independent treasury officials have costed labour s policies and they amount to a £2000 tax rights for working family. it looks like now the chief treasury civil servant actually wrote to labour at two days ago saying the conservative assessment of their tax plan should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service. the debate sought the labour leader sir keir starmer challenged over hospital waiting lists among other things. with a rant out of the highlights from that debate, this is our political correspondent ian watson. the first debate of the campaign was a head to head clash between the prime minister and the man who wanted to replace him. if you re still wondering about the key messages they want to hammer home at this election, wonder no longer. this election is all about a choice more of the chaos and division we ve seen for the last 14 years, or turning the page and rebuilding with labour. no one knows what labour would actually do. but you know
has been promised a rebuild for many years but we have not seen that start in earnest. the maternity services have also been given inadequate rating so the nhs is bound to be a big issue for voters as they cast their votes. the cost of living, another one, like many other places in the country. but specifically in taunton and wellington, perhaps that vote that we are picturing goes wild swimming in the river on the weekend. the water quality, the pollution and the possibility of sewage being in that water is going to be really important to them. that is another issue voters will be considering. interestingly, the local river has been given bathing water status, so the wild swimmers will be glad to hear that. and another issue i am always talking to people about is transport, getting around. lots of people like to complain to me about potholes, about bus services, but they are also happy that wellington is going to be getting a new train station and that should be up and
there is another system which means every member between the opposition and the ruling party can be paid up so if someone is not available, a member of the opposition would not vote, but the leader of the welsh conservatives have made it clear they will not be appearing in this circumstance. as you mentioned, the vote is not binding, but during a general election campaign, this is another huge dent to the confidence in the first minister and it is not a great look during this time. thank ou. within the wider general election, it s the battleground seats where the fiercest campaigning is taking place. we re focussing on two of those constituencies today. in somerset, we are looking at a battleground between the conservative party and the liberal democrats in taunton and wellington. and in birmingham, we will be discussing the key issues at play in the central constituency of birmingham ladywood. joining me now, from taunton, is bbc radio somerset s ruth bradley. and from the mailbox, in
reporter, simon gilbert. thank you forjoining us. let me ask you, what is it that makes this constituency so on a knife edge? well, welcome to somerset and specifically the taunton and wellington constituency. i want you to imagine you are a voter in taunton and wellington and some of those knife edge issues that are at play, as you said. perhaps you work in the public sector, as lots of people here do. you might work for the local council or the uk hydrographic office, part of the ministry of defence, or perhaps you work in the nhs, and those are going to inform the biggest issues for you as you go to vote in this election. the nhs is bound to be one for the electorate here. we have got the biggest hospital in taunton, the biggest hospital in taunton, the biggest hospital in somerset. that
coastline, secret number one is we are also a hive of industry. just up the coastline we have got europe s biggest building site, the hinkley point c nuclear power station, that is being built, thousands of workers employed there and living in the local area, so that is going to be a factor influencing this election. and up the m5 motorway, we have what is going to be britain s biggest diggerfactory, a £4 billion plant, which will produce electric car batteries. that is going to employ 4000 people. we are a hive of industry. the second secret i want to let you in on is that somerset is a county that likes to party. we have got the glastonbury festival in a couple of weeks time, in the autumn we have the world famous bridgwater illuminated carnival, and in this park in the summer, they will be a series of big gigs, and conveniently, for political points, two bands playing are going to be status quo and the boy band busted,