it does feel for you, doesn't it, rather like it's not stopped raining since the day you walked out of downing street to announce this election? well, what i'd say is, i've been out and about every day since this election campaign started, talking to people about the choice, as you said, at this election, because it's an important moment for our country. we've been through a tough few years and i do believe, at this point, we have turned a corner and now is the chance for us to build on the progress that we've made. and i want to deliver a more secure future for everyone in our country, and i believe i'm the right person to do that. because we've got a plan that is clearly working on the economy — although, of course, there's more to go — and i'm prepared to take the bold action that's necessary to do that. and that's what i'm energised to talk to people about. we'll talk about the plan, we'll talk about the policy. first of all, though, and you know that this is what people are talking about, i want you to look at a photograph. i want you to look at this photograph. the president of the united states, the chancellor of germany, the president of france and, for the united kingdom... your predecessor, david cameron, the foreign secretary. how do you feel when you look at that photo of d—day at omaha beach? well, the last thing that i wanted to do was cause anyone any hurt or offence or upset, which is why i apologised unreservedly for the mistake that i made. and i can only ask that i hope people can find it within their hearts to forgive me and also look at my actions as prime minister to increase investment in our armed forces, to support our armed forces, but also to ensure that veterans have a minister sitting around the cabinet table with unprecedented support to make this the best country in the world to be a veteran as a demonstration about how deeply i care about this community and what they've done for our country. you said it was a mistake and you've apologised. and then a few days later, you went further and said, as you just have, that you hope people can forgive you. do you understand that for quite a lot of people watching, i think, they simply think that the basic duty of the prime minister, the duty was for you to be in that photograph and not david cameron? well, that's why i've apologised unreservedly for the mistake and i hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me. my duty is also to make sure that this is a country which looks after our veterans, which is why i'm proud that there is a veterans minister sitting around the cabinet table, dedicated... nigel farage has said... ..for veterans affairs, with more support for our veterans, because i care very deeply about their well—being and making sure that we repay to them the debt of gratitude we owe for everything that they've done for our country. people have heard what you've said, and you've said it a couple of times. nigel farage has said he thinks you don't understand, you don't about what he called "our culture". he called it "our history". he even said that you were not basically patriotic. are you playing with fire by bringing your heritage into this argument? well, nigel farage can answer exactly what he meant by those comments. i'm not going to get involved in that because i don't think it's good for our country or good for our politics. now, obviously, i disagree with him, and when it comes specifically to our armed forces, again, people can judge me by my actions. i'm someone who... it's not about the armed forces. it's about you and your relationship with him. and it's clear you don't want to talk very much about him. you want to talk, and we will, about the choice between you and keir starmer. the problem is that nigel farage has destroyed david cameron's premiership, he helped bring down theresa may, and he's now coming for you. isn't yur problem that many conservatives think he's more of a conservative than you are? well, at the end of the dayjuly 5th, there is only going to be one person that's prime minister. it's keir starmer... but i'm asking about nigel farage. well, and i'm answering your question. so the choice for everybody, there is only going to be one of two people as prime minister, keir starmer or myself. a vote for anyone who is not a conservative candidate is just making it more likely that keir starmer is that person. so if you are someone, you say, you know, what makes a conservative? if you're someone who wants lower taxes, if you want your pension protected, if you want migration reduced, if you want a sensible approach to net zero, the prioritising of our security and reducing people's bills, that's what i will offer you this election... you won't talk about nigel farage at all? you see, a lot of people looking at him and you, they think he's conservative. he's a kind of sunday roast, with all the trimmings, and you're a quinoa salad. well, i think the policies are what matters. the substance is what matters, nick. i know we're going to get into it, but you're asking me about personalities. i'm asking you about nigel farage. and people will know you don't want to talk about him. so let's talk about policy, if you don't want to talk about him. no, no, no. it's not that i'm not willing, i'm willing to talk about everything here. but the simple issue here is a vote for anyone else, including nigel farage�*s party, and i would make the same point about anyone�*s party, right? it's ultimately a vote that makes it more likely that keir starmer is in power. and you said to me, well, are you a conservative enough? well, here is what we are offering. lower taxes, protected pensions, increasing defence spending, a more sensible approach to net zero and a clear plan to both stop the boats and bring down the levels of migration. that is what i'm talking to country about. well, let's talk about it now for people. let's talk about it now. now, let's talk about policy, promises, plans. people, you once said, "don't want politicians who promise the earth and then failed to deliver". so i want to take you through some of your promises. you promised when you became prime minister to cut nhs waiting lists. have they gone up or down since you made that pledge? i've been very clear, we have not made as much progress on nhs waiting lists as i would have liked. they have risen. they've gone up? yes. they are now coming down. and after we got through the industrial action and resolved it with all parts of the nhs workforce except the junior doctors, what you have seen over the past few months is now the waiting lists have started to fall by about 200,000 over the past few months. and if we stick to that plan, we can make more progress. isn't the problem with that argument, though, waiting lists having just gone up under rishi sunak, they went up under liz truss, they went up under borisjohnson, they went up under theresa may, they went up under david cameron? conservative prime ministers, for 14 years — long before covid, long before strikes — have put nhs waiting lists up. well the nhs has undeniably been under pressure for a while, and that was exacerbated by what happened in the pandemic. i think most people can see that. i think most reasonable people can see that. but this election is about the future. it's, where do we go from here? and as i said, we are investing record sums in the nhs, recruiting and training more doctors and nurses and doing things in more inovatively, for example, expanding the range of services that people can go and see their pharmacists for. and i'm the son of a pharmacist and a gp, so it's something i grew up with. and what we're saying is that if you've got a sore throat or any infection now, you don't need to get a gp appointment for you or your kids, you can go straight to your pharmacist and get the medicines that you need. that's an example of making care faster for people and it will make a difference. now, of course people take time to recoverfrom the pandemic, but we now are on the right track. i think the worry people have when they look at that record is they think it's all right for conservative leaders. what they can do is go private, pay and skip the queue. well, i come from an nhs family, so my dad was a gp, my mum was a pharmacist. you use private health care. i was surrounded... yes, i have done in the past. but i also use the nhs and rely on the nhs, as do my kids. but at the end of the day, i was raised in an nhs family. surrounded by people who dedicated their lives to the nhs. talking at home about what more they could do to look after their patients. and that's how i think about the nhs today, which is why, as i said, we are backing it with record funding and more doctors and nurses. and now, as you can see, we are bringing the waiting list down, after what has been a difficult period. forgive me for interrupting you. we have got a lot to get through in our half hour or so. you want to talk about immigration, you said you did at the beginning. and you promised to control our borders. but the number of people arriving here legally, under the new immigration rules, introduced after brexit, and you campaigned vigorously for brexit, reached a record high. last year, 685,000 extra people came here. that's twice the population of coventry. you didn't control our borders, did you? no, the numbers are too high, i've been very clear about that. but people can judge me as well on what i've done is prime minister. on what i've done as prime minister. where i put in place the biggest, strictest reforms to bring down immigration that we've seen. what the forecasts now show is that the levels of net migration are due to halve over the next 12 months or so. the number of viasa that we issued at the beginning of this year is down already by a quarter, so that shows we are now on the right track. and if i'm re—elected, what we will introduce is a legal cap on migration that parliamentarians will vote on every year, so that notjust where we halve the levels of net migration, we will continue to reduce them year on year. here's the problem... and that's the choice at this election. rishi sunak says, i promise to control immigration. i haven't done it yet, but i promise i will. but every single prime minister for 14 years under the conservatives said they would reduce immigration. david cameron didn't do it. theresa may didn't do it. borisjohnson didn't do it. liz truss didn't. and now, rishi sunak didn't do it. that's not quite right, what you said. actually, we've just had the numbers for last last year, so the first full year that i was prime minister. it showed that net migration was down 10% from the levels that i inherited. and this year so far, the number of visas that we've issued in the main categories is down by a quarter because of the reforms that i brought in. massively higher than the promise that was originally made by the conservatives. well, your point to me was that i hadn't done anything about it. that's not right. i've instituted reforms that last year meant the numbers were down by 10%, as we've seen. but this year, the number of visas issued are down by a quarter. the forecasts are now four net migration to halve. and again, yes, that's the past. this election�*s about the future. i've got a clear plan, with a legal migration cap to guarantee that the numbers continue falling. labour have not matched that. they don't have any plan to bring the numbers down and, indeed, oppose the measures that i've already taken. and that's the choice facing people on migration at this election. it's a choice that depends on people giving you more time to deliver what you're saying. you promised you'd stop the boats. so far this year, more than 11,000 people have crossed the channel, a record high. you've not stopped the boats. why do you deserve more time to try to do it? because from the first time that the small boats became a phenomenon a few years ago, we got the numbers down last year by a third. that had never happened before. everyone when i got this job said to me, you won't be able to do anything about this problem. well, because of our plan, we've got the numbers down by a third last year. and now they're going back up again. we have a record number this year. but if we stick to our plan, we will continue to bring them down. why? because if i'm re—elected as prime minister, we will get flights off to rwanda and establish a deterrent. so very simply, my view, illegal migration is unfair and the only way to fully solve this problem is for people to know that if they come to our country illegally, they won't be able to stay. and that means we have to have somewhere safe to return them. and if i'm prime minister, the flights will go, the deterrent will be built. but why not wait, prime minister? you say the flights will go to rwanda. you say they'll go in just a few weeks�* time. you had the opportunity to prove it. you could have said to everybody, here are the flights, people have gone to rwanda. here is the deterrent, the numbers are falling. you didn't, you cut and run, you had the election before, and now we have to take it on trust. well, no, because as i said, we got the numbers down by a third last year. that had never happened before. how many people have gone to rwanda in the three years since you announced you would do this? because it's taken time to get this through parliament because we've been frustrated. and this election is about the future and there is a clear choice, nick. right? if you believe, like i do, the only way to solve this problem is to have a deterrent, we are the only party that can deliver that for you. and again, the labour party have no answer. at the debate the other week, i asked keir starmer, what would the labour party do with migrants who come to our country illegally? time after time, he couldn't answer the question. now, i have a plan. people may not all agree with it, but it is a clear plan that, by the way, almost 20 other european countries now agree is the right approach to dealing with this problem. if you'll forgive me, when you say you got a plan... that deterrent will be made. ..you sound to me like a guy in a pub who borrows 50 quid, he borrowed it three years ago and he keeps saying, don't worry, i'll pay you back. and then when you confront him in the pub, he says, "i'll pay you tomorrow". you wouldn't believe him, would you? constantly promising what you will do, but what you haven't done so far. we've got the numbers down by a third last year. that had never happened before. never, ever. the numbers havejust gone up and up and up until i became prime minister. the numbers were down by a third last year, so people can trust me. we've got a plan. the airfield is on standby, the planes are books, the planes are booked, migrants have been detained, the caseworkers are working. and if i'm prime minister, the flights will go, we will build that deterrent and then that is how we will stop the boats. and again, there is no answer from the labour party as to what they will do with illegal migrants. that is the choice at this election. i will put that to sir keir starmer when he is in that chair. now, we've talked about your promises and we've heard that not all of them have delivered. now, ever since this election was called to commit we've had endless promises. i've got all your tory press releases here. a promise of national service. a couple of billion there. a promise for a tax cut for pensioners. a promise of a tax cut for parents. cut for pensioners. more apprenticeships, more police officers — endless promises of more and more money from the conservatives. have you found the magic money tree? no, every single one of those policies that you've just been through is fully funded and costed, as is explained in every single one of those press releases. as indeed when we set out our manifesto tomorrow, people will be able to see all the details behind it even further. add tomorrow, you'll promise more tax cuts? we will have a manifesto tomorrow that builds on all of the things that you've just gone through, that we've already announced in this campaign, that, yes, does continue to cut people's taxes because i believe in a country where people's hard work is rewarded. and there's a clear choice and contrast at this election — our party, the conservatives, are promising and will deliver tax cuts, building on the tax cuts that we have already started to deliver and have ruled out tax rises. that's not what the labour party are doing. they are being open that some taxes are going to go up but what they're not telling everyone is that there is a £2,000 tax bill waiting for working families across our country if they are elected and that is the choice. we will come to that disputed figure maybe in a second. you say that you're cutting taxes. you've got a bit of a nerve, haven't you? under rishi sunak, as chancellor and then prime minister, the total tax bill in this country has gone up by £93 billion a year. that's even more thanjeremy corbyn wanted to put on people. and as you and i have discussed many times, nick, what's happened in that period? we were hit by a once—in—a—century pandemic and then an energy crisis. the government rightly stepped in at both of those moments to provide an enormous amount of support to people, to families, with their energy bills, with furlough, the nhs. that was the right thing to do and, of course, it's difficult but right to make sure that we pay that back. and you're still paying it back. that's why the tax burden... income tax will still go up. can i continue, can i answer your question? year in, year out for the next few years. can ijust finish answering the question? so, the context is important. i'm not going to shy away from what happened. i did make those difficult decisions because that's right for the financial security of our country. but now, taxes are being cut. the average tax rate faced by a typical person in work is the lowest it has been in over half a century. so, yes, you're right about the overall tax burden. but for someone in work, an ordinary, average worker — today — they face the lowest average tax rate that they have faced in over half a century. taxes, prime minister, are going up... but we've already started, nick, with a £900 tax cut this year. income tax going up this year, income tax going up next year, income tax going up the next year. year after year after year, you are increasing the income tax. nick... people watching this programme, but you come in interviews and say, "i'm cutting your tax." nick, the facts are very clear and i'm sure your team will be able to provide them for you. right now, with all the changes, because there's lots of changes that go on in a system — right now, an average worker is facing the lowest tax rate on their earnings that they have seen in this country for over 50 years. you're talking about the tax rate, prime minister, which is very convenient for you because it's thresholds. no, no, that combines... it combines thresholds and the rate... forgive me... ..the effective tax rate taken together for an average worker today, combining thresholds and the rate, is the lowest it has been in over 50 years and when we've finished this interview, your team will be able to show you that. i will be able to show you it as well. i will tell you that someone on the minimum wage loses much more money from the change, from the freezing of income tax thresholds... nick, someone on the national living wage is this year seeing an £1,800 increase in their wages because of what this conservative government has done. the proportion of people on low pay in this country is the lowest it has been since the records began. let's just check a fact. so we have disproportionately made sure that those on the lowest