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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow (now) and Amy Sedghi (earlier)

General election TV Q&A: Sunak refuses to accept tax burden will definitely rise during next parliament – as it happened

​​Rishi Sunak Sky TV Sir Keir Starmer Grant Shapps Paul Nowak TUC X (Organization) Paul Brand Tony Blair Ofwat

Sky leaders special - verdict from commentariat on X

And here is more analysis of who did best from journalists and political commentators. Generally they think Keir Starmer had the happier evening.

From the FT’s Lucy Fisher

First time this campaign that Starmer has been properly quizzed on his past support for Corbyn; u-turns on his leadership pledges; and the various tax rises he isn’t ruling out What a breath of fresh air this format is... & Beth Rigby is absolutely on fire - forensic and focussed

Far from easy evening for Sunak either, as he was challenged on broken promises, the breakdown of trust in his leadership after partygate, D-Day error & more... PM looked deflated as he faced a tough audience

From Lewis Goodall from the News Agents podcast

Points of jeopardy for both leaders. Sunak still seems defeated. Starmer was bruised but kept the ming vase intact. But there were reminders of what could be frailties to come for him. He (like Sunak) can be deeply rigid. That’ll be a problem for him when times are less good.

From Kate McCann from Times Radio

So where are we at the end of that? Sunak came across as flat and defensive, Starmer was flat-footed at times but clearly more support in the room for him. Most revealing sense at the end of that was audience has priced in a Tory loss. They may not be thoroughly convinced by Starmer but they’ve largely stopped listening to Sunak and it felt like he knew that too.

From Harry Cole from the Sun

No knock out blows for either leader, but plenty of punches landed by the crowd and the presenter.

Starmer did better than BBC outing, but Sunak desperately needs to perk up despite his rough few days.

Easily the TV event of the campaign, so far... But not the last time these two will be grilled.

From Kitty Donaldson from the i

My snap verdict on the leader’s debate:

Starmer did struggle, but Sunak looked hangdog. Contempt for the political class shone through the audience reactions

From Darren McCaffrey from Sky

Most uncomfortable part overall was Starmer on Corbyn, he really had no answer. For the PM, his continual expression of frustration with tax, migration and NHS doesn’t really work when you are the PM

Both did much better with audience Q+A

Overall I think it was a score draw for both, again this is not good for Sunak as he really needs to win these things to move public open The audience though were great, properly engaged and ballsy

From David Maddox from the Independent

Sunak is much better on detail than Starmer. He is keeping his calm against a hostile audience. His answers to the audience members actually engage with their concerns

From Adam Bienkov from Byline Times

Rishi Sunak looked tonight like a man who was desperate to be literally anywhere else but fighting an election campaign

From Matthew d’Ancona from the New European

Rishi Sunak is a suboptimal advert for AI

From the writer and broadcaster Steve Richards

Rishi Sunak has kept going in recent months in spite of traumatic setbacks..he looks crushed tonight.

From the writer Robert Harris

Beth Rigby proving by far the best interviewer in this election campaign. Far sharper than the party leaders. Pity she isn’t on the ballot paper.

From Sophia Sleigh from the Sun on Sunday

Winner of this debate has to be the audience. Taking no prisoners. 💥🥊

Polite heckling, interrupting, cynical. Love to see it.

Updated

What Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and SNP say about Sky's leaders special

This is what the main political parties are saying about the Sky leaders special.

From Labour

Keir Starmer showed in his answers tonight that he will always put country before party. That’s what has driven the changes he has made to Labour over the past few years.

Rishi Sunak showed tonight that he’s out of touch and unable to deliver. The Conservatives will leave mortgage holders £4,800 worse off.

From the Conservatives

Keir Starmer wasn’t honest when he ran to be Labour leader and he’s not being honest now.

He said he wouldn’t pay for private healthcare for his loved ones last week. This week he’s admitted he has it.

From the Liberal Democrats

Rishi Sunak blaming others for soaring NHS waiting lists under his watch shows just how out of touch he is.

The legacy of his government is one of crumbling hospitals, people waiting hours for an ambulance and patients being treated in corridors.

From the SNP

Tonight’s debate was another depressing watch for viewers in Scotland - without anything more than a passing mention of Scotland across the 90-minute broadcast.

Most notable was Sir Keir Starmer’s shameful refusal to lift 1 million children out of poverty by scrapping the two-child limit. That is quite simply unforgivable.

Why experts say tax burden would rise in next parliament under Tory plans, despite PM refusing to accept that

During his interview with Beth Rigby, Rishi Sunak refused to accept that the tax burden would definitely go up over the next parliament. He argued you could not say, without knowing how big the economy might be at that point. (See 8.40am.)

Rigby was asking about an analysis by Ed Conway, Sky’s economics editor. Here is the chart.

As Conway says, the Institute for Fiscal Studies also says the tax burden would go up in the next parliament under Tory plans.

Starmer won Sky News leaders special, beating Sunak by 64% to 36%, poll suggests

A snap poll by YouGov suggests that, by a margin of almost two to one, viewers thought Keir Starmer was better than Rishi Sunak. This is from Sky’s Sam Coates.

Starmer and Sunak in Sky's leaders special - snap verdict

I’ve just heard a (normally wise) Sky presenter ask if this is going to change the election campaign. Of course it won’t (although that does not stop TV bosses hoping otherwise.) But what this might do is change the way these encounters are scheduled. This was a more sensible and revealing programme than the ITV leaders’ debate we had last week, partly because Beth Rigby was good, but mostly because Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak were subject to robust challenge, from the presenter (Rigby) and from the audience. Debating each other, they were also subject to challenge, but challenge that felt trite, misleading or feigned.

The audience was much more sceptical about Sunak (which is what you would expect, if it was representative of the nation as monitored by polling companies) and it would be surprising if any snap polling doesn’t favour the Labour leader. There was nothing particularly new in what Sunak had to say. But he sounded less tetchy and thin-skinned than in some of his campaign appearances, and he did not say anything that will cause his campaign fresh problems.

As explained earlier, Starmer was thrown onto the defensive right at the start as Rigby questioned him cleverly and consistently about Jeremy Corbyn. (See 8.21pm.) After that Starmer was fine. He did not really make big news either, but he was quite interesting when he talked about how, over time, he has become “much clearer in my own mind that the country must come first” (see 8.13pm), he did not seriously push back when Rigby helpfully interpreted what his answers about not ruling out tax rises meant (see 7.48pm), and he actually sounded as if he meant it when he talked about relishing the chance to take big decisions (see 7.56pm). Of the two, he seemed more prime ministerial.

Updated

A young man asks the next question, saying various policies, like national service, imply Sunak does not have the interests of young people at heart.

Sunak says he has two young girls. He thinks the national service plan will make a difference. Parents are excited by it, he says.

He says the government will also curb investment in “rip-off degrees”, and fund more apprenticeships.

And there is help for young people to buy a home, he says.

These are bold ideas that will make a difference.

Q: What will happen if people say no. Will they get criminal records?

Of course not, says Sunak. He says he would set up a royal commission to recommend how this should happen. There would be “an appropriate mix of incentives and sanctions”, he says.

Q: But young people are the future. You are moving away from them.

Sunak says he does not view society as us versus them. Young people have grandparents. Government can introduce policies that help both, he says.

And that is the end of the core part of the programme. Sky is now broadcasting reaction.

The next questioner, Amy, says she is a former Tory party chair but is ashamed of the way he missed part of the D-day commemoration.

Sunak repeats his apology, and says he did not mean to cause offence. Under his plans, he would deliver a secure future.

Amy refers to the picture of the Queen on her own at Philip Philip’s funeral, when they were holding parties in No 10. She says the party has a lot to do to rebuild trust.

Sunak says the rules should have been followed. He deeply regrets what happened. Trust takes time to rebuild, he says. The manifesto sets out a direction for the future.

Q: Should people who want a Tory government vote Reform?

Sunak says a vote for Reform will let Keir Starmer back into No 10.

Someone shouts at Sunak, saying he has failed.

Starmer won’t match the triple lock plus, he claims.

This is from Kate McCann from Times Radio in the spin room at the event.

Something telling... Spin room was attentive right til the end of Starmer’s audience Q section. Fair to say there’s a lot more chatting/wandering/scrolling through Sunak’s answers here.

Updated

Christina goes next, asking about racism and misogyny in the police.

Sunak say misogyny, racism and discrimination has no place in the police.

He says a small number of people were behaving in a way that was reprehensible.

And there are particular problems in the Met, he says.

He says police numbers are at a record high. And the Tories would put another 8,000 officers on the street, he says.

The next question is from someone working in the NHS.

Q: Staff are burnt out. I have experienced being left eight hours on a stretcher in A&E. How will you restore the NHS?

Sunak says he is sorry to hear about the questioner’s experience. He comes from an NHs family, he says. His dad was a doctor and his mum was a pharmacist. He says the NHS does not train enough staff. Now it has a long-term workforce plan.

A woman in the audience intervenes. She says the NHS is short of staff. Creating new hubs won’t help, she says.

Sunak says the government is recruiting more members of staff too.

And he says he disagrees with the questioner. Doing things in hubs outside hospital can improve the service, he says.

Sunak takes questions from audience

The first questioner, Ian, says mortgages have become less affordable since Liz Truss’s mini-budget. Why have you ruined things for young people, and will you do it again?

Sunak asks about Ian’s daughter, who is 19 and was thinking of buying a home.

He says there are two plans in the Tory manifesto that would help: abolishing stamp duty up to £425,000, and a new version of Help to Buy, letting people buy a home with a 5% mortgage.

Updated

Q: You were once popular. Can you tell us something that might make people like you again?

Sunak says people think he has a healthy diet. But he eats a lot of sugar – lots of haribos and Twixes. He is not sure if that will make people like him, but it is something about him, he says.

Sunak refuses to accept tax burden will definitely rise over course of next parliament

Rigby turns to tax. She says Ed Conway, Sky’s economics editor, says the tax burden is going up.

Sunak says he has not seen that analysis. He says he is cutting taxes for people now.

Q: Taxes as a proportion of national income are going up from 36.5% to 36.7% at the end of the next parliament.

Sunak says his plans will bring down tax. He says he has not seen Conway’s numbers.

“Do your homework,” someone shouts.

Q: Are you saying it is not going up a proportion of national income?

Sunak says he does not know how big the economy will be at the end of the next parliament.

Updated

Q: People voted for Brexit to control immigration?

Yes, says Sunak.

Rigby quotes net migration figures – 1.9 million in the last three years, but 836,000 in the three years to Brexit.

Sunak says the numbers are too high. But he is starting to bring them down, he says. The government is on track to halve net migration in a year’s time, he says. He lists measures that have affected this.

Q: What will the legal cap on migration be?

Sunak does not answer that.

Rigby quotes Sunak’s predecessors all saying they would bring immigration down.

Q: Why should anyone believe what you are saying?

That prompts a round of applause.

Sunak says he is bringing net migration down.

Updated

Rigby asks about small boats.

She says numbers are up 40% this year.

Sunak says that is because of one new country, Vietnam, accounting for new arrivals.

Q: Will flights leave in July?

Yes, says Sunak.

Q: How many people will go?

Sunak says the first flight will leave on 24 July.

There will be regular flights.

He does not give details of the numbers. But he says there will be a deterrent.

Q: If you were so confident flights would take off, why did you call an election first?

Sunak says his priority was economic stability. With economic stability established, he felt it was right to give people a choice.

On immigration there is a choice, he says.

Rigby asks about Sunak’s five priorities.

Sunak says bringing down inflation was the most important one. It was 11% when he took power. Now it is back to normal.

There is some shouting from the audience. Sunak says of course he knows things are difficult.

Q: Debt is going up?

Sunak says it has gone up, but is forecast to go down.

There is some laughing from the audience.

He says, when he made the announcement, he made it clear that when he meant was putting debt on a path to fall.

Q: Waiting lists have gone up.

Sunak accepts that. He says he has been clear about that. But now it is coming down. ro

He refers to the question from the doctor earlier.

Rigby suggests he is blaming the doctors.

There is some booing.

Rigby points out that, when he made the pledge, there was industrial action.

It is now going up.

Rigby says she may not have been brilliant at maths, but 7.5m is higher than 7.2m.

(That is the line Keir Starmer used in the ITV debate last week.)

Q: Under the Tories it has been turmoil. How do we know that, if you are elected, you will still be PM in a year’s time?

Sunak ignores the thrust of the question, and says the government has come through a difficult time.

Q: Many people see the Truss premiership as the symbol of Tory chaos?

Sunak says he argued against Truss in the leadership campaign.

Sunak says he felt 'incredibly sad' to have upset people with D-day snub

Rishi Sunak is now being interviewed by Beth Rigby.

She asks about the D-day snub, and Sunak repeats the apology he delivered last week.

Q: How did you feel?

Sunak says he felt “incredibly sad” to cause hurt and upset

Updated

Starmer's peformance - snap verdict

Starmer, and Labour, will be pleased with that. The first five minutes from Beth Rigby was some of the toughest questioning he has faced this campaign, and he wriggled over whether he really meant it when he said Jeremy Corbyn would be a great PM, but settled on an answer that implied he didn’t, but that it was just collegiate loyalty in a campaign he knew Labour would lose – but which might not pass the 100% honesty test, but is conduct most people would be able to accept and condone.

After that he was up and away, much more animated than in the ITV debate, and at times passionate and engaging. He did not win over the whole audience, but the Q&A with voters went well. His answer on schools was particularly strong.

Updated

The next question asks what Labour will do for young people.

Starmer says he understands the challengers the questioner was setting out. He listens, he says. He uses his ears, he indicates. He asks people what change they want to see, he says.

And he thinks young people need good, high-skilled jobs.

And he wants to make it easier for people to build their own home, he says.

Rigby says they are out of time.

The next questioner says he liked Starmer when he was elected, but feels he has turned into a “political robot”. He asks how Starmer can win his vote?

Starmer talks about his commitment to service again, and his time running the CPS.

Q: Do you think you have changed?

Starmer says he thinks he has become “much clearer in my own mind that the country must come first and the party and party politics second”.

The questioner says Starmer does not seem to be answering the question. He suggests he is answering like a lawyer.

The next question is about dentistry, from a woman who has waited a year to get on an NHS dentist’s list.

Starmer says this is a huge problem. Some areas are deserts for NHS dental care.

Labour would fund 700,000 urgent NHS dental appointments and incentivise dentists to set up as NHS dentists.

He talks about being genuinely shocked being told that for 7 to 10 year olds dental problems are the main reason for hospital admission.

Q: Do you use a private dentist?

Starmer says his family is registered with an NHS dentist, but as an adult he does not qualify, he says.

The next question comes from someone who says he sends his daughter to a private school, but would have to stop that if VAT is put on fees. Will the government reconsider?

Starmer says he has nothing against private schools. People who use them want the best for their children. But parents who send their children to state schools want the best for them too.

He says too many children in state schools do not get the teaching they need. That can affect them for life.

So Labour would recruit more teachers, he says.

He says Rishi Sunak wants every child to learn maths until they are 18. He says some schools don’t have the right teachers for maths up to 16.

The next question comes from a doctor who says he earns more working part-time than he does as a newly-qualified doctor. What will Labour do about that?

Starmer says he has been frustrated by how long the strikes have gone on. He says Labour would get in the room and negotiate.

Q: Would you pay them more?

Starmer says they are asking for 35%. He does not think government can pay that.

But he would negotiate on pay, progression, conditions.

The government shuold not have allowed this to run for so long, he says.

He says “almost everything is now in a worse state than when they started in government”. He does not know when that has happened before.

Q: How are you going to do this with no money?

Starmer says there are things Labour could do straight away.

He says the Labour plan to tackle potholes, announced earlier, is something he could do straight away.

He says he told his shadow cabinet ministers they had to have ideas ready for day one.

Starmer takes questions from audience

Starmer is now taking questions from the audience.

Q: What will you do for disadvantaged people in Grimsby?

Starmer rattles through a list of Labour policies. He says he wants to work with people like the people living here.

Starmer says he is not afraid of 'big decisions' he would have to take as PM

Q: Some people think you are boring. Tell us something that will change people’s mind.

Starmer says he believes in service. He worked in Northern Ireland, and he was head of the CPS. And after that he chose to go into politics because he believes in public service. His wife wanted him to get a well-paid lawyer’s job.

Q: What do you fear?

Starmer says he is only worried about the impact of his job on his teenager children.

He is not afraid of difficult decisions. He relishes the chance to change the country, he says,

I don’t fear the big decisions … In fact, I relish the chance to change our country.

Starmer says he is fed up with politicians who promise things, and then say they can’t.

Q: You have chosen not to lift the two-child benefit cap?

Starmer says he will have an anti-poverty programme.

But he says he won’t promise things he cannot deliver.

Starmer says he would be happy to pay more in tax

Rigby says Starmer is in the top 2% of earners.

Q: Would you be happy to pay more tax?

Yes, says Starmer.

I accept I earn a lot of money in the job I have now. But when I grew up, my dad was a tool maker.

The reference to his dad being a tool maker prompts a laugh – because it is something Starmer mentions so often.

He pushes on, talking about how he grew up in a family without much money. It means he understands people in the same situation now. And that is no laughing matter, he says.

Updated

Starmer refuses to rule out putting up capital gains tax

Q: What about capital gains tax? If you make that equal to income tax, you could raise £14bn. That must be attractive?

Starmer says that won’t be in Labour’s manifesto.

Rigby says in 2021 Starmer told her in an interview that Labour was looking at wealth tax options.

Starmer says he is not looking at wealth taxes.

He repeats the point about nothing in the manifesto requiring tax rises.

Rigby says “if it’s not ruled out in the manifesto, it’s on the table”.

Starmer refuses to rule out council tax revaluation in England under Labour

Q: No taxes in the next parliament?

Starmer says no tax rises are required by Labour’s plans.

And he says Labour won’t put up income tax, national insurance and VAT.

Rigby says when Starmer talks about “no plans” for other tax rises, that implies there will be some.

Starmer repeats the point about Labour ruling out certain tax rises.

Q: Labour in Wales has reviewed council tax bands?

Starmer says some people pay too much in council tax.

Rigby says the last council tax valuation was when she was a teenager. And now she is really old, she jokes.

Starmer again sidesteps the question.

Q: What about fuel duty?

Starmer says Labour has supported the fuel duty freeze in the past.

Updated

Starmer says there is nothing in Labour’s manifesto that requires it to raise tax.

Rigby says he is not being specific about top earners.

Starmer says he is not the same as previous leaders; he thinks growth is the way to fund better services, ahead of tax.

Starmer dodges question about whether he genuinely believed Corbyn would be great PM when he said so

Q: Did you mean it when you said Jeremy Corbyn would be a great PM?

Starmer says he was certain at the time that Labour would lose the election.

He campaigned for Labour and he wanted to be a good colleague, he says. But he was certain Labour would not win.

Rigby says he has not answered the question. She asks again – did he mean it?

Starmer repeats the point about being certain Labour would lose.

Rigby says this is a trust issue. People want to know whether he was telling the truth.

Starmer repeats the point about wanting to be a good colleague, campaigning for colleagues.

Starmer rejects claim voters have reason not to trust him

Beth Rigby says Starmer told people Jeremy Corbyn would be a good leader, he campagned for a second referendum, but does not talk about Brexit now, and ditched his leftwing policies. Why should people trust him?

Starmer says, when you lose an election, you must listen to the people.

And when you lose that badly, you don’t look to the voters and say, ‘What on earth do you think you were doing?’ You look at your party and say we have to change.

Q: You accept you have a trust issue?

No, says Starmer. He says he does not accept that. He has changed his party, he says.

Mee says Keir Starmer is going first because they drew lots.

Sky are showing clips of people living locally saying what they want to hear from politicians. There is a lot of dissatisfaction coming through.

Beth Rigby introduces the programme, filmed in Grimsby town hall.

And Sarah-Jane Mee says this is the sort of seat both parties need to win.

This is from Sky News, explaining why they are holding the event in Grimsby.

Grimsby is a place to keep an eye on at the upcoming election.

In 2019, residents voted Tory for the first time since the Second World War.

The old Cleethorpes constituency was always more of a bellwether, having voted Conservative since 2010.

Labour will need a 11.7 point swing to win this newly merged constituency back from the Conservatives.

And here is Rishi Sunak arriving for the Sky leaders event. Keir Starmer is up first.

Charles Walker, who is standing down as a Tory MP, told LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr that Andrea Jenkyns was rude and “disloyal” putting Nigel Farage on her election leaflet. (See 3.23pm and 4.23pm.) Walker said:

I like Nigel Farage. I like Ed Davey. I like Keir Starmer. We get on well when we meet each other, but this is a general election. You tend not to put your opponents on your literature, so I would say it is a foolish and rude thing for Andrea to have done.

Streeting says Tories deliberately talking up prospect of big defeat so people no need to vote for change

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is being interviewed on Sky News ahead of the leaders special. He says when Grant Shapps suggested this morning that Labour was going to get a supermajority, that was a deliberate attempt to stop people voting for the party. He explained:

This is a deliberate calculation to try and persuade millions of people who are undecided … that change is inevitable and therefore you don’t have to go and vote for it.

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer face live TV Q&A on Sky News

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are facing their second big TV event of the election campaign, starting at 7.30pm. It is not a debate, and they are not technically going head to head, but they are both facing a Q&A grilling in the same place (Grimsby), on the same evening, by the same people. When it finishes at 9pm, the pundit class will be opining who won.

Sky News are hosting the event, which they are calling a leaders special.

Beth Rigby, Sky’s political editor, will interview each leader for 20 minutes. As viewers who saw her Partygate interview with Boris Johnson will remember, Rigby is no pushover, and she is more comfortable than most broadcasters with the ‘Why are you so useless?’ style of interrogation. After Rigby has had her go, the leaders will then take questions from the audience for 25 minutes, with the Sky presenter Sarah-Jane Mee helping to compere.

Keir Starmer is going first. After he has had his 45 minutes, Rishi Sunak is up.

After it’s over, I will bringing reaction and analysis.

Lib Dems call for pupil premium extension to help young carers

The Liberal Democrats are calling for schools to be given extra money to provide more help to pupils who are acting as carers for relatives. The party is promoting the idea in a party election broadcast going out tonight which features Ed Davey, the party leader, talking about his own experience as a carer – for his dying mother, when he was a teenager, and now for his severely disabled son.

In a news release, the Lib Dems say there are more than 50,000 children with caring responsibilities in England who could benefit. They says:

Close to three in 10 (27%) young carers miss school, with many dealing with increased pressure on their time due to their caring responsibilities. Research has also shown that a young carer is twice as likely to be unhappy compared with other children.

Introducing a young carers pupil premium would provide more money for schools to help the estimated 54,000 young people currently balancing their caring responsibilities with their education. The extra funding would be in line with the current pupil premium which provides £1,480 per primary school child and £1,050 per secondary school child.

The funding could be used to help identify young carers and provide them with additional support such as tutoring and booster classes.

This would form part of an “education guarantee” for young carers, including ensuring that all schools have a young carers lead and policy.

The funding forms part of an £365m proposed boost to the pupil premium, which gives extra funding to schools to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged children. The Lib Dem plans would see the pupil premium extended to 17-18 year olds and the pupil premium plus extended to children in kinship care. It means an additional 450,000 children would benefit from the pupil premium, taking the total to over 1.3 million pupils in England.

The pupil premium was a policy introduced by the coalition government at the insistence of the Lib Dems.

Proportion of election candidates who are women has fallen to below one third, figures show

Campaigners have expressed concern about research showing that proportion of election candidates who are women has fallen since 2019.

At the last election 34% of candidates were female. But now that is down to 30% – less than a third.

50:50 Parliament, which campaigns to get a proper gender balance in parliament and which produced the figures, said they were a disappointment.

In a news release, the campaign group said:

Although 50:50’s #AskHerToStand campaign has helped raise awareness of the issue and encouraged more women to put themselves forward, the final figures are much lower than anticipated. This is, in part, due to the increase in Reform candidates who are predominantly male, but all of the major parties are down on female candidates, or making very slow progress, compared to 2019.

Here are figures from the group showing for all the main parties showing what proportion of their candidates are female.

Labour: 47% (down from 53% in 2019)

Conservatives: 34% (up from 31%)

Liberal Democrats: 28% (down from 30%)

Greens: 44% (up from 41%)

SNP: 39% (up from 34%)

Reform UK: 16% (not standing in 2019)

Lyanne Nicholl, CEO of 50:50 Parliament, said:

We have around 34 million women and girls in the UK and a vast pool of talent within that number. That we have fewer female candidates being selected than four years ago is worrying.

In the last parliament only 226 women had seats in the commons, meaning there were two times more men than women. To prevent this becoming an ongoing issue for future parliaments, we must address now any obstacles for women in the candidate selection process.

Men still dominate the corridors of power, and without rightful representation, women’s views and perspectives will continue to be missed. We need to put pressure on each party to reach equal representation, and women’s voices and lived experiences need to inform decisions that will impact women in the UK.

MSPs pass bill setting up protest-free buffer zones outside abortion clinics in Scotland

Pro-choice campaigners are celebrating after a bill to designate protest-free buffer zones outside abortion clinics passed by 118 votes to 1 at its final stage in the Scottish parliament this afternoon.

The bill, brought by Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay, establishes 200-metre wide exclusion zones around health care facilities offering abortions after Scotland and the rest of the UK has witnessed an upsurge in anti-abortion activity over the past decade.

Praising campaigners and medical professionals for their determination, Mackay said:

This is for women and medical professionals who have endured protests amid disgraceful scenes in the past while accessing health care, and for all those who may need to go do so in the future.

She said that the legislation “carves into history” the work of the grassroots campaign group Back Off Scotland, as well as the STUC Women’s Committee and BPAS.

A woman’s right to decide what happens to her body is no-one else’s business but her own and that is the message being sent loud and clear across Scotland tonight.

A similar law applies in England, although campaigners have accused the Home Office of producing guidance that waters it down.

And here is the Guardian’s Election Extra podcast, looking at whether the Conservative party has switched tactics and is acknowledging it will lose.

Ben Chu from BBC Verify has posted some good charts on X showing the size of the Green party’s tax and spending pledges compared to other parties’.

And here is Archie Bland’s latest Election Edition briefing.

You can sign up here to receive this as a daily email.

George Monbiot likes the Green party’s manifesto and wants to see Green MPs in the next parliament. He explains why in a column we’ve just launched. Here is an extract.

All governments betray the hopes of their supporters. But Labour is getting its betrayal in early. By ruling out a wealth tax and other measures that could fund our collapsing public services and our increasingly desperate care and welfare needs; by failing to denounce the unfolding genocide in Gaza; by remaining silent about the curtailment of our rights to protest; by breaking its promises on everything from a national care service to the abolition of the House of Lords and a right to roam, Keir Starmer’s party appears to wear betrayal as a badge of honour. This country is desperate for change, but while Starmer mumbles the word in every sentence, he offers as little as he can get away with.

Why? Labour’s anticipatory betrayal is motivated by anticipatory compliance. This means avoiding conflict with billionaire-owned media, the financial, property and fossil fuel sectors, by giving them what they want before they ask. You could call this approach “political realism”. But the “realistic” result is a politics dominated by the sinister rich. Dysfunction and misrule are baked in.

So, whatever the size of Labour’s likely majority, we will need countervailing forces in parliament. Though I have never been a member of any party, I believe our best hope lies with the Green party. It is the only one that has a chance of winning seats in this election that is not beholden to oligarchic power. Its new manifesto offers us everything a genuine Labour party, fit for the 21st century, should be promising.

And here is the full article.

Labour winning with huge majority would be 'deeply unhealthy for democracy', former Tory attorney general Geoffrey Cox claims

Geoffrey Cox, the Tory former attorney general, told the BBC’s Politics Live earlier that if Labour were to win a huge majority, as the polls imply, that would be “deeply unhealthy for democracy”. Cox said:

If you believe the polls at the moment, we are sleepwalking into a one-party socialist state … The reality is, the consequences of that would be horrific, not just for the Conservative party for the country, but also for Labour … An opposition is important.

Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, made a similar argument this morning. (See 9am.) He said: “It’s perfectly legitimate to say the country doesn’t function well when you get majorities the size of Blair’s or even bigger.”

It is undestandable why Conservatives object to the idea of Keir Starmer having an huge majority, but it is not true to say that a government with a large majority does not function well. Cox and Shapps both sat in the 2017 to 2019 parliament, where Theresa May’s government was the most ineffective one Britain has had for decades because it did not have a majority. The Tories did not like the Blair government, but it was effective and it enacted polices, like the minimum wage, devolution to Scotland and Wales and the Human Rights Act, that no subsequent government has reversed. And you would have to be a bold Tory to turn up at party conference and argue that it was a bad thing that Margaret Thatcher won two elections three-figure majorities.

Cox said on Politics Live that he was not predicting a massive Labour majority, just talking about what the polls imply. He said in his seat in Devon the Tories were doing well. He is fighting Torridge and Tavistock, a new seat, where the latest YouGov MRP poll suggests he is ahead of Labour by 38% to 23%. In 2019 the Tories would have beaten Labour by 60% to 18% if the seat had been fought on these boundaries, according to a calcultion by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, politics professors.

Jenkyns says Tories should 'work with wider conservative movement' after election, in olive branch to Reform UK

Andrea Jenkyns has released a statement defending her decision to issue an election leaflet showing her alongside Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, not Rishi Sunak, her own party leader. (See 3.23pm.) As the BBC reports, a spokesperson for Jenkyns saaid:

Andrea is above all, a patriot.

She fought for Brexit alongside politicians from all parties including Labour and Reform and is proud of being able to transcend party politics and put the country first.

She finds it regrettable that party leaders have not been able to see the bigger picture in uniting the right to stop a socialist supermajority.

After the election, Conservative MPs will need to work with a wider conservative movement to achieve their goals and Andrea is one of the best-placed genuine conservatives in her party to help facilitate this.

For the avoidance of any doubt, Andrea is a lifelong conservative and is standing for the Conservative party in the forthcoming election.

She is committed to promoting low-tax, common-sense conservatism.

There is a live debate within the Conservative party about whether, after what is seen as the inevitable election defeat, Tories should unite with Nigel Farage and his party or continue to fight against them. It is clear what Jenkyns thinks.

Dozens of people who were detained to be sent to Rwanda have been freed on bail, according to lawyers, PA Media reports. PA says:

Duncan Lewis Solicitors said it represents 50 people being held ahead of deportation flights the Government wants to see take off in July and that they had all been granted immigration bail in the wake of court hearings.

It comes after campaigners last month called for asylum seekers due to be sent to the east African country to be freed immediately from detention after the Prime Minister said flights would not take off before the general election.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the firm said:

At the end of April, we understand that scores of people were detained pursuant to the Rwanda plan, despite no decisions being made on whether their asylum claims were inadmissible and despite no decisions taken on whether it was safe for them to be removed to Rwanda.

We represent 50 of those detainees & can confirm that they all now have bail. Many clients are survivors of torture & trafficking. The Tribunal, in granting bail, rightly assessed them to not carry a risk of absconding, reaching the rational view that removal was not imminent

The extent to which tax payers’ money has been wasted by detaining people in this way, around the time of the local elections for what appears to be for political gain, when removal was not imminent, needs to be calculated.

Updated

Tory candidate Andrea Jenkyns defends issuing leaflet showing her alongside Nigel Farage

Andrea Jenkyns, the rightwing Conservative candidate in Leeds South West and Morley, who was one of only two Tories in the last parliament to publicly call for Rishi Sunak to quit, has issued an election leaflet which does not feature Sunak but which does include a prominent photograph of her alongside Nigel Farage.

In response to controversy about the leaflet, which implies she has been endorsed by Farage’s party, Reform UK, even though it is running a candidate against her, she posted this on X.

Lots of excitement over my leaflet today... All conservatives must be prepared to come together to prevent a socialist supermajority and the end of Britain as we know it.

Leeds South West and Morley is a new seat, overlapping with much of Morley and Outwood, the old seat represented by Jenkyns. According to the latest YouGov MRP poll, Labour is on course to beat Jenkyns easily, by 49% to 28%.

SNP says, if Tories says Labour on course for 'supermajority', it is safe for Scottish voters to back them, not Starmer

Grant Shapps has also popped up in an SNP press release today. The party says his comment this morning implying Labour is on course for a “supermajority” (see 9am) means it is safe for people to vote SNP in Scotland because they will still get a Labour government.

Martin Docherty-Hughes, who is seeking re-election for the SNP in West Dunbartonshire, said:

Grant Shapps has confirmed what the SNP has been saying for quite some time now: the Tories are toast. This is no longer an election, it’s a coronation.

The real choice now for Scottish voters is who is best placed to represent their values and interests, and who will stand up for them at Westminster when £18bn of public service cuts come hurtling down the line.

The real choice is whether we give Sir Keir Starmer a free pass to impose more public service cuts, or whether we have a strong Scottish voice there to stop him.

The SNP is also pointing out that a few months ago, based on what the polls were suggesting, Prof Sir John Curtice, the elections specialist, said Labour did not need to win a single seat in Scotland to get a substantial majority.

Labour claims Sunak's national service policy has 'blown up' after Shapps says military option lasts just 25 days, not full year

Teenagers joining the army under Rishi Sunak’s national service plan would only serve for 25 days, not a whole year as originally implied, Grant Shapps said this morning.

When Rishi Sunak announced the surprised national service plan at the start of the election campaign, he said: “We will introduce a bold new model of national service for 18-year-olds, to be spent either in a competitive, full-time military commission over 12 months, or with one weekend per month volunteering in the community.”

And in the Conservative party’s manifesto published yesterday, the military option is described as “a year-long full-time placement in the armed forces or cyber defence”.

The assumption that 30,000 18-year-olds would serve a year in the armed forces under the plan largely explains why Labour has been saying the plan would cost double the £2.5bn set aside for it by the Tories.

But in an interview this morning, when asked about the cost of the plan, Shapps, the defence secretary, said the people doing the military option would only serve for 25 days. He said:

It’s not as you present it, 30,000 people for over an entire year. It’s 25 days a year for those 30,000 – and I think those places will be massively sought after.

Responding for Labour, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said Shapps’ comments showed the policy was in disarray. He said:

The defence secretary has completely blown up the prime minister’s flagship manifesto commitment. Where Rishi Sunak has said 30,000 young people would serve for twelve months in the armed forces under his national service scheme, Shapps has now said they will only serve 25 days.

This is what happens when you have a Conservative party making up policy as it goes along, and working out how much their pledges will cost the taxpayer after they’ve already been announced. It is a symbol of the utter desperation at the heart of this Conservative campaign, and the chaos at the heart of their government.

Rhun ap Iorwerth urges Labour supporters to vote Plaid Cymru so Starmer, with big majority, held to account

It is not just the Conservative party that has started urging people to vote, not to put them in government, but to limit the size of Labour’s majority. (See 9am.) In Wales Plaid Cymru is trying the same tactic. Its leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has written an open letter to Labour supporters urging them to back his party to hold Labour to account. He says:

In 1997, Tony Blair secured a sweeping majority. There was a sense of real change on offer. More than a quarter of a century later, we face a similar scenario whereby a UK Labour government seems inevitable after 14 years of a disastrous Tory administration.

There is, however, a palpable sense that the change on offer by Labour this time around doesn’t amount to the kind of radical change we need.

The bold, ambitious ideas required to rebuild our economy after the chaos of Trussonomics, the courage to speak out when Farage and his ilk spread their lies about immigration, and the compassion to scrap the two-child benefit cap are nowhere to be seen.

Every single poll tells us that the Tories are finished, so this election most also be an opportunity to constructively hold an incoming Labour government to account.

If you believe in the values of social justice, international peace, economic fairness for Wales and support the right of local voices to be heard, I ask you to consider supporting Plaid Cymru at this election.

The more Plaid Cymru MPs we have in Westminster, the more likely it is that Wales’s voice will be heard and our nation’s needs no longer ignored.

Rishi Sunak told journalist travelling with him on the campaign today that he was “pumped” ahead of tonight’s Sky News event.

Asked how he was feeling, he said:

I’m always pumped – I’m fuelled by an enormous amount of sugar.

Earlier this week Sunak told reporters that he had abandoned his habit of fasting on Mondays during the campaign. He has a sweet tooth, and he’s fond of sugary snacks.

IFS says some of Greens' tax plans 'sensible', but it's 'unlikely' they would raise as much as party claims

Good afternoon. I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up from Amy Sedghi. I’ll be here for the rest of the day, covering the Sky News “leaders special” at 7.30pm.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has just published its assessement of the Green party’s manifesto. The plans would “see the size of the state increase on an unprecedented scale”, the IFS says. It argues that some of their tax plans look sensible, but that they would not raise as much as the party claims, and that there would be an economic cost.

Here is an extract.

Many of the measures would combine to increase disincentives to work and to invest. Accounting for the fact that we would expect potentially large responses to such a significant increase in taxes, it is unlikely that the measures would raise as much revenue as expected. And while some of the measures are targeted at the wealthy, the effects of the package would be much broader. Most obviously, it would be impossible to raise over £90 billion from taxing carbon emissions without the effect being felt by everyone.

It is clear where the Green Party’s ambitions lie - a much bigger role for the state, better funded public services, and, of course, a swifter transition to net zero. It is unlikely that the specific tax raising measures they propose to help achieve all this would raise the sorts of sums they claim - and certainly not without real economic cost.

If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.

Nigel Farage offered additional private security by the Home Office after objects thrown during campaigning

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been offered additional private security by the Home Office after a milkshake and other objects have been thrown at him during campaigning for the general election, reports the PA news agency.

A cup and another object were thrown at Farage while he was on top of a party battlebus in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, on Tuesday.

This followed an incident last week in which a milkshake was thrown over Farage as he left the Moon and Starfish Wetherspoon’s pub in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex. Two people have been charged over the incidents.

According to the PA news agency, it is understood that the Home Office has been in touch with the Reform UK leader to offer additional private security.

Police officials say it is difficult to work out the intentions of people in crowds when would-be MPs are out campaigning, but that the candidates may not want to be put in a bubble as they try to speak to the public.

Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), said it was “really important” the election campaign was “peaceful and well run” and “policing has a strong role to play in that”.

Stephens told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday:

There has been a period where we have seen murders of people who are elected into office. And that is a threat that we want to bring all of our resources to bear to counter the change in sort of societal hostility, the lack of tolerance.

Understanding the spill over of polarised issues into threats of violence is clearly something where policing has a very strong role to take … What I am clear on is the policing has a very strong role to play in our primary mission of keeping the King’s peace.

And throughout this campaign activity it’s really important to us and all of our local communities that it’s a peaceful and well run campaign that democracy can function well, and we recognise that policing has a strong role to play in that.”

The Home Office offers basic security guidance and briefings to all candidates and consider requests for additional, enhanced security measures on a case-by-case basis.

The PA news agency reports that the government has allocated £31m for protective security measures for elected representatives and candidates.

The thinktank Autonomy Institute have said that the Green party are offering “exactly the type of policies needed to transform the workplace in Britain”.

Responding to the Green party’s manifesto launch today, Will Stronge, director of research at the Autonomy Institute said:

A four-day working week, £15 an hour minimum wage and 10:1 pay ratios are exactly the type of policies needed to transform the workplace in Britain.

The Green party can’t win the election but we wouldn’t be surprised if the policies they have announced today end up being taken up and adopted by the next government.

British workplaces are in desperate need of radical change and these policies lay the foundations for a better future of work.”

Updated

SNP and Labour even in Scotland, poll suggests

The SNP and Labour have drawn even in Scotland in Westminster voting, a poll suggests.

A survey by Ipsos for STV spoke to 1,150 people across the country between 3 and 9 June and found both parties level on 36%.

The PA news agency reports that the SNP has dropped three points compared with the firm’s last poll in January, while Labour have increased their vote by 4%. The Tories sit on 13% while the Lib Dems and Scottish Greens are on 5% and 3% respectively – with all three dropping a single point since January.

Reform UK have also increased their vote by one point to 4%, while Alba remain on 1%.

Every leader in Scotland received a negative net approval rating, with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar recording -1% compared with -2% for first minister John Swinney.

Scottish Conservatives’ Douglas Ross’s rating was -29% – although the question was asked before he announced his intention to stand down, reports the PA news agency.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak also proved intensely unpopular with respondents, with 79% reporting they were dissatisfied with his performance, achieving a net rating of -64%. Labour leader Keir Starmer’s rating was -12%.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Swinney said he was “encouraged” by the poll. He said:

This is a very different poll to the ones we’ve seen up until now which I think indicates the SNP is engaging strongly with the public.

But we’ve got three more weeks to go, we’ve got a lot to set out to the public before polling day.

We’ll be doing that because I want people in Scotland to understand that only by having SNP MPs in Westminster will they be protected from the austerity that the Labour party is now proposing to deliver on the people of our country.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said:

Voters know that in key seats across Scotland it’s a straight fight between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP – and these battles will be extremely close.

Stephen Flynn has said that every SNP MP elected will double down on their independence obsession, instead of focusing on the people’s priorities – fixing Scotland’s ailing public services and creating good jobs.

The only way to stop this is to defeat the SNP – and that means voting Scottish Conservative in the seats where only we are capable of beating them.”

Elsewhere, support for independence among the respondents sat at 51% among decided voters, compared with 49% of those opposed. The PA news agency reports that the poll also suggested a soft vote that could lean heavily to Labour.

According to the PA, 55% of respondents said they had definitely decided where their vote would go, but of those who said they had not, 24% said they could move to Labour.
Of those who said they would vote SNP, 64% said they would definitely do so, compared with 55% for Labour and 43% for the Conservatives.

Emily Gray, the managing director of Ipsos in Scotland, said even small moves in vote share could make a “big difference” to the final result given the profile of marginal constituencies and parties have “a huge amount to play for in the remaining weeks of the campaign”.

Updated

Senior political correspondent Peter Walker has also put together the five key takeaways from the Green party election manifesto.

It’s a handy and concise guide which fills you in on the main points of the party’s election manifesto titled Real Hope, Real Change:

The Greens have launched their election manifesto with an appeal to voters to help them into parliament as a challenge to what they termed the unambitious, “more of the same” policies of Labour.

Setting out their plans in Brighton and Hove, the location of one of the party’s key target seats, the co-leaders, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, said their proposals for higher taxes – mainly on wealthier people – were the only realistic way to improve public services and undertake vital environmental policies.

“This manifesto isn’t more of the same,” Ramsay told a crowd of activists at the Sussex county cricket club ground. “It’s a look at what things could be like – and soon, if we’re willing to invest at the rate necessary – and to be bold and ambitious.”

He added: “We reject the pessimism of the other parties who don’t believe we can safeguard our publicly funded health system, that we can’t provide warm and secure homes for everyone, that tackling the climate crisis is too challenging for us.”

Setting out ideas including a four-day working week, the nationalisation of water and energy firms, and mass-scale plans to build new homes and insulate existing ones, Denyer said the UK should not accept “an economy when most people are working harder and yet getting poorer”.

She accused the Conservatives and Labour of “a race to the bottom on tax” and went on: “They think that people don’t cotton on that this means even more devastating cuts to public services, like the NHS, that we rely on every day.”

Other policies set out in the manifesto, titled Real Hope, Real Change, include a maximum 10:1 pay gap ratio for both public and private companies; rent controls; a £49bn investment programme over the next five years to insulate homes and public buildings; and a plan to let councils requisition empty properties or ones without proper insulation.

The plans would be financed by tax changes including a wealth levy of 1% on individual taxpayers with assets worth £10m or more, rising to 2% for those with assets above £1bn. Capital gains tax would be aligned with income tax, and higher earners would pay more national insurance.

Sunak insists he has 'absolutely not' lost hope of winning general election

Rishi Sunak insisted he had “absolutely not” lost hope of winning the general election as Tory allies warned about the risk of Labour winning a “supermajority”.

The prime minister warned against giving Keir Starmer a “blank cheque” if he won power, but stressed that he was still hopeful of victory.

His comments came after defence secretary Grant Shapps suggested the Tories were now fighting to prevent a 1997-style Labour landslide.

The PA news agency reports that when asked by journalists if the change in tone showed the Tories had conceded defeat, Sunak said:

No absolutely not. What you saw yesterday is we’ve put a manifesto forward which has got a very clear set of tax cuts for the country, tax cuts at every stage of your life.

Whether you’re working or setting up a small business, tax cuts when you’re trying to buy your first home, tax cut for pensioners, and tax cuts for families.

And I’m really energised to now have a chance to put a very clear plan to the country and talk about all the things I want to do.”

He added that the manifesto showed a “clear direction of travel” that the Tories would take if they win the election.

Updated

Away from the Green party manifesto launch for a moment, the Guardian video team have shared a clip of Ed Davey slipping and falling into the water while navigating a water obstacle course at an aqua park in Warwickshire.

It was filmed as a BBC News reporter was about to give an update from the campaign trail live on TV.

Responding to the Green party manifesto launch today, Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK policy director, said:

There is no long term prosperity or security for anyone without tackling the climate and nature crisis, and the Green party manifesto clearly recognises this.

Both the Green party and the Lib Dems have now drawn a clear line in the sand between them and the Labour party on the common sense notion that the very richest people should pay more to fix our crumbling country.

We keep hearing from the main parties that there’s no money to fund vital services and climate action, but that’s clearly not true. Not only do the super-rich have the broadest shoulders, but they are also responsible for the most climate damage. It’s only right that they pay more towards upgrading our homes, infrastructure and public services.

Wealth taxes are popular with voters. The main parties should follow the lead the Green party has set out on wealth taxes, boosting the green economy, and prioritising action on climate and nature.”

Prof Sir John Curtice, senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research (Natcen), was asked by BBC News earlier “if trust in governments can ever be won back?”.

Curtice replied:

I think the answer to that question is yes. I mean, although it’s true that there has been a long term decline in trust and confidence in our politics it’s not been simply a straightforward path.

For example, trust and confidence fell quite markedly during the MP expenses scandal but it did then recover somewhat when that was resolved.

Certainly we were deeply unhappy back in 2019 – that was the last time we had record low levels in trust and cofidence – because of the Brexit stalemate, but then when Brexit got resolved at least that half of the country that had voted in favour of it [Brexit], their levels of trust and confidence did markedly improve.

The only problem is that group of people, i.e those who voted leave, are now rather dissapointed with the outcome of Brexit so therefore their trust and confidence has fallen all the way back again and that is one of the reasons why we are where we are.

But, I wouldn’t be utterly despairing but I think certainly what is true however is that there are questions raised here for our politicians about the style that they adopt.”

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay argued that nuclear weapons are an “outdated system” at the manifesto launch in Hove, East Sussex.

Challenged on the party’s stance against investment in nuclear weapons, given Russia’s threat to Europe’s eastern border, Ramsay said:

So many people who have got a long history in the military have been clear that the investment in nuclear weapons is not a good use of public funds – that it’s an outdated system.

And even Michael Portillo when he was defence secretary said very similar.

We need to make sure that the money we’re putting into defence is used effectively on personnel, on the great work that our army does for humanitarian work around the world and which we can continue to step up.

“So this is about making good use of that funding and not investing in an outdated system,” he said, followed by a round of applause from the room.

Rishi Sunak said he was “very, very fortunate” growing up after a backlash over his claim that he went without “a lot of things” as a child, reports the PA news agency.

The prime minister said he was most grateful to his parents for providing him with an “enormous amount of love” more than “the material things”.

On whether he accepted he had had a privileged upbringing, he told journalists on Wednesday:

I was very, very fortunate that my parents had good jobs.

My dad was a GP, my mum was a pharmacist, and they worked really hard to support me and my brother and sister and I’m really grateful to them for that and actually more importantly than material things, what they did for all of us was instil in us a sense of hard work, and service, but also just provide an enormous amount of love.

And that’s the most important thing that they did for us. And I’m very grateful for that. And that’s why I say I’m very fortunate. But the reality of the situation is my grandparents emigrated in this country, with very little and in three generations, I’m sitting here talking to you as prime minister.

And I think that says an enormous amount about our country because I don’t think my story will be possible, pretty much anywhere else.”

Updated

Greens 'being honest' about investment needed', says Denyer defending 'ambitious' spending pledges

After the Green party manifesto launch speeches, co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer answered questions by journalists at the event.

Asked by a BBC reporter about the costings of the Green party manifesto pledges and whether they were “being honest” about being able to raise the money needed to implement them, Denyer said:

Yes, we absolutely are. Our manifesto is fully costed. A lot of work has gone into it over many months. I think that the Green party was actually more ready for this general election than some of the other parties from the look of it.

We’ve got more parlimanetary candidates standing than the Conservative party, for example.

Obviously, voters and viewers can pore over our manifesto in detail now, but yes, we do have some ambitious spending commitments and the Green party are the only party being honest that that is the level of investment needed to get the kind of public services we need in this country.

And, we’re not shy about talking about the changes to the tax system which would taken the onus of those on the lowest incomes and put it on those with the broadest shoulders who can most afford to pay a little bit extra for the public services that benefit everyone.”

Updated

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said it’s “not good enough” that the Conservatives have allowed water companies to “pump their filthy sewage” into rivers and lakes.

Speaking at an aqua park in Warwickshire, he said he is going to put a stop to the “sewage scandal” by creating a “powerful, tougher” regulator.

According to the PA news agency, he said:

We’ve seen the stats on sewage. It’s getting worse, not better.

Their regulator has not been strong enough. It’s been there but the sewage scandal has happened while it’s been in place, so it needs to go.”

Speaking about what powers the Clean Water Authority would have over Ofwat, the existing regulator, Davey said:

It will have the powers of Ofwat and other powers from the Environment Agency, and elsewhere to really get to grips with this scandal.

We don’t want to make water bill payers pick up the tab. I think the water companies have a moral obligation.”

Updated

Key points from the Green party manifesto launch

Here are the key election pledges the Green party announced today as it launched its manifesto:

  • Invest £50bn in health and social care to “defend and restore the NHS”, including a guarantee for an NHS dentist for everyone.

  • Overhaul tax system “to make it fairer” – a tax on the top 1% of people.

  • Invest £30bn over five years in insulating homes.

  • Create 150,000 new social homes every year by the end of the next parliament.

  • End the Right to Buy scheme.

  • Stop all new fossil fuel projects in the UK and cancel those that have been recently licensed like Rosebank.

  • To bring water companies, railways and the ‘big five’ retail energy companies into public ownership.

  • Scrap tuition fees.

  • A new Clean Air Act to “safeguard children’s health”.

  • Invest in public transport and support to switch to electric vehicles.

  • Make personal social care free at the point of use, like the NHS.

  • Bring mental health treatment up to the same standard as physical health.

  • Restore “ailing” high streets, both rural and urban, by investing in small and medium-sized businesses.

Updated

Keir Starmer was pressed on his childhood deprivations after Rishi Sunak told ITV his household could not afford Sky.

Starmer said there was “certainly no Sky tv” in his own household.

“We had to go without a phone on a number of occasions. And I put a football through my window and we couldn’t afford to mend it for a while. We had to put a board up. I’m not pleading poverty but these are some of issues that arise in a working-class family when you are living through a cost of living crisis.”

During the visit in Grimsby ahead of Wednesday’s TV debates, Starmer also inspected cars damaged by pot holes, as part of Labour’s push to fix millions of roads.

He told reporters that he wanted to “make life easier for drivers” and that he personally “loved driving, it’s in my blood”.

The Tories have tried to paint Labour as having anti-motorist policies in Wales with its efforts to bring in more 20mph speed limits and its London mayoral campaign against Ulez expansion in the capital. Rishi Sunak said this week that he would have a national policy against LTNs and 20mph.

Starmer said he did not want such policies to be nationally imposed but he made clear he would not stand in the way of councils that want to bring in more 20mph zones and low traffic neighbourhoods.

Starmer also talked about one of his first cars, a Morris Minor known as “The Hedge”.

“It fell apart pretty quickly. It was called the Hedge because it was so dilapidated and moss was growing out of it,” he said.

Starmer now drives a Toyota Hybrid car but said he does not drive as much as he would like because of security.

Updated

Ramsay says the other parties are “running away from their promises on the climate”. He says “only the Greens understand that the solutions to the climate crisis are the also the solutions to the cost of living crisis.”

He says the Green party will:

  • Stop all new fossil fuel projects in the UK and cancel those that have been recently licensed like Rosebank.

  • Invest in public transport and support to switch to electric vehicles.

Denyer says other key manifesto pledges include:

  • Bringing water companies back into public ownership.

  • Scrapping tuition fees.

  • Increasing the budget for schools so “teachers don’t have to choose between books and Biros”.

  • A new Clean Air Act to “safeguard our children’s health”.

Updated

Denyer has described the insecurity in the rental market as an “unaddressed crisis in housing”. She says the Green party would offer “genuinely affordable housing” through its Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price charter.

She says the Green party would:

  • Create 150,000 new social homes every year by the end of the next parliament.

  • End the Right to Buy scheme

  • Invest £30bn over five years in insulating homes up and down the country to reduce emissions and bring energy bills “down for good”.

Ramsay says the Green party would make personal social care free at the point of use, like the NHS, bring mental health treatment up to the same standard as physical health and would say a “categorical no to privitisation in our health service”.

What have the Greens announced?

In simple bullet points, here is what the Green party has announced in its manifesto so far:

  • To bring water companies, railways and the ‘big five’ retail energy companies into public ownership.

  • Restore “ailing” high streets, both rural and urban, by investing in small and medium-sized businesses.

  • Overhaul tax system “to make it fairer” – a tax on the top 1% of people.

  • Investment of £50bn in health and social care to “defend and restore the NHS”, including a guarantee for an NHS dentist for everyone.

  • To spend £29bn over the next five years to insulate homes

The manifesto has now been published in full online, you can read it here.

Updated

Greens say top 1% will have to pay more tax as they launch manifesto

Green party co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer are speaking.

Denyer begins by saying the Green party’s manifesto is about “investing to mend broken Britain”, and offering “real hope, and real change”.

Ramsay says he rejects the “pessimism of the other parties”.

They say Labour and the Tories are having a “race to the bottom” on tax

Denyer said:

Our manifesto is based on investing to mend broken Britain and offer real hope and real change.

We would overhaul our tax system to make it fairer. At the heart of this would be a tax on the very richest, the top 1% of people requiring them to pay a bit more into the pot. From the Tories and Labour, we’ve been hearing a race to the bottom on tax.

They think two pence off here and a penny off there will impress voters and they think that people won’t cotton on that this means even more devastating cuts to public services like the NHS that we rely on every day.

Ramsay added:

Our manifesto is about the sort of country we want to live in, where we move beyond the politics of fear and distrust.

Updated

Siân Berry has kicked off the Green party’s election manifesto by talking about renting. She says she’s a renter and has been all her life. “For renters up and down the country the uncertainity of renting is something that keeps them up at night,” she says.

The Green party will launch its manifesto soon. You can watch the launch taking place in Hove, East Sussex here:

Updated

Starmer says local government, not central government, should be deciding on 20mph zones

Keir Starmer said decisions on low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and 20mph zones should be left up to local areas, not central government.

Asked if he backed LTNs, he told reporters at the Grimsby Institute:

I think this is very much a matter for local people in their area to decide according to their local council.

So I don’t think government should be dictating what happens, it’s for local authorities to decide according to their local population.

Outside a school, do I think it’s a good idea to have low traffic? Yes I do and I doubt there’s a parent across the country that would say they want to get rid of low traffic outside schools.”

On 20mph zones, he said: “I don’t think they should be mandated by central government. I don’t think central government should be getting involved.

Updated

Trust in British politics hits record low, latest BSA survey finds

Public trust and confidence in government and politicians is at a record low, fuelled by anger over Partygate lies, perceived broken promises over Brexit and crumbling public services, according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey.

Plummeting faith in the effectiveness and integrity of MPs and the wider UK political system reflects what the BSA calls “significant changes in the public mood” as a result of political and economic turmoil since the last general election in 2019.

“All in all, it appears that people’s trust in governments and politicians, and confidence in their systems of government, is as low now as it has ever been over the last 50 years, if not lower,” the survey said.

Dissatisfaction with the way the UK is governed is now at 79% – as high as it was during the Brexit parliamentary deadlock of 2019 – and higher than in the wake of scandals over MPs’ expenses in 2010 and MPs’ sleaze in 1995, the survey found.

Labour says it will urgently consider stripping Avanti West Coast of contract if it wins election

Labour has said it will urgently consider stripping Avanti West Coast of its train operating contract if it wins the general election.

According to the PA news agency, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh claimed the company has provided “woeful service” on the West Coast Main Line.

Office of Rail and Road figures show Avanti West Coast had the third worst reliability of all operators in Britain in the year to the end of March, with the equivalent of one in 15 trains (6.9%) cancelled.

The Conservative government awarded Avanti West Coast a new long-term contract starting in October last year. The agreement is for up to nine years but can be terminated with three months’ notice at any point from October 2026.

PA reports that when asked about Labour’s plan to bring train services into public ownership, Haigh told Sky News:

Our commitment is to bring in those contracts as they expire or when they are breached.

I anticipate I will be seeking advice early on whether Avanti has been in breach of its contract given the woeful service that it’s been providing to passengers down the West Coast Main Line.

No ifs, no buts, October 2026 will be the last date Avanti will have notice of that contract [ending] but I will ask for early advice about whether they have already breached their contract and whether it can be brought in any earlier.”

Avanti West Coast – owned by FirstGroup and Trenitalia – was approached by the PA news agency for a comment.

Updated

As mentioned earlier, Rishi Sunak has faced criticism for his comments about going without Sky TV as a child.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said that “every time the PM opens his mouth he shows how out of touch he is”. In a post on X, Nowak wrote: “His government has impoverished millions, but that’s OK because he had to do without Sky Sports as a kid.”

Labour’s Jess Phillips has also reacted to the prime minister’s comments. Sharing a post by the Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, in which Crerar said Sunak’s Sky TV comment “will do little to convince voters he can relate”, Phillips wrote:

Yesterday a pensioner called my office for a food bank voucher. She was one of many yesterday, it’ll be the same today. It’s the same every day. One (just one) of my local food banks gave our 1000th referral a box of chocolates. That was years ago.

Rishi Sunak says he went without 'lots of things' including Sky TV as a child – video

In an interview with ITV due to be broadcast on Wednesday evening, Rishi Sunak says he went without “lots of things” as a child, including Sky TV.

Sunak was pressed in the interview by the ITV journalist Paul Brand to give examples of things he didn’t have a child to which he replied: “There’ll be all sorts of things that I would’ve wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have. Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”

Sunak defended his upbringing, however, arguing that he was raised to appreciate hard work: “My parents worked very hard for what they had and they wanted their kids to have a better life.”

The Green party are due to launch its manifesto in about an hour with an event in Hove.

Co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer will be joined by deputy leader Zack Polanski and parliamentary candidates including Sian Berry.

Ahead of the launch, my colleague Peter Walker has written about how the Greens hope to win renters’ votes with housing commitments in its election manifesto. He writes:

The Greens are reaching out to renters with a huge election commitment on new and environmentally friendly housing, including a plan to let councils requisition empty properties or ones without proper insulation.

Among other housing commitments in the party’s manifesto being launched on Wednesday is a proposed £49bn investment programme over the next five years to insulate homes and public buildings, and to fit properties with heat pumps.

You can read Peter’s full piece here:

Anas Sarwar has said there will be no austerity under a Labour government as he fended off accusations from the SNP during an ill-tempered BBC Scotland leaders’ debate.

The first minister and SNP leader John Swinney repeatedly claimed on Tuesday evening that “independent experts said there would be £18bn of cuts after this election whether the Conservatives or Labour party form the government”. The audience loudly applauded Sarwar when he countered: “Read my lips: no austerity under Labour.”

Swinney told the audience that “Anas is not being straight with you” – quoting research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Institute for Government and Joseph Rowntree Foundation and arguing that Labour had “accepted the fiscal constraints of the Tories”.

Sarwar responded: “I will not disagree when it comes to the carnage the Conservatives have imposed on this country, and the state of their public finances. In 23 days’ time the choice that people have is that they can wake up to five more years of Rishi Sinak, Liz Truss … or we can get rid of the whole sleazy lot of them.”

During the debate, broadcast from Glasgow University’s Bute Hall in front of an audience of Scottish voters, the chair Stephen Jardine struggled at times to maintain order as Sarwar, Swinney and the Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross shouted over one another.

The hour-long programme was punctuated by audience questions expressing frustration with the cost of living and the state of public services – which Swinney’s Scottish government is responsible for – alongside attacks on the SNP leader’s record from his political opponents.

The Guardian’s economics editor, Larry Elliot, has written an analysis piece on the latest GDP figures and what they mean for the prime minister

He writes:

Rishi Sunak must be cursing the British weather. He got soaked to the skin when announcing the general election outside 10 Downing Street last month. Now it appears wet weather has brought a halt to the UK’s economic recovery.

You can read Larry’s full analysis piece here:

Shapps gives wrong figure for stamp duty policy in LBC interview

Defence secretary Grant Shapps gave the wrong figure for the government’s stamp duty policy during an interview on LBC Radio.

He told presenter Nick Ferrari that stamp duty would be abolished for first-time buyers on homes valued up to £450,000, but later in the show Ferrari put it to Shapps that the policy’s real figure is £425,000.

Shapps said: “You’ve got a number in front of you, you’re probably right, because I was thinking off the top of my head.”

Ferrari replied: “So you’re the secretary of defence, sent out to talk today, and you don’t even get the figure right …”

Shapps replied: “If it’s written down as 425 it’s 425. Off the top of my head I remember it as 450. I found it here … you’re right, it’s 425 million …”

Ferrari then interrupted, saying “I think it’s £425,000.” Shapps said: “Sorry, indeed.”

Updated

On the news that the UK economy flatlined in April (see 09.07 BST), there’s been some reaction on the latest release by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Rishi Sunak claims we have turned a corner, but the economy has stalled and there is no growth.”

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said: “The Conservatives have utterly failed to deliver the growth they repeatedly promised, instead presiding over stagnation and economic misery for hardworking families across the country.”

But, according to the PA news agency, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the figures showed the economy “grew by 0.7% in the three months to April”. “There is more to do, but the economy is turning a corner and inflation is back down to normal,” he said.

Hunt said the Tories had a plan to grow the economy and cut taxes but voting Labour would “risk all that progress”.

Rishi Sunak has said that he went without “lots of things” as a child growing up in the UK, citing Sky TV as an example.

In an interview with ITV to be broadcast on Wednesday, the prime minister said a lot of sacrifices were made by his parents as education was their priority.

Pressed to give an example of something that he grew up without, Sunak said: “There’ll be all sorts of things that I would’ve wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have. Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”

Sunak, who was educated at the private boarding school Winchester College in Hampshire, said: “What is more important is my values and how I was raised. And I was raised in a household where hard work was really important … service to your community was important. And my parents worked very hard for what they had and they wanted their kids to have a better life.”

The interview with ITV’s Paul Brand created a big election headache for Sunak last week, with the prime minister forced to apologise for missing part of the D-day commemorations in France to record it.

The prime minister was heavily criticised for leaving the 80th anniversary events early for a pre-recorded programme, with opposition parties calling it crass and a dereliction of duty.

During the interview, the Conservative leader apologised to Brand for his lateness and told him the “incredible” commemorations in Normandy “all just ran over”.

Updated

The UK economy flatlined in April, held back by wet weather, as the signs of a recovery from last year’s recession began to fade.

In a blow to Rishi Sunak’s hopes of signalling a strong bounceback before the general election next month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said monthly growth slowed after a 0.4% increase in March.

The economy was unable to maintain its momentum after being weighed down by the struggling retail sector, a downturn in manufacturing and a drop in construction output.

The 0.0% growth figure matched the forecast by City economists, who blamed the month’s heavy rains for difficulties faced by workers on building sites and the lack of shoppers on the high street.

Paul Dales, the chief UK economist at the consultancy Capital Economics, said the economy could begin to grow again during the summer.

“Despite the stalling of the recovery in April, the dual drags on economic growth from higher interest rates and higher inflation will continue to fade throughout the year. That will generate a bit of an economic tailwind for the next government,” he said.

Updated

Grant Shapps suggests Tories are fighting to prevent Labour securing a 'supermajority'

Defence secretary Grant Shapps suggested the Tories were fighting to prevent Labour securing a “supermajority” bigger even than the 1997 landslide.

According to the Press Association (PA), the defence secretary told Times Radio the Tories were still fighting for every seat and “the polls have been wrong before”. But he said to ensure proper accountability “you don’t want to have somebody receive a supermajority” along the line of Tony Blair’s in 1997.

Shapps said:

In this case, of course, the concern would be that if Keir Starmer were to go into No 10 – it will either be Rishi Sunak, or Keir Starmer there’s no other outcomes to this election – and that power was in some way unchecked, it would be very bad news for people in this country.

A blank cheque approach allowing someone to do anything they wanted, particularly when their particular set of plans are so vague, and they say ‘change’, but you have no idea what they actually want to change to, other than the fact that they’ve outlined plans which would cost £2,094 to every working family in this country.

It’s perfectly legitimate to say the country doesn’t function well when you get majorities the size of Blair’s or even bigger and we would say there are a lot of very good, hardworking MPs who can hold the government of the day to account and we’d say those are Conservative MPs.”

Updated

Sunak labelled 'out of touch' over Sky TV comments

Good morning. Rishi Sunak has been criticised for being out of touch after saying he had gone without Sky TV as a child. The comments were made in an ITV interview that will air tonight at 7pm.

During the interview, the prime minister was asked by ITV Tonight presenter Paul Brand if he had ever gone without something? Sunak replied: “Yes, I mean, my family emigrated here with very little. And that’s how I was raised. I was raised with the values of hard work.” Pressed on what exactly he’d gone without as a child, the prime minister said: “Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak criticised Sunak saying “every time the PM opens his mouth he shows how out of touch he is”. In a post on X, Nowak wrote: “His government has impoverished millions, but that’s OK because he had to do without Sky Sports as a kid.”

Criticism of Sunak’s absence at the D-day international ceremony will also likely rumble on, with the prime minister stating that the 80th anniversary commeration had “run over”. In the ITV interview, he tells Brand: “It was incredible, but it just ran over.”

Meanwhile, here are some of the main developments we can expect on the general election campaign on Wednesday:

  • This evening Sunak and Keir Starmer will both face questions as part of a Sky News leaders special taking place in Grimsby. They will answer questions from journalist Beth Rigby and the studio audience.

  • Prior to the live broadcast, Sunak is expected to be out campaigning in north-east Lincolnshire after the launch of the Tories’ manifesto on Tuesday, which proposed to halve immigration and tax cuts totalling £17.2bn.

  • Starmer will be championing Labour’s pledge to spend £380m fixing one million potholes every year. The Labour leader will visit the north-east alongside shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh, who has accused the Tories of failing drivers, adding that Labour is the only party “truly on the side of drivers”. Under the proposals, Labour has promised to fund local authorities to improve the condition of local roads and break down planning barriers to ensure vital upgrades to infrastructure is delivered on time and to budget.

  • The Green party will pledge to raise taxes for the wealthiest in society and mend “broken Britain” in its election manifesto, which is due to be launched at 11am.
    A tax on multimillionaires and billionaires will be used to fund improvements to health, housing, transport and the green economy, the party said. Ahead of the manifesto launch in Brighton and Hove, the party’s co-leader Adrian Ramsay said the party intends to change the “conspiracy of silence” on taxes by creating a fairer system and asking those “with the broadest shoulders to pay more”.

  • Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey will be championing the party’s plans for a new clean water authority to replace Ofwat as he pays a visit to the West Midlands and the home counties. The party has promised to “end the sewage scandal” by transforming water firms into public benefit companies, banning bonuses for water bosses until discharges and leaks stop, and replacing Ofwat with a new regulator.

I’m Amy Sedghi and if you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or email me at amy.sedghi@guardian.co.uk.

Updated

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