End of the day summary …
Keir Starmer has denied that Diane Abbott has been banned from standing as a Labour MP at the next election, as the saga over the potential end to her 40-year career in the party risked descending into chaos. The Labour leader’s comments directly contradicted newspaper briefings that the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, who was suspended from the party in April 2023 for comments she made about racism, was being barred from standing again
Scotland’s former health secretary has been suspended as an MSP and docked 54 days’ pay for wrongly claiming an £11,000 iPad bill on expenses. MSPs voted by a large margin to suspend Matheson for 27 days, as well as having his pay docked, after SNP ministers and backbenchers abstained on the orders of John Swinney, the first minister and SNP leader
The British Medical Association said junior doctors would walk out from 7am on 27 June until 7am on 2 July. Rishi Sunak said it was hard not to draw the conclusion that the timing of the strikes was political. Starmer said he did not want the strikes to go ahead and that the government has effectively kicked resolving the dispute to the other side of the general election when it “should have resolved it and negotiated a settlement”
Labour said it has no plans to change rules that bar health and care workers from bringing families on their visas, despite a plummeting number of healthcare staff since the change to the rules this year. Numbers applying for the visa dropped by 76% this year after the change which the government hailed a success in the bid to cut legal migration but which experts warned would have a significant impact on the health service
Sunak’s election pledge to introduce mandatory national service would leave the UK’s poorest regions millions of pounds worse off, a thinktank has warned
ITV has announced Sunak and Starmer will feature in a head-to-head debate on Tuesday 4 June at 9pm. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and Swinney both protested at the exclusion of their partys
The Welsh Conservatives are trying to increase pressure on the first minister Vaughan Gething by tabling a motion of no confidence in him. The debate and vote will take place on Wednesday 5 June
Vulnerable families across the UK are facing “fear and uncertainty” due to a Home Office backlog in processing their visa fee waiver applications, leaving them in a “perpetual state of limbo”, according to migrant charities
Steve Reed, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, has urged Thames Water to “get a grip” and test treatment works “urgently” after it emerged over the weekend that the company had tested the water at only one property after dozens of people in Beckenham reported becoming unwell
The Scottish government plans to release more than 500 prisoners early to ease prison overcrowding
London’s Evening Standard has announced plans to shut its daily newspaper and replace it with a new weekly publication. The Standard has lost £84.5m in the past six years, according to its accounts, and is reliant on funding from its part-owner Evgeny Lebedev to survive
Pat Cullen, the head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced she is stepping down to stand in the general election. It is understood she will be standing for Sinn Féin in Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Jess Phillips has demanded that Liz Truss be removed as a Conservative candidate after it emerged that the former prime minister will appear on a podcast co-run by a hard right YouTuber who was investigated by police for speculating about whether or not he would rape the Labour MP
That is it from me for today. I will be back with you tomorrow. Thank you for all your comments, take care and have a good evening.
Rishi Sunak’s Q&A has finished now.
The BBC got the first question, to which Rishi Sunak said people were genuinely excited about the national service announcement. This was in response to the question “There’s no doubt you’re meeting plenty of people out and about, but are you changing many minds?”
Sunak said “I’m enjoying having conversations with people about the things that matter. Yes. I’m changing minds everywhere.”
He said “I’ve had so many people talk to me about national service like they’re excited about it. I’ve had people saying I wish you could extend it to my kids. They’re too old now, but it’d be good for them.”
The Daily Express had the third and final question from the media, and they asked “is it scaremongering to tell pensioners they should be worried about the threat that a Labour government poses to their finances?”
Sunak says “No, because that’s the reality of what a Labour government would mean for pensioners.”
GB News have asked Rishi Sunak “isn’t the fact that junior doctors are striking in the days up to the general election an indictment of your time in office?”
Sunak says “it’s hard to escape the conclusion” that the timing of the announcement of a strike, on a day Labour were messaging about the NHS, the strike decision was political.
It is “extremely disappointing” he says, “I don’t want any of you to doubt my commitment to the NHS.”
He says Labour won’t condemn the strike. Earlier Keir Starmer said “Obviously, I don’t want the strike to go ahead. I don’t think health staff want to go on strike and it really impacts on patients. So I don’t want it to go ahead.”
Rishi Sunak is asked “How much confidence do you have that those polls are a true reflection of six weeks’ time?”
Sunak says “the only poll that matters is the one on 4 July, when all of you get to choose our future, right? That’s the one that I’m focused on. And as you can see, I hope, I am working my socks off to talk to as many people as I can over the next five weeks.”
He is also asked whether he will get a Southampton season ticket if he loses and isn’t prime minister any more. Sunak points out that he already is a season ticket holder at St Mary’s, but that he doesn’t get to many games. He says his family were all at the playoff final at Wembley at the weekend “sending me lots of good videos and having a good time.”
He is taking questions from the media now.
Rishi Sunak has told the audience “if you stick with us, we’re going to keep cutting your taxes to give you that financial security to buy your home, move home, have a holiday, do whatever it is you want to do.
“The alternative on offer – because all elections are a choice right? – the alternative on offer is a party that is going to put up your taxes. As I said, as clear as night follows day, right? The Labour party have got a million things that they said they want to spend money on. They don’t have the money to pay for it. And that means you’re all going to pay for it in higher taxes.
“And I don’t want that. I want you to have a more financially secure future where your hard work is rewarded and your taxes are being cut.”
Rishi Sunak has just told the audience in Devon that the weather is much nicer there this afternoon than it was in Cornwall in the morning, with an eye presumably to win them over by flattering them compared to their traditional local rival.
Rishi Sunak says that the military service component will be “highly selective and competitive. No one will be forced to do it, but it’ll be something that people choose and apply to do.”
He goes on to say:
Beyond the skills that you get as a young person, you will have that ability to contribute to something that’s bigger than yourself. And I think that is a wonderful, a wonderful thing. And in the process, everyone doing this together, will foster that culture of service more broadly across the country, and ensure that our society is more cohesive, because you’re drawing everyone from lots of different backgrounds to do the same things together. And it’ll be a wonderfully positive thing.
The first question is about Rishi Sunak’s national service plan, and he is asked about what support will be put in place for those who do the military component when they return to civilian life. He turns the question round and asks “what do you think of the policy?”
“Undecided,” comes the reply.
Rishi Sunak has said “I don’t think you, the British people, like being taken for granted.”
He says Keir Starmer wants you to believe that the election is “a foregone conclusion”
“I’m going to work very hard every single day to earn your trust,” the prime minister says.
He criticises Labour for not having produced “a single new idea in the last week, not a single new idea that they’ve put on the table,” since the election was called, contrasting it with Conservative announcements on national service, the so-called triple lock plus, and today’s policy on “rip-off degrees”.
Rishi Sunak is speaking in Devon, and has started by saying that “it’s been difficult the last few years” but he hopes that people saw that during the pandemic and then the war in Ukraine “I had your back.”
He said:
You can see that things are pointing in the right direction. Inflation down from 11% to 2%. Wages have been growing faster than prices for almost a year now. Energy bills falling. The economy growing faster than all our major competitors this year, and that shows that the plan we put in place is working.
And when I said I would restore economic stability, that’s what we’ve been able to do. And that’s what you get with the Conservatives. Because we have a plan. We stick to the plan. Stability has been restored.
You will be able to watch Rishi Sunak’s Q&A in Devon here …
Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, has been campaigning in Glasgow today. He told Sky News viewers:
We’ve gone from 32 points behind the SNP to now being ahead of the SNP in the polls, but not a single vote has been counted in this general election.
So with hard work and humility, I’m not gonna make this about me, I’m not going to make it just about the Labour party, we’re going to make this election campaign about bringing down people’s bills, reducing the cost of their mortgage, fixing our NHS, making sure all young people can maximise their full potential, and realising that huge energy potential we see here in Scotland. On the issues that matter to people we want to win the argument, so we can change our country and finally, get rid of this rotten Tory government.
Rishis Sunak has visited a pub with Mel Stride in Devon this afternoon. Sunak is going to be doing a Q&A session soon, and we will bring you any key lines that emerge.
Updated
First minister John Swinney has said that he did not think the former health secretary Michael Matheson should resign as an MSP, telling journalists in Holyrood: “He made a mistake and has been given a punishment by parliament which I accept unreservedly.”
PA Media reports he said “Michael should accept that punishment and continue to serve the people that sent him here. Parliament has accepted this is appropriate and I accept what parliament has said.”
Admitting it was a difficult start to the general election campaign, Swinney said “You just have to play the ball as it lands. This wasn’t part of my campaign plan. But the issue has arisen and I have as first minister and leader of the SNP, I have to deal with what emerges in front of me.”
Matheson’s punishment is the most severe in the history of the Scottish parliament.
Matheson apologises after suspension, says he will remain as an MSP
Scotland’s ex-health secretary Michael Matheson has apologised after being suspended from Holyrood, but added that he looks forward to “continuing to represent the people of Falkirk West, as I have done for many years”.
In a statement released in the minutes after 64 MSPs voted for him to be barred for 27 sitting days, Matheson said: “I apologise and regret that this situation occurred. I acknowledge and accept the decision of parliament.
“I also note that parliament has called for the Scottish parliament corporate Bbody to carry out an independent review of the parliament’s complaints process to restore integrity and confidence in the parliament and its procedures, which I hope will be progressed.
“I look forward to continuing to represent the people of Falkirk West, as I have done for many years.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said “Resigning from the cabinet, resigning from the Scottish government is not enough. Michael Matheson should do the right thing and resign from the parliament.”
Ross said the SNP and Green party defending him would lead to them suffering at the ballot box.
First minister John Swinney said he could not support the conclusions of the standards committee because of what he said were “deep flaws” in the process.
Labour will not change rules that bar health and care workers from bringing families to UK on their visas
Labour has no plans to change rules that bar health and care workers from bringing families on their visas, despite a plummeting number of healthcare staff since the change to the rules this year.
Numbers applying for the visa dropped by 76% this year after the change which the government hailed a success in the bid to cut legal migration but which experts warned would have a significant impact on the health service.
Wes Streeting said the workforce was under huge pressure but said there were no plans to change the rules and that Labour was aiming to grow the workforce through training more Britons. He said it was also “immoral and unethical” to recruit from countries with severe shortages of health workers – which come under the WHO’s red list – and said Labour would not continue that practice.
Streeting said his plans would help reduce net migration. “I’m not aware of any plans by Yvette Cooper to change those rules. Obviously, we’re working really closely together and I want to make sure that by developing our homegrown talent, I help Yvette to reduce net migration,” he said.
“I think under the Conservatives, we’ve had an over reliance on international students and workers from overseas in our health and care system. And that’s risky because we’ve got a global shortage. So we shouldn’t assume that pool of talent will always be there for us to draw on.
“We are still turning away 1000s of straight A students from studying medicine each year. That’s something we’ve got to remedy. We’ve got to redress the balance.”
Streeting said the government “should not be recruiting from Red List countries. I do not want to see that happening … the moral and ethical thing to do would be not to recruit from those countries.
“There are of course other countries not on the red list. And we do recruit from there. But what I want to do over time through a serious workforce plan is reduce our reliance on overseas workers and help Yvette Cooper to bring down net migration.”
Michael Matheson suspended from Scottish parliament for 27 days, salary withdrawn for 54 days
MSPs have voted to sanction ex-health secretary Michael Matheson to a 27 day suspension and to withdraw his salary for 54 days. There were 64 votes for and 63 abstentions for a motion. SNP leader said there were “deep flaws” in the process.
More details soon …
PA media reports the Scottish government plans to release more than 500 prisoners early to ease prison overcrowding.
Regulations were laid at the Scottish parliament, which, if agreed, current modelling indicates around 550 eligible prisoners will be released in four tranches from the end of June 2024.
Prisoners who are serving a life sentence and those on the sex offender register will not be eligible, and exclusions also apply to prisoners subject to non-harassment orders, or who have an unspent conviction for domestic abuse. The prison population in Scotland is about 7,500.
Rishi Sunak’s election pledge to introduce mandatory national service would leave the UK’s poorest regions millions of pounds worse off, a thinktank has warned.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that the Conservatives’ proposal to pay for the scheme by scrapping the UK shared prosperity fund from 2028-29 would severely downgrade efforts to level up the country.
Its analysis found that if the money that would have been distributed via the fund were instead redirected according to the number of 18-year-olds in each area who take part in national service, then Wales could lose £275m a year, Cornwall £72m, and the North East and Tees Valley mayoral areas a combined £46m.
David Phillips, an associate director at the IFS, said the Conservatives’ plan to redirect the fund’s resources would represent a major shift in how spending was allocated across the country.
Read more here: Tory national service policy would leave UK’s poorest areas worse off, IFS warns
Standards committee convener Martin Whitfield has begun the debate in the Scottish parliament to impose sanctions on Michael Matheson over his misuse of expenses.
The motion being debated “excludes Michael Matheson MSP from proceedings of the parliament for a period of 27 sitting days and withdraws his salary for a period of 54 calendar days to take effect from the day after this motion is agreed.”
Matheson attempted to use expenses to cover a near-£11,000 data roaming bill on a parliamentary iPad during a family holiday to Morocco. He later said the costs were incurred by his children, who were using the device as a hotspot to watch football.
Earlier today Scotland’s first minister John Swinney criticised the process, saying the Scottish parliament had got itself into a tricky position. An amendment in the name of deputy first minister Kate Forbes has been laid as part of the debate, which criticises the process as being “open to bias and prejudice and the complaint being prejudged, thereby bringing the parliament into disrepute” due to public pronouncements made by Conservative MSPs Stephen Kerr and Annie Wells in advance of the findings being announced.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the SNP of “putting their party interests before the good of the country,” and said that Swinney had been “trying to defend the indefensible”.
Here are some other pictures of people out and about campaigning today. Prime minister Rishi Sunak has been at Wildanet Technical Training Academy in Liskeard.
Meanwhile his wife, Akshata Murty, has been visiting a Royal British Legion care home.
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney is in Leven, where he was on the inaugural journey of the restored train link set to re-open there on Sunday.
When he wasn’t freewheeling on his bike, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey was talking to party activists in Knighton in Wales.
Wes Streeting is in Worcester with Keir Starmer, where they have been talking about Labour’s plans for the NHS.
I mentioned earlier that both Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and SNP leader John Swinney had been critical of ITV’s decision to broadcast a head-to-head debate that only features Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer next week.
I should note that in the press release announcing the debate, ITV said:
Michael Jermey, ITV’s Director of News and Current Affairs said, “Millions of viewers value the election debates. They provide a chance to see and hear the party leaders set out their pitch to the country, debate directly with each other and take questions from voters. ITV is pleased to be broadcasting the first debate in this year’s election campaign.”
ITV plans to broadcast additional programming including an interview programme with other party leaders and a multi-party debate. Details on the further programmes will be announced in due course.
It is impossible for a politician to be near a baby during an election campaign without posing for a photo with them, so here is Keir Starmer earlier, with baby Soren, who was born on the 75th anniversary of the NHS and was given the middle name Aneurin, after former Labour health secretary and NHS founder Aneurin Bevan.
Campaigners hoping to have their issue debated in parliament are scrambling to collect signatures before the government’s petition website shuts down at midnight.
Authors of petitions have less than a day left to gather the 100,000 signatures needed to bring about a parliamentary debate, before they automatically close ahead of the dissolution of parliament on Thursday.
All petitions will close and not be reopened after the election, which means if a petition has fallen short of the 100,000 signatures needed, the author will need to start a new one from scratch when the new government is in place.
Parliament’s website states: “All petitions that were open on the site will be closed and will no longer be able to be signed. They won’t be reopened after the election. They’ll still be available for people to read on the site.”
There is also no guarantee that petitions that meet the deadline will be debated as it will be up to the new committee to decide to honour those submitted under the previous parliament.
The website adds: “The current Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who decide which petitions are debated) will no longer exist when parliament is dissolved. Decisions about whether to debate any petitions from the current parliament will be the responsibility of the new Petitions Committee. This has generally happened after previous elections, but would be up to the new Committee.”
I mentioned earlier that SNP leader and Scotland’s first minister John Swinney was on a train today. He was on the inaugural train ride along the track to Leven and Cameron Bridge stations after setting off from Edinburgh Waverley.
Completed at a cost of £116m, the project restores train services which were lost in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, involving 19km of new track, the construction of two new stations and 1km of active travel bridges and routes.
He told PA “This is a day of joy and significant transformation for the people of Levenmouth. As a consequence of a tenacious local campaign and the investment of an SNP government it’s going to be connected again. I’m absolutely delighted at the economic and social opportunities that are going to be opened for the people of Levenmouth as a consequence.”
Passenger services will start on 2 June.
Keir Starmer has said the Labour party is unrecognisable under his leadership from where it was five years ago. He told Labour activists in Worcester “this is the change election. This is the election where we can turn the page and start to rebuild our country. It is desperately needed.”
He said that people he had visited in recent days would have a “blunt message” for prime minister Rishi Sunak if he visited them with his message of “We’ve turned the corner. It’s all fine. You’re all better off.”
He said “I grew up working class. I know what it’s like not to be able to pay your bills. And what you do in those circumstances, you choose which utility you will lose. So we lost the phone. We decided we’d have the phone cut off because we couldn’t afford the bill. That is the sort of decision that so many families across the country are having to take. So we have to have a Labour government to stop this chaos and division. We cannot have another five years of this.”
He said the country desperately needed the election, telling the audience:
If you are a family that has been struggling with the cost of living. If you are a business that’s been really up against it these past few years. This is for you. Because what happens in a general election is the power goes out to voters, the power to determine the future of their own lives, their communities, the power to change our country for the better. To draw a line and say no more of this chaos and division.
Of the Conservatives, he said “Heaven knows what they’ll do if they get another five years.”
Updated
Wes Streeting has again used his line about “handing the matches back to the arsonist” in his opening talk. It is a very lighthearted introduction from Streeting, with jokes aimed at enthusing campaigners in the room, and saying Rishi Sunak’s big plan was “a teenage Dad’s Army while seven-and-a-half million people are waiting on NHS waiting lists.”
Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting are about to give another campaign speech on Labour’s NHS plans. We will bring you any key lines that emerge.
Rajeev Syal and Diane Taylor report for the Guardian:
The Home Office has made “unacceptable and avoidable mistakes” in its haste to use disused barracks and a giant barge to house asylum seekers, parliament’s spending watchdog has concluded.
The public accounts committee said the department “does not have a credible plan” to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and has little to show for hundreds of millions of pounds spent so far on the policy or its accommodation plans.
In a report released on Wednesday, MPs said the Home Office claimed that its need to deal with a “national emergency” meant it had to take quick decisions, and so “it pressed ahead with setting up expensive large asylum accommodation sites without an adequate understanding of what would be required”.
Read more here: Home Office made mistakes in rush to set up asylum housing, MPs say
Kiran Stacey, Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot here with a news wrap of this morning’s developments with the Labour party’s handling of Diane Abbott:
Keir Starmer has denied that Diane Abbott has been banned from standing as a Labour MP at the next election, as the saga over the potential end to her 40-year career in the party risked descending into chaos.
The Labour leader’s comments directly contradicted newspaper briefings that the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, who was suspended from the party in April 2023 for comments she made about racism, was being barred from standing again.
Abbott, the first black woman to be elected to the British parliament, then issued a statement on Wednesday morning saying she had been handed back the Labour whip after a months-long investigation into her conduct, but would not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate.
The decision by Labour, and in particular the way it was leaked, seemingly to prevent Abbott from having the choice of stepping down on her own terms, prompted a significant backlash, with the Runnymede Trust charity, which campaigns for racial justice, calling her treatment “abhorrent”.
However, when Starmer was asked about Abbott during a visit to a medical training college on Wednesday, he said it was “not true” she had been barred.
“No decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbott,” he said. “The process that we were going through ended with the restoration of the whip the other day, so she’s a member of the parliamentary Labour party and no decision has been taken barring her.”
Asked who the candidate in Hackney South and Stoke Newington would be, Starmer said that had not yet been decided. “Diane is a member of the parliamentary Labour party. No decision has been taken barring her.
“It’s ultimately a decision for the national executive committee on all candidates. There will be a decision in due course, but they haven’t taken that decision, though. Stories this morning were wrong, factually inaccurate. She has not been banned or barred from standing.”
Read more here: Starmer denies Diane Abbott barred from standing for Labour at election
SNP leader John Swinney has said his party is making “strenuous representations” to try to secure a spot in televised general election debates.
PA reports the first minister said it is “ridiculous” the SNP has been excluded from the first televised clash between party leaders.
ITV has announced that Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will have a head-to-head TV debate on Tuesday 4 June at 9pm.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has also expressed frustration about being included. He told PA “I think voters want a better choice and I don’t think they’re impressed by the choice of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. They want to hear other voices. I would urge the large media companies to extend that invitation.”
Incidentally the timing of the debate clashes with when ITV1 was due to be showing England’s women football team in what could be a vital European Championship qualifying match against France, which presumably will now be bumped off to a different ITV channel.
Ed Davey is heading from Wales down to the south-west of England later today, and speaking to Sky News earlier, the Liberal Democrat leader was asked about the party’s prospects there. He told viewers:
I think everyone knows that we’re back in our traditional homeland of the West Country. People can remember Liberal Democrat MPs in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and further afield, and we’re finding on the doorstep that they’re coming back to us. They really want to get rid of the Conservatives. They’re fed up. They feel betrayed, let down, or taken for granted by the Conservatives.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has also made that his base for today’s campaigning, and it was pointed out to him that he was visiting seats the Conservatives hold. “Are you worried you might lose them at the election?” he was asked. Sunak said:
I don’t take a single vote for granted. That’s why I’m travelling to every part of our country. I’ve been in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, today in Cornwall and Devon. I’m talking to people about the choice at this election.
We live in uncertain times, and it is only the Conservatives that have a plan to take bold action, like introducing a modern form of national service, like introducing the new triple lock plus to provide a tax cut for pensioners, like today’s announcement of closing under-performing university degrees and using that money to fund high quality apprenticeships. Those are all bold actions that are going to deliver a secure future for everyone in our country.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey appears to have adopted a policy that providing entertaining photo opportunities is the best way to drive up the level of coverage that his party gets during the election campaign. After yesterday’s paddleboard antics, today it is a bike in Wales.
When he wasn’t on two wheels, Davey told supporters that “Families across Wales are working hard, they are looking after their families, loved ones, they’re playing by the rules. But they’re finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet.”
The Liberal Democrats were announcing a package of policies aimed at farmers, promising £1bn in extra funding for the agriculture budget, and pledging to re-negotiate overseas trade deals and address worker shortages blighting the sector if it wins the general election.
Without appearing to mention Brexit by name, Davey told PA “The Conservative government have failed farmers and failed the whole country to be honest, with their shockingly bad trade deals. They have actually made it more difficult to export, more difficult to import, the Tories are now the champions of red tape.”
Keir Starmer has backed first minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, who faces a confidence motion in the Senedd next week. Starmer told reporters “He is doing a good job, he was elected in and I’m looking forward to being with him in this campaign where we will campaign together for, what I hope will be, the next Labour government.”
Keir Starmer says the government has effectively kicked resolving the junior doctors pay dispute to the other side of the general election, and said Rishi Sunak “should have resolved it and negotiated a settlement”.
Speaking to broadcasters about the new strikes announced by the British Medical Association, Starmer said:
Firstly I’m shocked that we’re in this position because this has been going on a very long time.
I think the government should have resolved it and negotiated a settlement. And what they’ve effectively done is kicked it to the other side of the general election. That’s unforgivable.
Obviously, I don’t want the strike to go ahead. I don’t think health staff want to go on strike and it really impacts on patients. So I don’t want it to go ahead.
But if we are privileged enough to come in to serve, then it will fall to us to settle this and to come to an agreement so the NHS gets back to working in the way that it desperately needs to for so many people on the waiting lists.
Earlier today shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would not be able to meet the pay demand on “day one”, telling junior doctors “getting to fair pay is a journey not an event”. [See 11.26 BST]
Welsh Conservatives table motion of no confidence in first minister Vaughan Gething
The Welsh Conservatives are trying to increase pressure on the first minister Vaughan Gething by tabling a motion of no confidence in him.
Gething continues to come under severe pressure for taking a donation from a company whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes.
The debate and vote will take place on Wednesday 5 June.
Andrew RT Davies MS, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said: “Next week Senedd members will have the chance to have their say on Vaughan Gething’s judgement, his transparency, and his truthfulness. The litany of unanswered questions has paralysed the Welsh government.
“It’s time to put an end to the obfuscation, the drift and the infighting and vote no confidence in Vaughan Gething.”
Starmer: Labour has not taken any decision to bar Diane Abbott from standing
Keir Starmer said it is “not true” that Diane Abbott is barred from standing as a Labour candidate.
Speaking to broadcasters, PA Media report he said: “No decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbott. The process that we were going through ended with the restoration of the whip the other day, so she’s a member of the parliamentary Labour party and no decision has been taken barring her.”
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP was suspended in April 2023 for comments she made about racism. Earlier she said she was “very dismayed” by reports that she would not be allowed to stand for election.
Conservative chair Richard Holden has written to Starmer asking him whether senior Labour figures have been fed deliberately false lines about the disciplinary process, while Rishi Sunak called on the Labour leader for full “transparency” over the issue, which the prime minister said he had not been following closely.
Updated
London’s Evening Standard has announced plans to shut its daily newspaper and replace it with a new weekly publication. The Standard has lost £84.5m in the past six years, according to its accounts, and is reliant on funding from its part-owner Evgeny Lebedev to survive. Its other shareholders include a bank with close links to the Saudi government.
Read more from our political media editor Jim Waterson here: London Evening Standard to close daily newspaper and launch new weekly
Starmer says that Abbott has not been barred from standing for Labour
Keir Starmer insists it is “not true” that Diane Abbott has been barred from being Labour candidate.
NEW: Keir Starmer insists it's "not true" that Diane Abbott has been barred from being Labour candidate @jessicaelgot reports
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 29, 2024
"The process that we were going through ended with restoration of the whip so she’s a member of the PLP and no decision has been taken barring her."
More details soon …
Here are some more details on the junior doctors strike that has been announced for England. PA note it will run from 7am on 27 June until 7am on 2 July.
A statement from the British Medical Association (BMA) said:
We made clear to the Government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer.
For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the past 15 years – equal to more than a quarter in real terms.
When we entered mediation with Government this month we did so under the impression that we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience.
Even at this late stage Sunak has the opportunity to show that he cares about the NHS and its workers. It is finally time for him to make a concrete commitment to restore doctors’ pay. If during this campaign he makes such a public commitment that is acceptable to the BMA’s junior doctors committee, then no strikes need go ahead.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, the fifth person to hold the role since Matt Hancock resigned in June 2021, immediately launched an attack on Labour over the strikes, saying on social media “I am in politics to help patients not trade unions. Today should be the day the Labour party finally condemn junior doctor strikes. Announcing this during an election and on Labour’s health day shows this was only ever political and not about patients or staff.”
She described the strikes as a “highly cynical tactic” from the BMA.
Tory chairman Richard Holden has written to Keir Starmer demanding answers about Diane Abbott, and published the letter on social media.
He asked whether senior Labour MPs had been given “deliberately false lines”, writing:
These are serious questions that need answering. The only logical explanation is that you and your team have been lying to the British people. You have previously said that “honesty and decency matter”. I am sure people would like to know why you did not think these principles mattered in this case.
This morning I have written to Sir @Keir_Starmer with three key questions he needs to clear up about false statements he has given on the @UKLabour investigation into Diane Abbott
— Rt Hon Richard Holden (@RicHolden) May 29, 2024
The only logical explanation is that he and his shadow cabinet have been lying to the British… pic.twitter.com/lEz04D0EmJ
When Abbott was suspended in April 2023, the then-Conservative chairman Greg Hands called her comments “disgusting”, and Grant Shapps, now defence secretary, said “Once again, Jewish people have to wake up and see a Labour MP casually spouting hateful antisemitism. Keir Starmer, are you actually going to do anything?”
Pat Cullen, the head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced she is stepping down to stand in the general election.
Cullen said: “This was the hardest decision to make, and we have achieved so much in three very different and difficult years. I hope my legacy here will be to have helped the nursing profession use its voice and campaign for change, for ourselves and patients. I owe RCN members a debt of gratitude.”
PA reports the press statement from the RCN does not state which party she will be standing for but it is understood she will be standing for Sinn Féin in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of disrespecting NHS staff. Speaking to medical students at Three Counties Medical school, he spoke about problems with staff morale in the health service. He said:
We need to lift the workforce up. There are things you can do straight away, like respect and dignity of the workforce. And I don’t know what you feel, but if I were you and working in the NHS, and I had the prime minister simply blaming the NHS for the problems, rather than taking responsibility as a prime minister, it would go a long way.
Because you can’t sort of clap our carers and key workers during the pandemic and then turn round when you’re challenged – as the prime minister does on the NHS – and say it’s not my fault, it’s the NHS staff. That is really disrespectful.
So that needs to be in place. We need to take the pressure down, which is where the waiting list comes down. Because it’s very difficult to feel uplifted in your job if you know there’s a waiting list that’s getting bigger and bigger, because it’s worrying, it takes all the time and energy.
Here are a couple of pictures from this event featuring Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting.
They are taking questions from an audience of mostly medical students.
Keir Starmer has said he would intend to lead a “government of service”, saying that “I think too many politicians these days have become a bit too self-entitled, a bit too fond of the sound of their own voice.”
Starmer: 'Unforgiveable' for Conservatives to have left NHS in a worse condition than when they took power
Keir Starmer has said it has been unforgiveable that the Conservatives have, after 14 years, left the NHS in a worse position than when they first came to power.
He opened a talk at the University of Worcester by saying:
It is going to be a clear choice at this election between carrying on with what we’ve had for the last 14 years, which to my mind is chaos and division and failure.
And I include the NHS in that, and it breaks my heart frankly, as the party that set up the NHS, and with so many of my family members having contributed to the NHS.
To leave the NHS in a worse state than when you found it, for me, is unforgivable in politics, whichever political party you are. That should never ever happen. And we will absolutely take this challenge up if we are privileged enough to come into power.
Helena Horton is an environment reporter for the Guardian
Steve Reed, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, has urged Thames Water to “get a grip” and test treatment works “urgently” after it emerged over the weekend that the company had tested the water at only one property.
Over the last two weeks, dozens of people in Beckenham, south-east London, have reported becoming unwell with diarrhoea and vomiting. The symptoms in most cases have lasted for an unusually long time – up to two weeks. They have also been severe, with multiple people hospitalised, including an eight-year-old boy.
Last Wednesday, Thames Water tested the water at the property of one person who had become unwell; the results came back clear. Since then others who are unwell in Beckenham have asked for a test. Thames initially said that since its initial tests came back clear, it did not need to conduct further tests. Thames has also not tested the wider supply or the treatment facilities specifically as a result of this suspected outbreak.
Read more here: Thames Water urged to test supply ‘urgently’ after reported illnesses
Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting are about to start speaking. They are being introduced by the chief executive and vice-chancellor of Worcester university. As a reminder you can watch it here:
Ahead of their campaign event about the NHS, and with news of a new junior doctors strike in England just breaking, it is worth noting that earlier Wes Streeting said Labour would not be able to award a full pay rise to junior doctors “on day one”.
PA report he told viewers of ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
I want to be really upfront with junior doctors this side of the election – the 35% pay claim they’ve put in, I’m just not going to be able to afford that on day one of a Labour government.
We’re going to have to work together and negotiate on pay and recognise, as was the case with the last Labour government who inherited a similar mess, getting to fair pay is a journey not an event, and I am willing to negotiate on pay.
I’m willing to sit down and negotiate on those wider conditions so that junior doctors are genuinely valued and and look forward to a career in the NHS rather than thinking about whether they’re going to stick it out because things are so terrible.
On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Streeting was asked about plans to cut NHS waiting lists in England by increasing the weekend workload for NHS staff. He told listeners:
I don’t want people putting in those extra hours if they are exhausted and burned out. That’s not good for them, and it’s not good for patient safety.
I also recognise that one of the retention challenges we have the staff in the NHS is juggling their working patterns alongside a whole range of caring responsibilities outside work, and actually one of the workforce reforms I want to look at is making sure that we can have that flexible and family-friendly approach.
He went on to say that “basic disrespect and lack of care for your staff is not something that I’m willing to tolerate, so we can work together on those workforce reforms, and on the conditions [NHS staff are] working in.”
Streeting kept repeating the phrase across his interviews that voting Conservative on 4 July would “give the matches back to the arsonists.”
Junior doctors in England will strike from 27 June to 2 July as part of their long-running dispute over pay, the British Medical Association has just said.
Also on a train today like Rishi Sunak is SNP leader and first minister of Scotland John Swinney, with Sky News rather ambitiously trying to interview him live on a moving train heading to Fife. They obviously have a better wifi set-up than most Scotrail trains. Swinney was asked about the SNP’s performance in the polls, the disciplinary process surrounding Michael Matheson, and Diane Abbott.
He told viewers, on the polling position, that the SNP had endured “a tough time for the last couple of years”, saying he had been “pretty open about that”. He went on to say:
That’s bearing out in the polls. I’ve got a job to do. I’ve only been SNP leader for three weeks. I’m trying to build things back up. We’re a united force and I’ve got a cohesive team working with me.
On Matheson he said he was concerned about the process. Scotland’s former health secretary is expected to lose his salary for 54 days and be suspended as an MSP after wrongly claiming £11,000 in expenses. Swinney said, commenting on how the decisions appears to have been made and announced to the media before being formally communicated to Matheson:
Would it be tolerable for somebody on a disciplinary panel to pre-judge the case? It just wouldn’t be allowed in any other walk of life. And I think the Scottish parliament has got itself into a really tricky situation.
On Abbott, Swinney echoed Stephen Flynn’s earlier words [See 9.54 BST], saying:
It has been a terrible shame the way in which Diane Abbott has been handled by the Labour party and by Keir Starmer. I remember Diane Abbott when I was in the House of Commons all those years ago, a really distinguished, significant parliamentarian. The first female black member of parliament, who made an outstanding contribution to the House of Commons. So I think she’s been really badly treated and I think it’s been really unfair.
Updated
Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting are about to speak about Labour’s NHS policies for England. You can watch it here:
Our senior political correspondent Peter Walker reports:
Jess Phillips has demanded that Liz Truss be removed as a Conservative candidate after it emerged that the former prime minister will appear on a podcast co-run by a hard right YouTuber who was investigated by police for speculating about whether or not he would rape the Labour MP.
Phillips has written to Rishi Sunak to seek action over Truss’s billed appearance on The Lotus Eaters, a podcast set up by Carl Benjamin, who has expressed misogynist views, and formerly ran an organisation with Tommy Robinson, the far right anti-Muslim activist.
In 2019, when Benjamin stood for the European parliament for Ukip, police investigated comments he made in a YouTube video in which he discussed “whether I would or wouldn’t rape Jess Phillips”.
The Labour MP said that after the comments emerged she had been verbally challenged by a man defending Benjamin as she left parliament.
In her letter to Sunak, published on social media, Phillips said Benjamin had expressed “despicable views about violence against women”.
She wrote: “The impact men like Benjamin have on politics cannot be underestimated. Men like Benjamin make female MPs live in fear, which discourages women from standing in future, weakening our democracy in the process.
“You have a responsibility as leader of your party to uphold high standards among your MPs and candidates, and you have a responsibility as prime minister to foster a safe environment for MPs, particularly female MPs who face ever-increasing rates of abuse and threat.”
She added: “If you have any decency, you will deselect LizTruss as Conservative candidate for South West Norfolk.”
The Conservatives and a representative for Truss were contacted for comment.
Sunak denies Conservatives wasted police time with Rayner complaints, saying 'police are independent of government'
Rishi Sunak has denied that Conservative calls to investigate Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner had been a waste of police time.
Speaking from Cornwall, the prime minister said “the police are independent of government. It’s for them to decide, you know, who and what they’re investigating”.
On 19 May the chief constable of the police force examining the claims, Stephen Watson, told the Guardian it was a letter from the Conservative deputy chair, James Daly, that led to his force reversing an initial decision not to investigate.
Sunak, who in recent years has been fined for breaching Covid regulations and for not wearing a seatbelt, and who also defended Suella Braverman after the then home secretary asked civil servants to help her with a speeding fine, added “my understanding is that they’ve passed on a file to HMRC and the tax authorities which again are independent of government.”
Sunak went on to say:
Actually when it comes to Angela Rayner, what people should know is if Labour are elected into power, Angela Rayner is someone who voted against our nuclear deterrent, at a time when the world is more dangerous than it has been at any point since the end of the cold war.
And she is committed to introducing French-style union laws back into our country. And all that will do is cost jobs and damage our economic recovery.
And that’s the choice at this election. Do we build on the progress we’ve made with the economy, inflation down, the economy growing, wages rising? Or do we go back to square one with Labour. It’s the same old Labour party. Union laws that will cost jobs and damage the recovery and putting up your taxes. That’s what Angela Rayner represents.
On Tuesday the Conservatives published a campaign graphic saying Rayner was “under investigation for serious tax avoidance”. She was cleared of any wrongdoing hours later.
Threat 3: Angela Rayner
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) May 27, 2024
🏠 Under police investigation for serious tax avoidance
🇫🇷 Plans to burden businesses with £41bn a year of extra costs with French-style Union laws
⚠️ Voted against renewing our nuclear deterrent
Threat level: Serious.
4/7 pic.twitter.com/LmSbaAPmKb
Just a little more from Rishi Sunak on Diane Abbott, he was explicitly asked “Should Diane Abbott stand as a Labour candidate in the general election” and Sunak replied “That’s a question for the Labour party. I haven’t been following this whole thing very closely.”
ITV announces Sunak and Starmer will debate head-to-head on 4 June
ITV has announced that Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will take part in an hour long TV debate at 9pm on Tuesday 4 June moderated by Julie Etchingham. It will take place live in front of a studio audience.
More details soon …
Rishi Sunak has also been talking about the apprenticeship plans during his campaign trip to Cornwall.
Speaking at a train depot in Cornwall, he said:
University is great and it makes a fantastic option for young people, but it’s not the only option. I’m not someone who believes that you have to go to university, and all the apprentices I’ve been talking to this morning are proof of that, describing it as the best decision they ever made.
And what we do know is that there are university degrees that are letting young people down. Independent studies say that around one in five people who are on degrees would have been financially better off not doing them, about one in three graduates are in non-graduate jobs.
So actually we are better off providing those young people with the opportunity of a high-quality apprenticeship. The regulator will be given the powers to look at underperforming degrees, looking at the progression rates, the drop-out rates, the earnings of people on those degrees, and instead we will use that money to fund 100,000 new apprenticeships.”
PA reports that asked to name a specific example of an underperforming degree, Sunak did not do so.
The Conservatives have been pushing a plan today to expand the number of apprenticeships, pledging “100,000 more apprenticeships a year by the end of the next parliament.”
It is unclear whether this figure includes the “up to 20,000 more apprenticeships” that Sunak previously announced ten weeks ago.
Rishi Sunak’s social media team have just posted a summary of the policy, and again used the phrase “rip-off degrees”.
That's why we have a clear plan to deliver 100,000 more apprenticeships a year by the end of the next Parliament.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) May 29, 2024
We will pay for this by cracking down on rip-off degrees that make students poorer, saving £910 million by 2029-30.
3/6
Our political correspondent Eleni Courea wrote overnight:
Under the plans, there would be legislation granting greater powers to the Office for Students, the universities regulator, to close degree courses that are underperforming. These would be chosen based on drop-out rates, job progression and future earnings potential.
The Conservatives claim to have delivered 5.8m apprenticeships since 2010. But the number of people starting out on apprenticeships in England is in decline, falling from 500,000 in 2015 to 337,000 last year, according to Commons library statistics.
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary who completed an apprenticeship at a car factory in Kirkby, said: “When Labour were in power they pushed an arbitrary target to get half of young people to university, creating a boom in low-quality degrees – leaving far too many students saddled with debt and little else.”
Damian Hinds, minister of state for school standards, got into some difficult territory being questioned about this on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, when he was pressed by Emma Barnett to name “the top three degrees right now that are rip-off degrees”. Hinds said:
First of all, you cannot generalise about entire subject areas. In almost all subjects there will be some institutions delivering well, and some not doing well. So for example, you take computer science, you know, you get earnings outcomes from young people studying computer science degrees which will range from £18,000 pounds to £80,000 pounds so it’s not about an individual subjects but about specific courses.
The second thing I genuinely don’t think it will be right or fair to young people who are currently on an undergraduate course to have a politician come on the radio and namecheck that particular course that they are on.
We have an independent body that we created called the Office for Students and an objective analytical method, looking at things like completion rates, looking at things like who progresses from the first year, looking at the proportion of graduates who ended up in graduate jobs.
Barnett pointed out that “It’s your education secretary’s choice to call them rip-off degrees", a phrase now repeated by Sunak on social media.
Sunak calls on Starmer to be transparent about Diane Abbott situation
Rishi Sunak is campaigning in Cornwall today, and has spoken to the media about the reports that Labour has restored the whip to Diane Abbott after a lengthy suspension, but she is being barred from stand for re-election.
The prime minister told the media:
The Labour party has been telling everybody this investigation into Diane Abbott is ongoing, it now appears it concluded months ago. So really it’s a question for them to clear this all up, what happened when, be transparent about it.
Updated
Sky News has published a new YouGov poll with fieldwork taking place since the election was called, which gives Labour an increased lead over the Conservatives, standing at 27 points.
It says that of those who voted for the Tories in 2019 under Boris Johnson, “only 36% say they would vote Tory now, 19% would vote Reform UK, 19% don’t know and 14% would switch to Labour.”
You can find the Guardian’s aggregator of recent polling here: UK opinion polls tracker – Labour ahead as general election campaigning continues
Abbott: 'I am very dismayed numerous reports suggest I have been barred as candidate'
Diane Abbott has posted to social media, saying that she will be “campaigning for a Labour victory” but is “very dismayed” by reports she has been barred from standing. She wrote:
Naturally I am delighted to have the Labour Whip restored and to be a member of the PLP. Thank you to all those who supported me along the way. I will be campaigning for a Labour victory. But I am very dismayed that numerous reports suggest I have been barred as a candidate.
Naturally I am delighted to have the Labour Whip restored and to be a member of the PLP.
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) May 29, 2024
Thank you to all those who supported me along the way.
I will be campaigning for a Labour victory.
But I am very dismayed that numerous reports suggest I have been barred as a candidate. pic.twitter.com/OKdyLLOmvE
Rishi Sunak has arrived in the south-west of England to campaign, having travelled by sleeper train overnight. He has already made an early morning media appearance, buying breakfast sandwiches for staff and the media at a seaside cafe. He described the train trip as “jolly” according to PA Media. He seems to have successfully avoided anybody taking a photo of him awkwardly eating a bacon sandwich. Sunak will be doing a Q&A later in Devon.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn hailed Diane Abbott as a “phenomenal individual” as he described the situation as a “pretty sorry state of affairs” for Labour.
PA Media reports Flynn told Sky News:
I think this is a pretty sorry reflection of the Labour Party and where it stands, what its values are and what its principles are at the moment. Diane Abbott gets her membership back at the very last minute but isn’t allowed to stand.
I’d just like to thank Diane for everything she has done, as a trailblazer for women in parliament, but also as the first black female in parliament. She’s a phenomenal individual and her legacy is going to be long lasting.
Flynn contrasted the treatment of Abbott with the fact that Labour leader Keir Starmer had welcomed with “open arms” defecting Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke, who he described as a “right-wing populist”.
Wes Streeting was also pressed about Diane Abbott while appearing on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. Justin Webb put it to the shadow health secretary that it went to a wider question of honesty about Keir Starmer’s leadership, pointing out that he had said the party’s process was carrying on, when it has now emerged that the process had finished.
Streeting said “Firstly, I’m not going to rely on hearsay. The second thing I’d say is that the Labour party has fundamentally changed from the party that was rejected in 2019.”
Webb pointed out it wasn’t “hearsay”, he was referring to what Starmer had actually said. Asked whether he wanted Abbott to remain as a Labour MP, and whether she should be allowed to stand, Streeting said:
Well, this is the decision for the Labour party’s national executive committee. And Keir Starmer, when he talks about improving standards in the Labour party, he really meant it. Now, I don’t know the specific factors that apply in Diane Abbott’s case. I was pleased actually yesterday that her suspension was lifted and the whip was restored.
He continued that it was “not my decision” whether Abbott stands or not, adding “I say this with enormous respect for Diane Abbott, and everything she has achieved in politics as a trailblazer, and someone that despite our disagreements, I have huge respect for.”
Updated
Streeting: 'not particularly' comfortable with what has happened with Diane Abbott
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has done the media round for Labour this morning, and was repeatedly questioned about Diane Abbott. On Times Radio, he was asked “Do you feel comfortable about what’s happened here with Diane Abbott?” and he replied “No, not particularly.”
He told listeners:
I know that Diane had the whip restored and her suspension lifted yesterday. This was following her suspension over remarks that she made, for which she later apologised. So I know at this stage, in terms of decisions about her candidature, as much as has been reported.
I think this has gone on for a very long time. I say this with enormous respect for everything that Diane has achieved in politics. Diane rightly apologised for the comments that she made that led to her suspension, as to the process, I think those questions are better directed to people responsible for the process.
He stressed he had not personally been involved in the process, and had “no responsibility” for it.
Diane Abbott says she has been banned from standing for election by Labour
Kiran Stacey is a political correspondent for the Guardian based in Westminster
Diane Abbott has confirmed she has been banned from standing as a Labour MP at the next election, bringing to an end a near 40-year career as one of the party’s highest-profile politicians.
The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington issued a statement to broadcasters on Wednesday morning confirming she had been handed back the Labour whip following a months-long investigation into her conduct, but would not be allowed to stand again as a Labour candidate.
The decision leaves Abbott, the first black woman to be elected to the British parliament, facing a decision whether to run as an independent against the party she has represented since 1987 or to end her long parliamentary career.
According to both Sky and the BBC, Abbott said: “Although the whip has been restored, I am banned for standing as a Labour candidate.”
Her comments cap a chaotic 24 hours during which reports suggested she was about to be banned from standing as a Labour candidate, only for her allies to say she had not been informed of any such decision.
Abbott was suspended from the party in April last year after writing a letter to the Observer that appeared to play down racism against Jewish people. Abbott apologised for her remarks, but was placed under investigation and lost the Labour whip.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said this week the investigation was ongoing. But it emerged on Tuesday it had concluded in December, with Abbott being told to complete an online antisemitism training course in February.
Read more here: Diane Abbott says she has been banned from standing for Labour at election
Welcome and opening summary …
Good morning! Labour are facing questions about how the disciplinary process around Diane Abbott unfolded. She has said she has had the Labour whip restored after a long suspension, but is being prevented by the party from standing in the election. More of that in a moment. Here are your headlines …
Labour has pledged to clear the NHS waiting list backlog in England within five years
Wes Streeting has mocked the Conservatives for trying to portray Keir Starmer – aged all of 61 – as old and doddery
A poll shows Waitrose is the only major supermarket with a majority Tory customers among its customers
Ticket touts have already drawn up plans to thwart any Labour attempt to clamp down on them
Wealthy white men from rural areas are the UK’s biggest emitters of climate-heating gases from transport, according to a study
The Royal Mail owner has agreed to a £3.57bn takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský
Rishi Sunak is campaigning in Cornwall today – he took a sleeper train from Paddington
Ed Davey is launching the Liberal Democrat campaign at 10.10am, Starmer and Streeting are campaigning on the NHS in the Midlands with an event at 11.15am, Sunak will do a Q&A in Devon in the afternoon at 4.25pm, and Jeremy Corbyn is launching his campaign at 7pm.
It is Martin Belam here with you today. I do try to read all your comments, and dip into them where I think I can be helpful, but if you want to get my attention the best way is to email me – martin.belam@theguardian.com – especially if you have spotted errors or typos.
