Rishi Sunak says furious election tax row shows 'desperate' Keir Starmer is 'very rattled' as PM doubles down on claim Labour will cost Brits extra £2,000

Rishi Sunak has claimed a furious general election row over tax shows Sir Keir Starmer is 'obviously very rattled'.

The Prime Minister accused Labour of 'pretty desperate stuff' after they said he was 'lying' about their party's fiscal plans.

In Tuesday night's first TV debate between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir, the PM made frequent reference to an analysis showing Labour would hike taxes by £2,094 per household.

His comments sparked fury from senior Labour figures as they hit out at the PM's 'lies'.

But Mr Sunak doubled down on the claims in a new ITV interview, as he dismissed claims the Tory attack was based on 'dubious' figures.

Speaking to ITV's Tonight, which he filmed after leaving D-Day commemorations early on Thursday, Mr Sunak denied he was willing to lie in order to stay in power.

Asked about Labour labelling him a 'liar' over the tax row, the PM replied: 'Yeah, I think it's pretty desperate stuff.

'And Keir Starmer and the Labour Party are obviously very rattled that we've exposed their plans to raise tax on people.

'And that's what it, that's what it demonstrates.'

Pressed about the accuracy of the Tory analysis of Labour's plans and whether he thought the £2,094 figure was a 'dubious' claim, Mr Sunak responded: 'No, I don't.

'I think people know that I'm across the detail when it comes to numbers.

'The Chancellor gave a press conference on this very topic almost a month ago where he laid out all the workings behind what we were saying.

'And I'm happy to go through it.'

During Tuesday night's debate, Mr Sunak claimed 'independent Treasury officials' had costed Labour's policies 'and they amount to a £2,000 rise for everyone'.

But it later emerged the Treasury's permanent secretary James Bowler said ministers had been told not to suggest civil servants produced the figure.

Some of the estimates in the document have been carried out by civil servants at the Treasury, using assumptions provided by politically appointed special advisers.

Mr Bowler said the headline figure used by the Tories should not be attributed to impartial civil servants.

But Mr Sunak insisted 'the analysis and the working is done by Treasury officials'.

He told ITV: 'I can tell you exactly, I'm happy to go through it with you. There are 27 different policies that go into this number - 21 of them have been costed independently by Treasury officials.

'They're all online and people can find them. Two of them come direct from the Labour Party, three of them from other public government sources.

'And one of them is from an independent investment bank. That's where all the workings come from.' 

The PM added: 'It's all transparent. It's all laid out online.'

In a letter to Labour's shadow Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones, Mr Bowler said the £38.5billion total for Labour policies in the Tory document 'includes costs beyond those provided by the civil service'.

'Costings derived from other sources or produced by other organisations should not be presented as having been produced by the Civil Service,' he said in a letter to Mr Jones on June 3.

'I have reminded ministers and advisers that this should be the case.'