Sir Keir Starmer hit back at accusations he lacked the energy for the General Election campaign, saying he had been smiling since the start of the year at the prospect of the vote.

Conservatives claimed on Sunday the Labour leader does not have the "stamina" to campaign, saying he had been "resting at home", although pictures later emerged of Sir Keir meeting voters in Brighton.

Speaking at a campaign event in Lancing, West Sussex, on Monday, Sir Keir dismissed the claims as "desperate".

He said: "I've had a smile on my face since January 1 2024 because I knew this was going to be an election year.

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"I've wasted nine years of my life in opposition. I've worked four-and-a-half years to change this Labour Party, and now I've got the chance to take that to the country.

"So we're doing that not only with energy, but with a smile, with positivity across all of our candidates as we go into this election."

In seeking to make 61-year-old Sir Keir's age an issue, Conservative strategists have appeared to emulate US presidential candidate Donald Trump's attacks on 81-year-old president Joe Biden.

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Mr Trump has repeatedly characterised his opponent as "Sleepy Joe", while one Tory aide has reportedly described Sir Keir as "Sir Sleepy", in contrast to the younger Rishi Sunak.

On the same theme, Tory chairman Richard Holden described Sir Keir's speech on Monday as "wearisome and rambling".

But Mr Sunak distanced himself from the Tory attacks on Sir Keir's age.

The 44-year-old Prime Minister said "the substance is what matters" following the comments about his rival.

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Mr Sunak told reporters: "I'm interested in getting out and about across the country.

"We're a few days into this, we've been in the East Midlands, the West Midlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, here in the South East today, talking to people - parents - about the future.
"The substance is what matters at this election, it's a choice about the future."

He added: "When it comes to Keir Starmer, that's the choice that's on offer - no ideas, no plan and you don't deliver a better future, you don't deliver any change, without those things."

Speaking earlier Sir Keir Starmer has said the General Election amounted to a choice about "whose side are you on" as he promised to stand up for working people and restore trust in British politics.

The Labour leader said 14 years of Conservative "chaos" had led to a "crisis" in the national culture.

In his first major speech of the campaign, he sought to persuade voters that he could be trusted to deliver economic stability and protect national security.

Speaking in Tory-held Lancing, West Sussex, he said: "Elections are about more than individual changes and policies, but about values, temperament, character and a bigger question: whose side are you on?

"Who do you hold in your mind's eye when you are making decisions?

"Everything I have fought for has been shaped by my life, every change I have made to this party has been about a cause, the answer to that question, the only answer: The working people of this country delivering on their aspirations, earning their respect, serving their interests."

Sir Keir acknowledged that despite Labour's commanding opinion poll lead, many voters were not fully persuaded about his party.

"I know there are countless people who haven't decided how they'll vote in this election. They're fed-up with the failure, chaos and division of the Tories, but they still have questions about us: has Labour changed enough? Do I trust them with my money, our borders, our security?

"My answer is yes, you can, because I have changed this party, permanently."

In an attack on the Tory record, he said: "For a long time now, working people have believed opportunity in Britain is stacked against them.

"But now we are at a dangerous new point, close to crossing a Rubicon of trust, not just in politics but in many of the institutions that are meant to serve and protect the British people.

"A moment where people no longer believe their values or interests carry the respect of those in power.

"When you put that alongside a Government that over 14 years has left living standards in this country worse than when they found them, that has torched any semblance of standards in public life, Westminster parties that broke the rules they put in place to save lives and rules they expected you to follow but ignored themselves, then you get a crisis in nothing less than who we are as a nation."

Sir Keir dismissed Mr  Sunak's plan for a new form of compulsory national service as a "teenage Dad's Army".

He said the policy would be "paid for by cancelling levelling-up funding and money from tax avoidance that we would use to invest in our NHS".

"All elections are a choice and this is a clear one: levelling-up and the NHS with Labour or more desperate chaos with the Tories."

Mr Sunak responded to the speech by saying: "Our country needs bold action, not waffle."

But Conservative ministers continued to come under pressure to give details about Mr Sunak's national service scheme.

Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan did not rule out the possibility of parents facing prosecution if their adult children refused to take part in the scheme.

Asked on Times Radio whether parents would face prosecution if their - legally adult - 18-year-olds refuse to sign up for the military or volunteering activity, she said: "I'm not going to write the detailed policy now. That's what a royal commission programme of works will be for."

The £2.5 billion policy is not expected to be fully implemented until 2028-29 if the Tories win the election.

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker has said the national service plan was "sprung" upon Tory candidates.

Writing on social media, he suggested had it been a government policy, he would have had a say because of the particular sensitivities around Northern Ireland.

He said: "Government policy would have been developed by ministers on the advice of officials and collectively agreed. I would have had a say on behalf of NI.

"But this proposal was developed by a political adviser or advisers and sprung on candidates, some of whom are relevant ministers."

In a sign of wider unease at the policy, he added: "History has proven time and time again that liberty under law - not compulsion and planning - is the surest road to peace and prosperity."