Category Archives: General elections

UK watchdog warns Tories over PM’s ‘£2,000 tax rise’ claim

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Rishi Sunak failed during TV debate to make clear how he had calculated Labour’s spending policies, says OSR

The UK’s statistics watchdog has warned the Conservatives over Rishi Sunak’s claim that Labour would raise taxes by £2,000, saying it failed to make clear how the figures were calculated.

In a rap over the knuckles for the prime minster, who made the claim during a leadership debate on ITV on Tuesday evening, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) said the case demonstrated how all party campaigners needed to offer the public a transparent view of tax and spending policies.

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New Frank Hester race claims pile pressure on Tories over £15m donations

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Exclusive: Hester allegedly used term ‘token Muslim’, imitated people of Chinese descent and said a person was attractive for a black woman

The Conservative party is facing questions over its decision to keep more than £15m given by its biggest ever donor, Frank Hester, after former employees made a series of fresh allegations.

Hester is alleged to have referred to a staff member as the “token Muslim”, imitated people of Chinese descent and remarked that one individual was attractive for a black woman, according to former employees who spoke to the Guardian.

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Can Labour’s GB Energy plan future-proof UK’s power generation sector?

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Party has put state-owned power company at centre of its plans for decarbonisation, security and energy bills

Labour is to put a government-owned power company at the heart of the UK’s energy system for the first time since the privatisation of the industry in 1990, in one of Keir Starmer’s boldest pledges so far.

Great British Energy, with £8bn of investment, forms the centrepiece of Labour’s promise to decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030. This would stop well short of any form of renationalisation: GB Energy would be a state-owned investment vehicle and company working alongside and often in partnership with the existing private sector suppliers. The plan is for it to be largely invisible to households, not offering electricity directly to consumers but financing and helping to build low-carbon infrastructure, from windfarms to – potentially – nuclear reactors.

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Starmer says Sunak ‘breached ministerial code’ over £2,000 Labour tax-rise claim

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Labour leader accuses PM of ‘resorting to lies’ in TV debate, saying he ‘knew very well what he was doing’

Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of deliberately lying when he claimed Labour spending plans would increase taxes by £2,000, saying the prime minister’s tactics in Tuesday night’s TV debate showed he was dishonest when put under pressure.

Amid an increasingly bitter and personal war of words over the standout dispute in the debate between the prime minister and Labour leader, Starmer said be believed Sunak should be investigated for breaching the ministerial code.

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Darren Rodwell withdraws as Labour candidate in general election

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Leader of Barking and Dagenham council says he does not want allegations about his behaviour to be a ‘distraction’

Darren Rodwell, the controversial leader of Barking and Dagenham council, has withdrawn as a Labour candidate, saying he did not want allegations about his behaviour to be a “distraction”.

Rodwell’s candidacy was in doubt after it was not confirmed by Labour on Tuesday along with other names of people running to be MPs.

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Sunak and Starmer scrap over tax and immigration in heated first TV debate

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Labour leader tried to focus on the Tories’ record while the prime minister accused opponent of planning tax rises

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer tore into each other’s election promises on tax and immigration in a fiery first TV debate of the campaign.

The pair exchanged barbs in an ill-tempered session before an ITV studio audience in Salford, where Starmer accused Sunak of being “the most liberal prime minister we’ve ever had on immigration” and pledged to keep the UK in the European convention on human rights.

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SNP says Scottish Labour is rewriting party’s spending plans in TV debate

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John Swinney claims Anas Sarwar not keeping to Rachel Reeves’s constraints on NHS, schools and renewables funding as leaders clash

The SNP has accused Scottish Labour of “completely rewriting” Rachel Reeves’s spending plans, as the party leaders took part in the first televised debate of the election campaign.

The clash between the the SNP, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats was screened by STV, without a studio audience, and involved intensive cross-examination of each leader by his political rivals.

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What constituency am I in?: new boundary map for UK general election – and how changes may affect you

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Boundary changes mean the 2024 British general election will be fought in altered seats. Enter your postcode to see a map of your constituency and how these seats would have voted in 2019

The general election on 4 July will be fought across 650 new constituencies after boundary changes were approved by parliament.

With only 77 constituencies remaining unchanged, the boundary review changes which seat many people will be voting in. Not only does it mean that seats may have a new name, but geographical changes to seat boundaries many also mean that historical knowledge of voting patterns may be irrelevant, having implications for those hoping to vote tactically.

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John Swinney says SNP facing its biggest challenge for years

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Leader launches party’s election campaign as polling suggests it will pay high price for recent woes

John Swinney has described July’s general election as “the biggest challenge the SNP has had for years” as he used his party’s official campaign launch to repeatedly attack Labour, which is threatening the nationalists in dozens of seats across Scotland.

Swinney, who told the rally of more than 200 activists and former MPs in Glasgow that it was a “surprise” to be leading the SNP into an election campaign, added that “voters are right to remind us never to take anything for granted”.

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With policy battle lines set, Sunak and Starmer prepare for TV combat

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With PM as underdog hoping to use TV debates for comeback, Labour leader is also preparing for election to turn personal

When the history of Keir Starmer’s resurrection of the Labour party comes to be written, one of the most important turning points will be the decision to start playing the man, not the ball, when it came to Boris Johnson and Partygate.

Rishi Sunak’s key weak spot in the leader debates this election is his career as a hedge fund partner at the time of the financial crisis. Labour believes the prime minister’s account of his past will be a fundamental test, given he has built his reputation on his economic competence.

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Keir Starmer to declare Labour as ‘party of national security’

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Leader says he is committed to triple lock for UK’s nuclear deterrent and will raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP

Keir Starmer will declare Labour is the “party of national security” as he seeks to switch the focus of the general election campaign to issues of defence.

The Labour leader will reaffirm his commitment to a “triple lock” for the UK’s nuclear deterrent, and his aim to raise defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product “as soon as resources allow”.

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For Labour, the Gaza crisis is a foreign policy tightrope in waiting

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Starmer’s belief in international law and the rise of Labour Friends of Israel offer clues to potential stance on Palestinian statehood

A snap election, and the certainty that the Gaza crisis will not be resolved by polling day, means Keir Starmer already knows the first foreign policy challenge of his expected premiership.

Even if the peace proposal announced by Joe Biden on Friday is accepted by both Israel and Hamas, something a Labour-run Foreign Office would encourage, vast issues remain concerning the future role of Hamas and Iran in Middle Eastern politics, as well as Israel’s conduct in the conflict, and restoration of faith in the universality of international law.

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Sunak suffers poll blow as levelling-up cash-for-votes row erupts

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New poll gives Labour its biggest lead since Liz Truss meltdown as ‘Tory towns’ gain most from new funds

The Tory general election campaign hit more trouble on Saturday as Rishi Sunak faced accusations of using levelling up funds to win votes and Labour opened its biggest poll lead since the disastrous premiership of Liz Truss.

As Sunak tried to fire up his ­party’s campaign before the first crucial TV debate with Keir Starmer on Tuesday, it emerged that more than half of the 30 towns each promised £20m of regeneration funding on Saturday were in constituencies won by Tory MPs at the last election.

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Labour is already dominating the online general election campaign | Matthew McGregor

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Starmer’s party was quicker out of the digital gate, with slicker, more engaging content than the Tory offering

The video opens with an old clip of Cilla Black singing her classic ‘Surprise, Surprise!’. The caption reads “POV: Rishi Sunak turns up at your 18th birthday to send you to war.”

This appeared on Labour’s TikTok account the day after the Conservatives launched their national service policy. It fitted perfectly with TikTok’s meme-heavy, wry and sarcastic culture and has been watched 4.5 million times. The video racked up almost 700,000 likes, more than double the likes on all the Tories’ TikToks put together.

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If the pollsters have it right, the Conservatives need a miracle in five weeks

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The desire to see the back of the Tories seems to outweigh any considerations of policy – or whether Labour will actually deliver much positive change

“Nothing has changed”: those were the ill-fated words during Theresa May’s 2017 campaign. Things certainly did change, though – a large polling lead almost evaporated by polling day and a hung parliament was returned.

In 2024, Rishi Sunak desperately needs a similar shift. But so far the British public seem unmoved. Voting intention, as measured by the opinion polls, remains much as it was when the election was called. Those intentions would see Sunak falling to something ranging between a significant and a historic defeat.

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Tice and Farage, the happy couple wedded to migration incoherence | John Crace

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Our Nige at least manages to sound slightly plausible while talking utter rubbish

It’s not hard to pick out where the power lies at any Reform party event. Just check out the middle-aged men with a tan. Richard Tice, Nigel Farage and David Bull all look like they’ve spent a suspiciously long time on the sunbed. Or maybe they’ve got a bulk offer on spray tan. Either way, you have to blink several times when you see them in the flesh. The glare is oppressive. Welcome to the party with heavy 1970s Benidorm vibes.

Nigel Farage had insisted that when he first booked Glaziers Hall near London Bridge, it had been to announce that he was planning to stand as a candidate in the election. Like a lot of things Our Nige says, this may be wishful thinking. Or a straight porky. Check out the timings. Rishi Sunak calls a general election last Wednesday. Nige books the room the next day. All set to go. Then changes his mind within days. Mmm. Maybe not.

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Junior doctors’ strike could delay care for 100,000 NHS patients in England

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Rishi Sunak says timing of action days before general election appears to be ‘politically motivated’ to help Labour

Up to 100,000 patients in England face having their NHS care cancelled days before the general election after junior doctors announced a fresh wave of strike action, with Rishi Sunak saying it appeared to be politically motivated.

Health leaders expressed alarm, warning the five-day strike would jeopardise efforts to tackle the record waiting list and “hit patients hard”.

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Sunak rejects Farage’s offer of electoral deal with Reform party

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Brexit campaigner suggested he and prime minister should ‘have a conversation’ after favours he had done Tories over the years

Rishi Sunak has ruled out a deal with Nigel Farage after the Reform politician suggested they should “have a conversation” before the election.

Farage has held back from running as a candidate for the Reform party, which is led and funded by Richard Tice, but on Wednesday he extended an olive branch to Sunak in an interview with the Sun, telling him: “Give me something back. We might have a conversation.”

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I want to be an MP for as long as possible, Diane Abbott tells supporters

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Comments at rally in east London follow Keir Starmer’s denial that the Hackney MP would be barred from standing in the election

Diane Abbott has promised to stay on as an MP for “as long as it is possible”, setting up a clash with Keir Starmer after a deal for her to retire from parliament broke down.

Abbott, the UK’s first female black MP, had been expected to make a “dignified exit” from parliament, after a near 40-year career, in an arrangement in which she was given back the Labour whip after an investigation into comments she made about racism.

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Diane Abbott sorry saga leaves Labour colleagues with a bitter taste

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Even those who are not natural allies are concerned about the cack-handed treatment of the veteran MP

The long and sorry saga of Diane Abbott leaving parliament, where she arrived as a trailblazer, has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many colleagues – even those who are far from her natural allies.

After almost 36 tortuous hours the UK’s first black female MP is in the Labour party but possibly out of parliament, and no one seemingly wants to own how these decisions came about.

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