Category Archives: General election 2024

Ofcom fines GB News £100,000 for breach of impartiality rules over Sunak interview

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GB News to challenge decision and watchdog will not enforce sanction until proceedings are concluded

Ofcom has fined the rightwing broadcaster GB News £100,000 for “breaking due impartiality rules” after an interview with the former prime minister Rishi Sunak earlier this year.

The media regulator said it chose to impose a fine over the programme titled People’s Forum: The Prime Minister because it considered the breach serious, and because of GB News’s track record of breaking impartiality rules.

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Britons should be able to use wider range of ID to vote, says watchdog

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Changes proposed after as many as 750,000 people may have been excluded from 2024 election due to lack of documents

Ministers should expand the ID that people can use to vote, the elections watchdog has recommended, after a report found as many as 750,000 people might not have voted in the 2024 general election because they lacked the necessary documents.

The Electoral Commission said the government should also look at allowing people without ID to vote if someone who did have proof of identity was able to vouch for them at a polling station.

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Foreign Office officials said Rishi Sunak should attend D-day event, book reveals

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Department twice provided written advice to No 10 before mistake that came to define Sunak’s election campaign

Senior officials at the Foreign Office repeatedly warned No 10 that Rishi Sunak should not leave June’s D-day commemoration in Normandy early, according to new revelations in a book about the Tories’ 14 years in power.

The department passed on two messages to Downing Street in the weeks leading up to the event, which were then ignored in what has gone down as the worst election campaign blunder of the last 14 years.

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Yvette Cooper says ‘disgraceful scenes’ of election candidate abuse must end

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Ministers will meet to address what home secretary calls an alarming rise in intimidation of politicians

An alarming rise in candidate intimidation during the UK’s general election campaign will be addressed next week at a meeting of ministers and civil servants, the home secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper said there had been “disgraceful scenes” in some areas in the run-up to the 4 July vote, as she announced she would chair a meeting of the defending democracy taskforce.

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Jeremy Hunt’s children leave ‘sweet’ notes for Starmer’s son and daughter

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Prime minister says family ‘very pleased’ to receive letters from former chancellor’s children about life in Downing Street

Jeremy Hunt’s three children left personal notes for Keir Starmer’s teenage son and daughter after last week’s general election, containing advice about living in Downing Street.

The prime minister said his children were “very pleased” to receive the letters from the Hunt’s children, who had lived in the flat above No 11 since their father was appointed chancellor.

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Tony Blair’s new dawn of 1997 offers landslide lessons for Keir Starmer

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The Guardian’s political editor in 1997 recalls the optimism then and what went wrong in Labour’s last transition from opposition to power

Veterans of Labour’s 1997 victory party at the Royal Festival Hall – by the end, the dancefloor looked like a war zone strewn with dozing bodies – will remember the sense of disbelief and excitement as the scale of the landslide started to materialise.

David Hill, the less self-publicity-prone of the hugely effective Labour press team, gave out a deep-throated “what?!” as he reeled away in disbelief at the sight of a startled Stephen Twigg defeating Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate. That night, unexpected seat after unexpected seat fell into Labour hands.

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‘Disproportionate’ UK election results boost calls to ditch first past the post

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Campaigners for electoral reform say outcome has renewed pressure for proportional representation

The push for electoral reform in the UK has received a shot in the arm after the “most disproportionate election in history”, according to campaigners and academics.

Longstanding reform campaigners have become uneasy bedfellows with Reform UK’s Nigel Farage in recent days after Labour secured a 174-seat majority with just 34% of the popular vote.

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Keir Starmer says Palestinian state is an ‘undeniable right’ as part of Gaza peace process – UK politics live

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Labour’s election manifesto committed party to recognising Palestinian state as part of a process that results in a two-state solution with Israel

Reynolds says he is not supposed to pre-empt what will be in the king’s speech, but he says it is no secret that the government is going to prioritise its employment rights reforms.

Jonathan Reynolds is being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg now.

I do want things in exchange for money we’ll co-invest with the private sector around jobs and technology.

I think that’s a reasonable way to make sure public money is being well spent and I believe there are things, capacities, the steel industry needs in future that could be part of that conversation and that’s what I’ll be having in the next few days …

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Who are the pro-Gaza independents who unseated Labour MPs?

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All four capitalised on dissatisfaction over Labour’s stance on the Gaza war but said they had other priorities too

On a momentous night for Keir Starmer and the Labour party, nothing was going to detract from the celebrations. But the results weren’t all positive. Among the matters for Labour to ponder when the hangovers have cleared is the loss of four seats to pro-Palestinian candidates amid dissatisfaction over the party’s stance on the Gaza war. Here is more about the four independents who upset the odds.

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Independent Muslim who beat Labour in Leicester says victory was not ‘sectarian’

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Shockat Adam says he is not a single-issue MP, but will fight on NHS and housing as well as Gaza

The man who pulled off a shock victory at the general election by ousting shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth has criticised claims that the wave of strong showings by independent Muslim candidates represents the rise of “sectarian” voting.

Shockat Adam, an optometrist, caused a huge upset by beating Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general and a familiar face in Labour’s election campaign, to become the new MP for Leicester South.

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Starmer tells his cabinet: now it’s time to deliver on our promises

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PM pledges swift action on NHS and prisons, setting out agenda to reform public services and rebuild international relations

Keir Starmer on Saturday rallied his new cabinet behind an ambitious agenda to reform the country’s creaking public services and reset damaged relations abroad during his first full day as prime minister.

After an extraordinary 48 hours that saw Labour storm to a landslide general election victory with a massive Commons majority of 174 while the Tories were routed, Starmer said he was “restless for change” and determined to deliver on his campaign pledges.

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Starmer installs non-political ministers in ‘government of all the talents’

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Covid adviser Patrick Vallance and businessman James Timpson among appointments from outside Westminster

Keir Starmer brought back senior ministers from the New Labour government on Saturday night, as he announced further additions to his team.

Former cabinet minister Douglas Alexander, who returned as an MP at the election, was made a trade minister, while Jacqui Smith, who served as home secretary under Gordon Brown, was handed a peerage and made an education minister.

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Voter turnout at general election was lowest since 2001 – politics live as it happened

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Keir Starmer ‘restless for change’ as he vows to take action on prisons on first full day as PM

Education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Munira Wilson, acknowledged the party benefited from voters wanting to turf out a Conservative government.

According to the PA news agency, the Twickenham MP told Sky News:

We were very clear that after the previous Conservative government, which was frankly full of chaos and incompetence and had broken the trust of the British people and broken our economy, time was up for them and in many of those seats where we won we made it very clear to voters that if they wanted to turf out the Tories they had to vote Liberal Democrat and they did.

So obviously in every election it’s a combination of the two, but I am also confident that our messages around cost-of-living, sewage, health and care did really resonate with voters.”

It’s really important for the British people that there are opposition MPs asking tough questions and scrutinising the legislation that Labour are going to bring forward, and I can assure you that every Liberal Democrat MP in the House of Commons will be doing that and will be focused on the job and not worried about where the party’s going.”

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‘A difficult hand played poorly’: how No 10 slipped from Sunak’s grasp

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Initial Brexit success was undone by poor strategy and repeated unforced errors, say expert observers

Rishi Sunak became Britain’s prime minister quickly and unexpectedly in October 2022 after the short, financially catastrophic premiership of Liz Truss and the leadership of Boris Johnson, whose loose moral compass had allowed Downing Street to party while the rest of the UK was locked down.

The economic situation was dire – inflation at 11%, mortgages threatening to soar by £5,000 a year – and the political inheritance more desperate. But since then the 44-year-old prime minister has failed to turn around the Conservative’s fortunes. Lacking a transformative touch, he led the party to a historic defeat.

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‘Don’t take us for granted’: Muslim voters send message to Labour over its Gaza stance

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Labour lost seats including Jonathan Ashworth’s in Leicester, where angry voters say they felt ignored

When Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat to the pro-Palestine independent candidate Shockat Adam, it was widely seen as one of the biggest upsets of election night.

But a walk along Evington Road, a busy shopping street with a large Muslim population in the constituency, showed that all the signs were there.

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‘Now we begin’: what the papers say after Keir Starmer takes reins as UK prime minister

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Forward-looking British front pages reflect the incoming government’s work ahead and the post-election-win jubilance of the Labour leader and his wife

After Labour’s seismic defeat of the Tories, the UK papers’ front pages have focused on the work ahead for Keir Starmer amid his post-election glow after the new prime minister vowed to put “country first, party second” and rebuild Britain “brick by brick”.

The Guardian ran a full-page photo of the Labour leader pointing the way forward while holding hands with his wife, Victoria Starmer, beside a quote headline from his first speech as PM: “We will fight every day until you believe again”.

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‘This is going to be a disaster’: inside the Tories’ chaotic election campaign

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From the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine

When rumours were ablaze that Rishi Sunak was about to call a snap election, one Conservative cabinet minister was asked by a colleague what was happening. “No idea,” he replied. “He’s either going to call a snap election today, name a date for the autumn or tell everyone that AI is really, really important.”

The cabinet – and most officials in Tory headquarters, which was disastrously underprepared – had been kept in the dark until almost the last moment. When Sunak did announce the election in Downing Street in the pouring rain, the move went down like a lead balloon with his colleagues.

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‘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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Keir Starmer promises ‘stability and moderation’ in first speech as PM

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First Labour prime minister since 2010 promises to serve whole country as he speaks outside No 10

Keir Starmer pitched himself as a leader for “stability and moderation” who will rebuild Britain, as he reached out to those who did not vote for Labour with a promise to serve the whole country.

The Labour leader gave a speech on the steps of Downing Street after going to Buckingham Palace to accept the king’s invitation to form a new government.

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Greens to push Labour to ‘be braver’ on climate, sewage and cost of living

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Party co-leader and new MP Carla Denyer says election shows voters ‘have had enough of incremental change’

The Green party will push the incoming Labour government to “be braver” on key issues, from the climate crisis and sewage in rivers to housing and tax, according to Carla Denyer, the party’s co-leader and one of its four new MPs.

The party quadrupled its number of MPs, beating Labour in Bristol Central and Brighton Pavilion and the Conservatives in Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire.

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