DAILY MAIL COMMENT: At last, Rishi takes the fight to Labour

After a painful spell on the ropes absorbing blows from Labour while simultaneously fending off bizarre mini scandals within his party, Rishi Sunak is finally throwing some punches.

To the Lords, human rights lawyers and opposition MPs still trying to stall his Rwanda Bill, he gave this defiant message: 'No ifs, no buts, these flights are going.'

It was clear he'd done his homework. An airfield selected, carriers and time slots booked, detention and court facilities expanded and 800 security personnel recruited. After so much obstruction he is confident 'multiple flights per week' will be airborne before the end of July.

The PM's ebullience on Rwanda follows an equally pugnacious performance last week when launching a campaign to curb 'sick-note Britain'.

And with inflation falling fast, the brief technical recession over almost before it began and the FTSE hitting an all-time high yesterday, there is a definite hint of fresh momentum.

Meanwhile, what Labour would do in office remains a closed book. They have no answer to stopping the boats yet attack the Rwanda policy.

On the economy they have nothing to offer but class-war taxes on private schools and non-doms, and instead of trying to curb public sector strikes they plan to make it easier for unions to bring Britain to a halt.

All the polls suggest the country doesn't really want Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner (herself mired in sleaze allegations). However, simply not being Conservatives has been enough to give them a 20-point lead.

Psephological guru Sir John Curtice believes Labour are '99 per cent certain' to win the election. In recent days Mr Sunak has shown the fight needed to prove him wrong. The imperative now is to keep slugging and not throw in the towel.

Legacy of Lockdown

With the passage of time, the devastating effects of Covid lockdown become ever more starkly apparent.

Another grim legacy emerged yesterday, with figures showing alcohol-related deaths jumped by a third between the start of the pandemic and the end of 2022.

It isn't hard to imagine why. Under virtual house arrest, listless, sometimes lonely, those with a tendency to drink heavily inevitably took even more to the bottle.

Yesterday's tragic numbers are emblematic of the disastrous impact of locking down so hard for so long on health, education, the economy and so much else.

More than 120,000 children disappearing from school registers, NHS waiting times at stratospheric highs, national debt up to an eye-watering £2.65 trillion.

In almost every way, Britain's lockdown frenzy was calamitous. Boris Johnson's instinct was to try to keep Britain at least partially open. Sadly, he was beaten into submission by the political, scientific, and medical establishment.

The Covid Inquiry was supposed to help us learn from our mistakes. Sadly, it's turning into a monstrously expensive farce.

Costing £60million already (mainly in fat-cat lawyers' fees), it seems interested only in blaming the Government for not locking down sooner and harder.

Sweden didn't lock down at all, yet its excess death rate was among the lowest in the world and its economy undamaged.

Instead of obsessing about Partygate and listening to scientists with 20-20 hindsight, the inquiry should be asking how the Swedes got the Covid balance so right, when we got it so hideously wrong.