Category Archives: Labour

Gambling regulator looking into second Tory candidate over bet on general election timing – live

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BBC names candidate as Laura Saunders and says she is married to party’s director of campaigns

In case you missed this late yesterday: Conservatives are projected to slump to their “lowest seat tally in the party’s almost 200-year history” at the General Election, according to the latest YouGov poll.

YouGov said its latest study projects Labour to secure 425 seats, the Tories 108, the Liberal Democrats 67, SNP 20, Reform UK five, Plaid Cymru four and the Green Party two. It noted such a scenario would hand Keir Starmer a 200-seat majority while it added Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is “likely” to win in Clacton.

The findings are similar to those from the Guardian’s Ipsos MRP poll on Tuesday, which showed the Conservatives winning just 115 seats, with Labour on 453.

YouGov used a technique known as multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) to model the outcome of the election in every constituency across Britain, PA reports.

It said the estimated seat projections were based on modelled responses from 36,161 adults in England and Wales, and 3,818 in Scotland, between June 11 and 18. Several high-profile Conservatives, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, would lose out if the projection played out at the ballot box on 4 July.

YouGov wrote:

Our new MRP has the Conservatives on their lowest seat tally in the party’s almost 200-year history.

Our latest model has 109 seats as toss ups – meaning that the winning party’s lead is less than five points. Sixty five marginal seats are contests between the Conservatives and Labour.”

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Tory government ‘worst in postwar era’, claims expert study – as it happened

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Sir Anthony Seldon leads analysis that concludes that equality, growth and the UK’s standing in the world have all declined since 2010

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And here are some of the best pictures from yesterday’s campaigning. As more voting people than ever appear poised to turn away from the Tories, Sunak appeared in several photographs with sheep and lobsters as he visited North Devon, held by the Tories since 2015. The Guardian’s Archie bland named the sheep the “Dubious photo opportunity of the day”, after the sheep ran away:

Starmer, meanwhile, appeared on LBC where he clarified that Premier League Football Clubs would not be subject to a 10% transfer tax to fund clubs lower down the pyramid. “Let me just kill it dead, we’re not looking at that,” Starmer said. He also visited a tennis club and a pub in Reading West and mid Berkshire.

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Expert economists back Labour’s plan to end economic stagnation in UK

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Nobel prize winners and former Bank of England officials believe Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer can bring about ‘desperately needed’ change

Labour’s plans for ending Britain’s long-term economic stagnation have been backed by a group of leading economists, including three Nobel prize winners and a former Bank of England deputy governor.

In a boost to the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the 16 UK and internationally based economists said change was “desperately needed” after the policy mistakes and failures of the past 14 years since the Conservatives took power.

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Tory donor who gave Boris Johnson £500,000 urges public to vote Labour

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John Caudwell, the Phones4U founder, says he is ‘rather despairing’ about Conservatives after 51 years of support

A Conservative party donor who donated £500,000 to Boris Johnson’s compaign in 2019 has announced he will vote for Labour in next month’s general election.

John Caudwell, who founded the mobile phone retailer Phones4U, made the announcement on Tuesday evening, in comments first reported by the Times and the BBC.

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Starmer grilled on council tax and Corbyn in LBC general election phone-in – live

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Labour leader asked if he would have served in a Corbyn cabinet and declines to say council tax won’t rise if his party wins

Q: [From Emma in Greenwich] How will you protect single-sex spaces for girls, while making it easier to get a gender recognition certificate?

Starmer says he is passionate about protecting single-sex spaces. As director of public prosecutions, he dealt with a lot of cases involving violence against women and girls.

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Former head of GCHQ praises Labour’s defence and security plans

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David Omand says pledges on nuclear deterrent shows party can be trusted ‘to stick to serious defence policy’

Labour’s position on national security has been endorsed by a former head of the UK intelligence agency, GCHQ, who said the party can be trusted to “stick to serious defence policy.”

The backing by Sir David Omand is a boost in a key area for Keir Starmer, who has sought to promote Labour’s security as a way of emphasising how the party has changed since Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

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Nigel Farage claims young people have had their minds ‘poisoned’ with negative views about Britain – UK general election live

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Farage launches party manifesto in traditional Labour stronghold of Merthyr Tydfil

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been campaigning in Hampshire this morning. Stefan Rousseau from PA Media took this picture of them on the train.

The SNP has called for a social tariff that would guarantee cheap energy bills for people who are poor, disabled or elderly.

We believe that there are certain things that every citizen should have access to as a right. Healthcare free at the point of need, a social security safety net, pensions for older people, and free education including free university tuition.

But it is time that we recognised that these rights need to go further, to reflect the realities of the modern world.

Connectivity – fast broadband and good mobile phone connections – are critical to modern life. In fact, in rural Scotland and the Isles, it is critical to the whole future of the economy.
As more and more people work from home at least part of the week, often you literally cannot do your job without a decent internet connection. That’s why, to help people get jobs, keep jobs and keep more of their hard-earned cash, there should be a social tariff for broadband and mobile charges too.

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UK elections: what is tactical voting and how does it work?

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The campaign group Best for Britain has launched its guide on how to vote to have the best chance of ousting the Tories. We look at what tactical voting involves and what the group is recommending

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Tactical voting could defeat Tories in once safe seats, campaigners say

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Senior Tories such as Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt could be for chop as well as once safe seats such as Maidenhead

The Conservatives could lose once safe constituencies such as Theresa May’s former seat in the coming general election, with nearly 40% of people willing to vote tactically to oust the Tories, a campaign group has said.

Setting out its recommendations for how people could maximise their chances of not electing a Conservative, Best for Britain said particularly efficient tactical voting could even unseat Liz Truss and Suella Braverman.

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Labour would try to improve UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with EU, says Reeves

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Shadow chancellor’s remarks mark shift in tone for party, which has preferred to not talk about Brexit so far

Labour would try to improve elements of the UK’s trade deal with the EU, Rachel Reeves has indicated, saying also that most financial services companies have “not regarded Brexit as being a great opportunity for their businesses”.

While Labour remains committed to not making any major changes to Brexit, the shadow chancellor’s comments show that the party could nonetheless make more policy moves on EU trade links than previously believed.

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Campaigners hope Labour will scrap two-child benefit cap once in No 10

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Manifesto has no pledge to end rule Angela Rayner called ‘inhumane’ but there have been hints at more to come

Senior Labour figures have been crystal clear in the past about the two-child benefit limit, with Angela Rayner saying it was “obscene and inhumane” and Jonathan Ashworth calling it “heinous”.

Yet, as expected, Keir Starmer’s safety-first manifesto lacked any promise to reverse it, and shadow ministers have been wheeled out to underline the need to make “tough choices” and avoid unfunded promises. Rayner has said Labour has to “prioritise”.

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Starmer faces further calls for Labour to axe two-child benefit cap

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IFS research shows 670,000 more children will be hit by policy by end of next parliament if limit stays in place

Keir Starmer is facing renewed pressure to scrap the two-child benefit limit, as research reveals that 250,000 more children will be hit by the policy over the next year alone.

Labour’s manifesto for government, published last week, included the promise of an “ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty”, but no mention of the two-child limit.

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Labour’s green plans will create 650,000 jobs, says Rachel Reeves

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Party begins week of campaigning on economy under pressure to say if it will raise taxes to pay for £7.3bn plans

Labour will create more than 650,000 jobs with its green investment plans, Rachel Reeves has said, as the party kickstarts a week of campaigning on the economy.

The UK shadow chancellor has revealed new details about the £7.3bn green investment vehicle that Labour intends to create after the election, saying it will help create hundreds of thousands of new industrial jobs.

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Labour sends activists to 13 seats where it fears losing Muslim voters over Gaza

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Concern continues after local elections and George Galloway win that party’s position on Israel-Gaza war still eroding support

Labour is directing activists to campaign in seats with substantial Muslim populations, over fears that some voters have been alienated by the party’s stance on Gaza.

Its campaigning efforts are mostly being concentrated on Conservative and SNP seats in an attempt to secure a potentially record-breaking majority. However, there are 13 Labour-held seats where Muslims make up at least a fifth of the electorate which the party is telling its activists to target.

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Labour and Tories would ‘both leave NHS worse off than under austerity’

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Analysis by leading experts the Nuffield Trust reveals that main parties’ manifestos would squeeze health spending

Labour and the Conservatives would both leave the NHS with lower spending increases than during the years of Tory austerity, according to an independent analysis of their manifestos by a leading health thinktank.

The assessment by the respected Nuffield Trust of the costed NHS policies of both parties, announced in their manifestos last week, says the level of funding increases would leave them struggling to pay existing staff costs, let alone the bill for massive planned increases in doctors, nurses and other staff in the long-term workforce plan agreed last year.

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Tories and Labour on course for lowest share of the vote since 1945

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Poll reveals historically low support for the big two, with smaller parties up by five points

Labour and the Tories are on course for their lowest combined vote share since the second world war, as the latest Opinium poll for the Observer shows a shift away from the main parties.

With all the parties having now unveiled their election manifestos, Labour has maintained a dominant 17-point lead over the Tories with less than three weeks to go until polling day. However, Reform and the Lib Dems are up two points each.

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Nigel Farage trying to destroy Tory party, says David Cameron – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our UK election coverage here

David Cameron has said that being prime minister was a “good apprenticeship” for serving as foreign secretary, in an interview with the Times.

Speaking about his decision to take the role, Cameron said he had told his family he was “going to really go for this job and give it everything I had”. In just over six months, Cameron said he had visited 35 countries as foreign secretary.

I really like having the focus. That juggling act, as prime minister, is incredibly difficult. You have to do so many different things and different topics. I loved the challenge of it, but it does mean you’re always frustrated.”

When I look at Starmer I think he’s sitting there with his fingers crossed to please, please, please let them pass judgment on Lettucegate, three prime ministers and all the rest of it.

I think we can win this election. Even when I was ahead in the polls in 2010, or somewhere behind in the polls in 2015, I used to say ‘can win’ rather than ‘will’ because it’s up to the public, it’s up to the country.”

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Keir Starmer promises no capital gains tax on sales of homes

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Labour leader rejects ‘desperate’ claim from Tory party that he has secret property tax plans

Keir Starmer has ruled out imposing capital gains tax on the sale of people’s homes and said it was “desperate” tactics from the Tories to suggest that he would.

The Labour leader said he could “absolutely” guarantee that would not happen.

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General election live: Farage claims he is ‘leader of the opposition’ and demands one-to-one debate with Starmer

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Reform UK leader says he should also take part in planned leaders’ debate on BBC

Introducing a cap on adult social care costs by October next year is part of Labour’s plan if they win the election, Wes Streeting has insisted, although the pledge did not appear in the party’s manifesto.

Asked whether he could make a firm commitment to bringing in the cap in October 2025, PA Media reports he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That’s the plan, as things stand. We don’t have any plans to change that situation and that’s the certainty and stability I want to give the system at this stage.”

It’s going to take 10 years to build the kind of national care service that I think will last this country the best part of the next century. And that’s the scale of ambition that I have, that a Labour government would have. Change takes time, especially when the public finances are in the state they are and the catastrophic damage the Conservatives have done.

It’s been put to me repeatedly and to other Labour colleagues in recent days about the importance of honesty. And as we have said repeatedly, you know, our manifesto is a manifesto that’s fully costed and fully funded.

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Tories face new questions over Sunak aide who placed bet on July election

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Labour has asked what role Craig Williams played in election date discussions and when party knew about bet

The Conservative party is facing new questions over the role Rishi Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide played in pre-election discussions before he placed a bet on the poll date days before it was announced.

Labour has written to Richard Holden, the Tory party chair, demanding more answers on the scandal that has further marred the party’s bruised election campaign.

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