Category Archives: Conservatives

‘Change begins immediately,’ says Keir Starmer after Labour’s landslide election win – live

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Labour leader said he wanted to restore service and respect in politics and ‘end the era of noisy performance’

Clive Myrie is opening the BBC’s election night coverage. He is co-presenting with Laura Kuenssberg.

No 10 has also announced knightoods for four Tories in the dissolution honours – Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM; Julian Smith, the former chief whip and Northern Ireland secretary; Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary; and Alister Jack, the outgoing Scottish secretary – and one damehood, for Thérèse Coffey, the former deputy PM.

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Labour wins big but the UK’s electoral system is creaking

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Voters turned away from a deeply unpopular party but the true story of this election is more complex

The story of the 2024 general election is of voters turning away from a deeply unpopular governing party. What parties they turned to and how that interacted with the electoral system is a more complex story that may take some time to fully grasp.

Paula Surridge is a professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol

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Civil servants obliged to carry out Tory Rwanda deportations, court rules

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Union for civil servants claimed Home Office staff could be open to prosecution if Strasbourg rulings on Rwanda ignored

• General election 2024: live news

Guidance drawn up by Conservative ministers which told civil servants to ignore Strasbourg rulings and remove asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful, the high court has ruled.

The FDA trade union, which represents senior civil servants, brought legal action claiming senior Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.

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Millions head to polls to cast their votes in general election – live

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Polling stations opened at 7am, with voting taking place until 10pm on Thursday night

It is the King’s duty as head of state to appoint a prime minister, and he is travelling from Scotland to Windsor Castle, ready to be on stand-by after being in Edinburgh for Holyrood Week.

The role is one of the few remaining personal prerogatives of the sovereign, because Charles does not act on advice nor need to consult anyone before doing so.

But the overriding requirement is to appoint someone who can command the confidence of the House of Commons – usually the leader of the party with an overall majority of seats in the Commons – to form a government.

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Keir Starmer hails ‘new age of hope’ as Rishi Sunak fears losing seat

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Final polls predict unprecedented Labour victory, with Starmer declaring Britain a ‘great nation, with boundless potential’

Keir Starmer has hailed a “new age of hope and opportunity” as millions of people prepare to vote in a general election that could deliver the biggest shake-up of British politics in a generation.

The Labour leader said he was “ready for government” and that his intended cabinet would “hit the ground running” if it wins Thursday’s election.

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Labour expects surge of ‘shy Reform’ voters in some northern and Midlands seats

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Activists forecast margins of less than 2,000 votes separating them from Farage’s party – or even a shock defeat

• How boundary changes may affect key constituencies

Labour candidates and activists are privately braced for a surge in support for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK in north-west England and the Midlands, with some forecasting a margin of less than 2,000 votes between the two parties in some seats in Thursday’s general election.

In certain Conservative-held seats, campaigners told the Guardian that the Tories were likely to be pushed into third place by Reform, with one citing the phenomenon of “shy Reformers” affecting the results.

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General election live: Party leaders battle for votes on eve of election as Tory minister predicts Labour landslide

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Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer out campaigning after Mel Stride says Labour likely to win a large majority

It has just gone 7am: let’s look at today’s stop stories. With 24 hours to go until polls open, the Guardian leads with Keir Starmer accusing the Conservatives of desperate tactics amid claims that Tory criticism of his defence of family time was insensitive and had antisemitic undertones.

The Times has Boris Johnson saying a Labour landslide would be “pregnant with horrors”:

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Oliver Dowden reportedly reveals preferred choice for next Tory leader – UK general election live

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Deputy PM says Victoria Atkins is ‘star’ and is one of only people he could see leading Tory party

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak is expected to tell voters today that “If just 130,000 people switch their vote and lend us their support, we can deny Starmer that supermajority,” PA reports.

Keir Starmer has said a big majority would be “better for the country”, as the Tories continue to urge voters to proceed with caution and not hand Labour a “blank cheque”.

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Jewish figures criticise ‘stigmatising’ Tory attack on Starmer family time

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Conservatives push out ‘final warnings’ amid backlash over targeting of Labour leader’s Friday night ‘protected time’

Keir Starmer has accused the Conservatives of desperate tactics amid claims that Tory criticism of his defence of family time was insensitive and had antisemitic undertones.

With Rishi Sunak embarking on a marathon day of campaigning, beginning with a pre-dawn visit to a distribution centre and closing with a late-night rally, Tory ministers and aides sought to contrast these efforts with what they termed Starmer’s “part-time” approach.

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Tory jibes about Keir Starmer and family time show how out of touch party is

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MPs and others have stressed how important time away from work is for those in top jobs

“Increasing desperation, bordering on hysterical” is how Keir Starmer responded to the Conservatives’ claim that his decision to spend Friday nights with his family is a threat to national security.

But a man cannot live on cabinet briefings alone – and online attacks on Starmer by Conservatives have been largely met with deadpan resistance by politicians and the public alike.

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From conflict to the climate – what are the UK parties’ international plans?

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As the election nears, we scrutinise how each of the main contenders would deal with problems around the world

Conflicts and environmental disasters are stretching humanitarian resources, and a new UK government will have to decide what role it will play on the world stage in dealing with global problems, especially after budget cuts and closure of the Department for International Development by the Conservatives, and with priorities so focused on Ukraine. We’ve talked to the main parties and looked at their manifestos to see what their plans are.

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Rishi Sunak hints he might not quit as Tory leader immediately if he loses election – as it happened

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PM says he ‘loves this party dearly’ and would always put himself at the service of it’

Rishi Sunak is speaking at a campaign event in Staffordshire. As the advance briefing predicted, he has just told his audience.

I tell you this: once you have handed Keir Starmer and Labour a blank cheque, you won’t be able to get it back.

We’ve had a strategy in place and we’ll try to keep to it, which is to carve out really protected time for the kids, so on a Friday – I’ve been doing this for years – I will not do a work-related thing after six o’clock, pretty well come what may.

There are a few exceptions, but that’s what we do.

[In politics] some people think, if you fill your diary 24/7 and don’t do anything else, that makes you a much better decision maker. I don’t agree with that, I think you’ve got to make space, so we do it …

Actually, it helps me, it takes me away from the pressure, it relaxes me, and I think, actually, not only is it what I want to do as a dad, it is better.

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Sunak to warn Labour would use landslide to shift politics to the left

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Tories make last-ditch attempt to persuade their voters to turn out for Thursday’s election

Labour would use a landslide victory to shift politics to the left and stay in power for decades, Rishi Sunak will warn on Monday, as he launches a last-ditch attempt to persuade Conservative voters to turn out for Thursday’s election.

The prime minister will address a rally at the beginning of the final week of the election campaign, which polls suggest will end in the Conservatives being ousted from power.

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More than £320m spent on Rwanda policy will be lost if Tories lose election

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Costs of trying to deport asylum seekers cannot be recovered if Labour wins and disbands policy

More than £320m spent by the government on the controversial scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is likely to be lost if the Conservatives are voted out of power at Thursday’s general election.

The sum has been spent on economic development money for Rwanda, along with set-up costs for the scheme, which cannot be recovered if it does not go ahead.

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UK general election live: Rishi Sunak says he believes he will win despite poll projections

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Prime minister says he’s ‘fighting very hard’ as campaigning reaches final days with Labour retaining the lead in polling for the Observer

Rishi Sunak said the slur used about him by a Reform UK canvasser was “deeply inappropriate and racist”.

The prime minister told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show that anyone becoming a politician expects a degree of criticism because it “comes with the territory”.

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Farage denies ‘fanning flames of prejudice’ amid Reform scandal

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Reform UK leader echoes Donald Trump in response to claim hostile state actors are backing his party

Nigel Farage has angrily denied he is “fanning the flames of prejudice” to further his political ambitions, as he doubled down on claims Reform UK had been “set up” by an exposé of racism and prejudice among activists.

He was also confronted about a report in the Sunday Times – which the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, said he was “gravely” concerned about – that there is a threat to the general election from hostile actors such as Russia seeking to influence the democratic process.

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Starmer’s promise to voters: ‘I will relight the fire of optimism’ in Britain

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Writing in the Observer, the Labour leader vows to restore the bond of trust with politics if his party wins Thursday’s general election

Keir Starmer pledges to “relight the fire” of optimism and hope among the British people – and rekindle their faith in politicians as public servants - if they come out in sufficient numbers and vote for a Labour government in Thursday’s general election.

Writing exclusively for the Observer with just days to go until polling day, the Labour leader says that after 14 years of the Tories “serving themselves”, restoring the “bond of respect between people and politics” will be the precondition for a Labour government’s success.

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General election – as it happened: Farage says he is boycotting BBC as more Reform candidates dropped over past comments

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The Reform leader complained of a ‘dishonest Question Time audience’, while his party also reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission

The Conservative party deputy chair Angela Richardson called the sewage crisis a “political football” and claimed opposition parties and activists had put Tory MPs in physical danger by campaigning on the issue.

Richardson, who is standing for re-election in Guildford, where the River Wey was recently found to have 10 times the safe limit of E coli, also suggested the only reason people were talking about the problem was “because the Conservatives let everyone know it was happening”.

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Rishi Sunak speaks of ‘hurt and anger’ at daughters having to hear Reform activist’s racist slur about him – UK general election live

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PM responds to comments by Reform activists, who were filmed by Channel 4 reporter while canvassing in Clacton

Here’s the latest in the Guardian’s series on The broken years: Tory Britain 2010-24:

Unless the polls are wildly inaccurate, the Conservative party is heading towards a catastrophic defeat in the coming election.

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Election betting scandal revealed the niche market of political gambling in UK

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Though the betting often interests few outside Westminster, leaders must be clear on where opportunity for impropriety really lies

Until the past few weeks, online casinos and bookmakers have made handy villains for an under-pressure government.

Ministers could legitimately claim to be cleaning up Labour’s mess with reforms that partially roll back the permissive regulatory regime ushered in under Tony Blair.

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