants flying to Rwanda.

Indeed boatloads are setting new records.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is an average 21 points ahead in the polls.

Reform has grabbed Tory votes.

The Greens and SNP will refuse to do business with Rishi, even if he scores a hung parliament.

There is one slender hope.

Voters who must now choose where to place their X on the ballot paper in challenging times might finally begin to scrutinise Starmer and his promises.

If so, some who have vowed never to vote Tory again might feel queasy about putting ­Labour in power.

Labour stalwarts admit there is no love for Starmer or his party, no manifesto and no plan for the economy.

Labour will be soft on immigration, ditching the Rwanda plan just as it takes off and dishing out visas to tens of thousands of illegals already here.

These are the battlefields for wavering votes over the next six weeks.

Polling guru Sir John Curtice last night hailed Rishi’s snap poll as “either very brave or very foolhardy”.

“We will discover in the early hours of July 5 which is correct,” he said.