Closing summary
Conservative rightwingers are planning to present Rishi Sunak with demands for tougher action on immigration and human rights law ahead of the election if the prime minister’s manifesto promises on Tuesday fall flat. Prominent party figures including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are said by Tory insiders to be among those waiting to see how their manifesto is received by the public before they act. In the event Sunak’s launch fails to shift the dial on Tories floundering election campaign, one option under discussion is a press conference next week to set out a series of alternative pledges.
Rishi Sunak has repeated his apology for his “mistake” of returning early from last week’s D-Day commemorations in Normandy. Speaking to the BBC as part of its Panorama interviews with Nick Robinson, Sunak said: “Well, the last thing that I wanted to do was cause anyone any hurt or offence or upset, which is why I apologised unreservedly for the mistake that I made.”
Sunak was also challenged about criticism from Nigel Farage and whether the Reform UK leader is more Conservative than him. The prime minister replied to BBC Panorama: “So the choice for everybody, there’s only going to be one of two people who’s prime minister, Keir Starmer or myself. A vote for anyone who’s not a Conservative candidate is just making it more likely that Keir Starmer is that person.”
Labour has been accused of leaving a gap in its childcare plans after the party confirmed its promise to offer 100,000 new childcare places would not involve extra funding to recruit more staff. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, appeared at a primary school in Nuneaton on Monday alongside the shadow education secretary to publicise the party’s pledge to expand childcare places through primary schools.
Rishi Sunak has acknowledged it has become harder for people to own their first home under the Conservatives. Speaking to the BBC as part of its Panorama interviews with Nick Robinson, Sunak said: “It has got harder and I want to make sure that it’s easier and what we will do is not just build homes in the right places and do that in a way that is sensitive to local communities, but make sure that we support young people in to great jobs so they can save for that deposit. I’m going to go back to tax, because it is important...”
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has responsed to Rishi Sunak’s admission that under a Conservative government it has “got harder” to own your own home. Rayner, who is also her party’s shadow housing secretary, said Sunak’s admission (see post 6.29pm) is a “damning indictment of 14 years of housing failure” and called home ownership a “pipedream” for young people.
The Liberal Democrats have become the first of the big parties to launch their election manifesto, with a pitch to voters based on boosting the NHS and social care. They also said that – unlike those of Labour and the Tories – their plans were fully costed. Speaking at a glitzy launch event in north London, the party’s leader, Ed Davey, told voters that electing enough Lib Dem MPs would bring “a strong liberal voice pushing for these policies” and could make a notable difference even with an expected Labour majority.
Reform UK has defended one of its candidates who said Britain should have “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality”, saying the comments were “probably true”. The row prompted the Conservatives to directly criticise Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle, who was reported to have written on a website’s comment section: “Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people.”
Reform UK has moved to head off its first split since Nigel Farage returned as leader, insisting he was “giving a personal view” when he backed two Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidates in a move that angered a smaller unionist party his party has officially allied with. The comments by Farage on Monday that he was backing Ian Paisley Junior and Sammy Wilson provoked a critical response from the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader, Jim Allister. “TUV entered an electoral arrangement with Reform UK in good faith. We have kept faith with that agreement. The comments by Mr Farage today are, of course, disappointing and not compatible with the content of a conversation I had with him last week,” said Allister.
Three Conservative candidates in key seats have previously backed other parties, it can be revealed, including criticising the Conservatives’ “inaction, delay and bluster” and posting the hashtag #NeverTrustATory. Two are former candidates for the Brexit party standing in seats previously held by the Conservatives – against the Reform defector Lee Anderson in Ashfield and in North West Leicestershire, where the former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen was suspended from the party. The third candidate in Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley is contesting Labour’s Yvette Cooper’s seat, where the Conservatives came within 1,276 votes.
George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor who now co-hosts the Political Currency podcast with Ed Balls, has claimed the Conservative party is short of money. Speaking on the latest edition of the podcast, he said: “The truth is they are short of money, shorter than they thought. They’re behind their targets, a couple of million pounds behind where they thought they would be. And that’s partly, of course, the early election caught the treasurer’s department by surprise as well.”
Rishi Sunak’s plans to make 18-year-olds take part in a form of national service will cost double the £2.5bn price tag, Labour have claimed, citing military experts. The party launched a pre-emptive strike on the eve of the release of the Conservative manifesto (see 4.21pm), claiming that the Tories’ expected tax and spending promises cannot deliver the savings linked to them.
The home secretary has told Times Radio that he wouldn’t “embrace” Nigel Farage joining the Conservatives. Asked about Nigel Farage saying Rishi Sunak “doesn’t understand our culture” by leaving D-Day commemorations early, James Cleverly said: “I disregard much of what Nigel says. He’s a showman. He likes getting attention. He does things and says things. So broadcasters like you ask serious politicians like me questions like this and the bottom line is I’m not going to play Nigel’s game. He does these things to get attention. And just like a spoiled child, I don’t think he should be rewarded for doing so.”
That’s all from the UK politics live blog today. Thanks for following along.
Tory right plans to present Sunak with set of demands if manifesto falls flat
Conservative rightwingers are planning to present Rishi Sunak with demands for tougher action on immigration and human rights law ahead of the election if the prime minister’s manifesto promises on Tuesday fall flat.
Prominent party figures including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are said by Tory insiders to be among those waiting to see how their manifesto is received by the public before they act.
In the event Sunak’s launch fails to shift the dial on Tories floundering election campaign, one option under discussion is a press conference next week to set out a series of alternative pledges.
They are hoping to capitalise on an already weakened Sunak who was forced to vow to fight on until the last day of the campaign after a torrid weekend in which he was criticised for missing part of the D-day commemorations.
On the campaign trail in West Sussex on Monday, the prime minister said he believed he could still win back voters and he did not accept that the election result was a foregone conclusion.
Asked if he had considered quitting, Sunak said “of course not” and said he was energised by the campaign, after ministers were forced to insist that he would not be replaced as leader during the course of the campaign.
In the run-up to the publication of the Tory manifesto, MPs on the right of the party launched a last-ditch attempt to toughen up the position on the UK’s membership in the European convention of human rights.
Rishi Sunak was the first party leader to sit down with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for the broadcasters’s series of long-form election interviews.
Here are the key points from the PM’s grilling.
Rishi Sunak, asked to be honest with people and say many government departments will have to cut spending given the Conservatives’ pledges, told BBC Panorama:
No, that’s not what our plans show, and indeed, public spending will continue to grow, it will continue to be at record levels, it will continue to grow ahead of inflation.
Told he will have to cut in certain areas, Sunak replied: “No.”
He added:
Because day-to-day public spending, you said overall government spending, actually, day-to-day spending on government services, under a future Conservative government, will continue to increase ahead of inflation.
Now, of course, all governments prioritise within that, but what we’d also want to focus on is productivity. Right now, the government is spending more of everyone else’s money than it has in a very, very long time, productivity in the public sector has fallen considerably since Covid.
And if we recover just the pre-Covid levels of productivity, so nothing heroic, just as productive as we were before the pandemic hit, you mentioned a figure, that productivity gain is worth £20 billion.
So yes, I’m not going to apologise for finding more efficiencies in the public sector, which, by the way, they were performing at just a few years ago, so that we don’t have to raise people’s taxes and we can continue to cut them. And that figure is also something that the independent controllers have pointed to as an opportunity for efficiency savings.
Rishi Sunak defended the Conservatives’ record on tax by noting the country had been “hit by a once in a century pandemic and then an energy crisis”, saying the government “rightly stepped in” to provide support.
He told BBC Panorama:
I’m not going to shy away from what happened, I did make those difficult decisions because that’s right for the financial security of our country. But now, taxes are being cut. The average tax rate faced by a typical person in work is the lowest it has been in over half a century.
There was a back and forth between Nick Robinson and Sunak about the methodology behind the disputed Tory claim that Labour’s election policies would cost families some £2,000 in tax.
Rishi Sunak has said the Conservative party manifesto will “continue to cut people’s taxes”.
Figures provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has previously showed the UK’s current level of tax burden is the highest on record.
Sunak told BBC Panorama:
We will have a manifesto tomorrow that builds on all the things that you’ve just gone through, that we’ve already announced in this campaign, that, yes, does continue to cut people’s taxes, because I believe in a country where people’s hard work is rewarded.
And there’s a clear choice in contrast at this election, our party, the Conservatives, are promising, and will deliver tax cuts, building on the tax cuts that we have already started to deliver, and have ruled out tax rises, that’s not what the Labour party are doing.
They are being open that some taxes are going to go up, but what they’re not telling everyone is that there is a £2,000 tax bill waiting for working families across our country if they are elected.
On immigration, Rishi Sunak said the “numbers are too high” but told BBC Panorama:
I’ve been very clear about that, but people can judge me as well on what I’ve done as prime minister, where I’ve put in place the biggest, strictest reforms to bring down immigration that we’ve seen.
What the forecasts now show is that the levels of net migration are due to halve over the next 12 months or so.
The number of visas that we issued at the beginning of this year is down already by a quarter, so that shows we’re now on the right track and if I’m re-elected, what we will introduce is a legal cap on migration that parliamentarians will vote on every year, so that not just will we halve the levels of net migration, we will continue to reduce them year on year.
Sunak argued he has a “clear plan”, adding in response to Nick Robinson noting that small boat crossings are increasing this year:
If we stick to our plan, we will continue to bring them down.
Why? Because if I’m re-elected as prime minister, we will get flights off to Rwanda and establish a deterrent. So very simply, my view that illegal migration is unfair and the only way to fully solve this problem is for people to know that if they come to our country illegally, they won’t be able to stay and that means we have to have somewhere safe to return them and if I’m prime minister, the flights will go. The deterrent will be built.
Rishi Sunak was challenged about criticism from Nigel Farage and whether the Reform UK leader is more Conservative than him.
The prime minister replied to BBC Panorama:
So the choice for everybody, there’s only going to be one of two people who’s prime minister, Keir Starmer or myself. A vote for anyone who’s not a Conservative candidate is just making it more likely that Keir Starmer is that person.
So if you ask someone, you say, you know, what makes a Conservative, if you are someone who wants lower taxes, if you want your pension protected, if you want migration reduced, if you want a sensible approach to net zero that prioritises our security and reducing people’s bills, that’s what I will offer you in this election.
Sunak said he did not want to talk about personalities when challenged further on Farage, adding:
I’m willing to talk about everything here, but the simple issue here is a vote for anyone else, including Nigel Farage’s party - and I would make the same point about anyone’s party - is ultimately a vote that makes it more likely that Keir Starmer is in power.
Rishi Sunak has repeated his apology for his “mistake” of returning early from last week’s D-Day commemorations in Normandy.
Speaking to the BBC as part of its Panorama interviews with Nick Robinson, Sunak said:
Well, the last thing that I wanted to do was cause anyone any hurt or offence or upset, which is why I apologised unreservedly for the mistake that I made.
And I can only ask that I hope people can find it within their hearts to forgive me and also look at my actions as prime minister to increase investment in our armed forces, to support our armed forces, but also to ensure that veterans have a minister sitting around the cabinet table with unprecedented support to make this the best country in the world to be a veteran as a demonstration of how deeply I care about this community and what they’ve done for our country.
Labour urged to confirm how it will find staff for 100,000 new childcare places
Labour has been accused of leaving a gap in its childcare plans after the party confirmed its promise to offer 100,000 new childcare places would not involve extra funding to recruit more staff.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, appeared at a primary school in Nuneaton on Monday alongside the shadow education secretary to publicise the party’s pledge to expand childcare places through primary schools.
The proposals involve paying about £140m to refurbish school classrooms, funded by Labour’s plans to levy VAT on private school fees, but nothing extra to increase staffing levels.
Starmer confirmed on Monday that Labour would sign up to the government’s policy to offer 30 hours of free childcare a week to parents of children aged nine months and over, starting next year.
Updated
Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians, so the saying goes.
This may be why a businessman in the south of England is proposing a novel solution: – putting himself forward as a candidate in the UK general election as the first “AI MP”.
AI Steve is a nominee on the list of candidates for the 4 July general election in Brighton Pavilion, last held by the Green party’s Caroline Lucas, who is stepping down.
The man behind AI Steve is Steve Endacott, a self-described entrepreneur who lives in Rochdale, but “maintains a house in Brighton”.
Endacott, who is the chair of an artificial intellgience company called Neural Voice but “made his fortune” in the travel sector, claims he will attend parliament to vote on policies as guided by AI Steve’s feedback from his constituents.
He claims the AI representative would answer constituents’ concerns and questions using a rendition of Endacott’s voice and an avatar.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has responsed to Rishi Sunak’s admission that under a Conservative government it has “got harder” to own your own home.
Rayner, who is also her party’s shadow housing secretary, said Sunak’s admission (see post 6.29pm) is a “damning indictment of 14 years of housing failure” and called home ownership a “pipedream” for young people.
She added:
Never once in 14 years have the Tories met their 300,000 a year housing target, and their recent decision to appease the Tory MPs on their backbenches and abolish mandatory housing targets has seen housebuilding take a nosedive.
Labour will get Britain building with 1.5 million new homes and the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation. Labour will help families onto the housing ladder with first dibs for first-time buyers and a new Freedom to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme for those without access to the bank of mum and dad.
Labour is the party of home ownership and has a plan to turn the page on 14 years of Tory failure.
Reform UK has defended one of its candidates who said Britain should have “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality”, saying the comments were “probably true”.
The row prompted the Conservatives to directly criticise Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle, who was reported to have written on a website’s comment section: “Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people.”
The BBC said Gribbin had written that Britain needed to “exorcise the cult of Churchill and recognise that in both policy and military strategy, he was abysmal”. He is also reported to have said that women were the “sponging gender” and should be “deprived of health care”.
Reform’s spokesperson told the BBC the views on Hitler’s offer were not endorsements but were “shared by the vast majority of the British establishment including the BBC of its day, and is probably true”.
He said they were written with “an eye to inconvenient perspectives and truths. That doesn’t make them endorsements, just arguing points in long-distance debates.”
The spokesperson also told the Jewish Chronicle the party would not sack the candidate and he had “done nothing wrong.”
The BBC later said Gribbin had apologised for the “old comments and withdraw them unreservedly and the upset that they have caused”.
Reform UK has moved to head off its first split since Nigel Farage returned as leader, insisting he was “giving a personal view” when he backed two Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidates in a move that angered a smaller unionist party his party has officially allied with.
The comments by Farage on Monday that he was backing Ian Paisley Junior and Sammy Wilson provoked a critical response from the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader, Jim Allister.
“TUV entered an electoral arrangement with Reform UK in good faith. We have kept faith with that agreement. The comments by Mr Farage today are, of course, disappointing and not compatible with the content of a conversation I had with him last week,” said Allister.
Farage’s position stands in contrast to that of Reform UK’s deputy leader, Ben Habib, who has pledged financial support to TUV – which is hostile to the agreement which the DUP entered into in order to restore Northern Ireland’s power sharing administration.
Less than two hours after Allister’s comments, Reform said it remains committed to its alliance with the TUV and its candidates will be standing with a joint logo of the two parties.
“Nigel Farage was giving a personal view in respect of two DUP candidates with whom he has worked closely in the past but he has not changed the policy and does not intend to do so.”
Habib tweeted that Reform stands “shoulder to shoulder with TUV and supports all its candidates in Northern Ireland. ALL of them!!”
Three Conservative candidates in key seats have previously backed other parties, it can be revealed, including criticising the Conservatives’ “inaction, delay and bluster” and posting the hashtag #NeverTrustATory.
Two are former candidates for the Brexit party standing in seats previously held by the Conservatives – against the Reform defector Lee Anderson in Ashfield and in North West Leicestershire, where the former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen was suspended from the party.
The third candidate in Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley is contesting Labour’s Yvette Cooper’s seat, where the Conservatives came within 1,276 votes.
The home secretary has told Times Radio that he wouldn’t “embrace” Nigel Farage joining the Conservatives.
Asked about Nigel Farage saying Rishi Sunak “doesn’t understand our culture” by leaving D-Day commemorations early, James Cleverly said:
I disregard much of what Nigel says. He’s a showman. He likes getting attention. He does things and says things. So broadcasters like you ask serious politicians like me questions like this and the bottom line is I’m not going to play Nigel’s game. He does these things to get attention. And just like a spoiled child, I don’t think he should be rewarded for doing so.
Asked about his predecessor, Suella Braverman, urging the party to embrace the Reform UK leader, he added:
Nigel’s made it clear he wants to destroy the Conservative party and I don’t embrace people that want to destroy my party and hurt the British people.
Now harder to own your first home under the Conservatives, Rishi Sunak admits
Rishi Sunak has acknowledged it has become harder for people to own their first home under the Conservatives.
Speaking to the BBC as part of its Panorama interviews with Nick Robinson, Sunak said:
It has got harder and I want to make sure that it’s easier and what we will do is not just build homes in the right places and do that in a way that is sensitive to local communities, but make sure that we support young people in to great jobs so they can save for that deposit. I’m going to go back to tax, because it is important...
Robinson intervened to say most young people are not worried about the deposit or stamp duty, adding they cannot afford to leave their parents’ home.
The prime minister replied:
No, actually when I speak to people it is the deposit that is the biggest challenge because many people earn enough to cover a mortgage payment, but the struggle is saving up for a deposit.
That has always over the last few years been the number one challenge.
The full interview is due to air this evening at 8pm and we’ll bring you more lines from it as we get them.
Updated
Reform UK might raise some money by cutting interest on QE reserves, but not £40bn it claims, IFS says
Reform UK is wrong to claim that it could raise £40bn for tax cuts by cutting interest on QE reserves (see 1.35pm), according to Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He says the government could raise some money this way, but that it would probably be less than half what Reform UK claims, and that the policy might have other disadvantages.
Reform UK propose large permanent personal tax cuts could be paid for by reducing the interest paid on Bank reserves.
— Institute for Fiscal Studies (@TheIFS) June 10, 2024
It is a complex area but is unlikely to raise even half the £40bn annually that has been suggested, and only in the short term.@PJTheEconomist's response ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/EvMleZ7uKe
Reform UK propose large permanent personal tax cuts could be paid for by reducing the interest paid on Bank reserves.
It is a complex area but is unlikely to raise even half the £40bn annually that has been suggested, and only in the short term.
That is all from me for today. Tom Ambrose is taking over now.
Ian Jones from PA Media says almost all the constituencies visited by Rishi Sunak so far have been Tory-held ones.
The PM has now visited 31 constituencies since the campaign began, 28 of which are being defended by the Tories.
— Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) June 10, 2024
The PM has now visited 31 constituencies since the campaign began, 28 of which are being defended by the Tories.
Farage puts Reform UK/TUV pact at risk after endorsing two DUP MPs
Cracks have started to appear in the alliance between Reform UK and the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) after Nigel Farage backed two Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidates - potentially also putting him at odds with others in the party he now leads.
The Reform UK leader told PA Media:
I want to make it clear that whilst there have been negotiations going on in previous times, I will personally be endorsing Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson.
However, TUV leader Jim Allister issued a statement today criticising Farage, in remarks that could have repercussions for Reform UK’s own unity. Allister said:
TUV entered an electoral arrangement with Reform UK in good faith. We have kept faith with that agreement.
The comments by Mr Farage today are, of course, disappointing and not compatible with the content of a conversation I had with him last week.
The endorsement that TUV seeks in this election is that of ordinary voters who know who has from the start told them the truth about the union-dismantling protocol, while the DUP tried to hoodwink them with false claims that they had got rid of the Irish Sea border.
Reform UK’s joint deputy leader, Ben Habib, has emerged as a strong supporter of the TUV, making pledges to back the party’s candidates financially after he said he would not be supporting the DUP unless it changed its position on the Irish Sea border.
While the DUP had been critical of trading arrangements under the Northern Ireland protocol and Windsor framework, it agreed to revive the power-sharing institutions after securing a deal with the British government aimed at addressing unionist concerns.
Tory HQ 'short of money' for campaign because donors cutting back, George Osborne claims
George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor who now co-hosts the Political Currency podcast with Ed Balls, has claimed the Conservative party is short of money. Speaking on the latest edition of the podcast, he said:
The truth is they are short of money, shorter than they thought. They’re behind their targets, a couple of million pounds behind where they thought they would be. And that’s partly, of course, the early election caught the treasurer’s department by surprise as well.
They’ve been calling people up [and] people who would have donated £100,000 are saying, well, I’ll give you £50,000. Or if they were going to give £50,000, they’re giving £25,000. So people are giving less than expected.
The Conservative party has in recent years - much more so than when I was involved, where the treasurer’s departments broadened the fundraising base - become very dependent on a few very rich individuals giving very large donations. So they’re extremely vulnerable to one person saying, I’m not giving the 5 million quid that I promised you. So they are short of money.
They’ve, by the way, spent a lot of money under the Sunak premiership - close to £100m, or raised £100m – but they don’t have all the money they’d like in this campaign.
IFS says Lib Dem manifesto proposes 'meaningful change', but doubts tax plans would raise as much as party thinks
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has issued a short analysis of the proposals in the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto. It says the proposals amount to “meaningful change to current plans”. But it is sceptical about whether the Lib Dems would really be able to raise the £27bn they say they could. (See 12.13pm.) Here’s an excerpt.
The Liberal Democrats are proposing a package of tax rises that they claim will raise £27 billion in 2028-29. These may look politically attractive: a large sum raised without directly raising taxes on ‘ordinary people’.
But taxes on banks, for example, would need to be raised to new highs – much higher than under the Conservatives – to achieve the planned revenue, and would ultimately be felt at least in part by their customers.
While there are some changes to be welcomed – their proposed capital gains tax reform looks to be in a sensible direction – at least some of the measures are a bad idea economically.
Most notably, there is no economic rationale for a tax on share buybacks. It would distort companies’ financing decisions and further discourage the use of equity finance relative to debt finance.
As to whether the package overall would raise £27bn, the risks are on the downside.
For example, it may turn out to be difficult to raise £7bn from cracking down on evasion and avoidance. Less would be raised from taxing share buybacks if firms change their financing strategies more than the Liberal Democrats expect. Taxing frequent flyers more heavily would require an entirely new administrative mechanism to monitor how many flights people have taken in a year.
And it’s worth noting that expanding the windfall tax on oil and gas profits would only bring in revenue as a one-off – not the permanent revenue stream needed to fund permanent spending commitments.
Tories accuse Reform UK of 'Nazi apologism' after it defends candidate who said UK should have made peace with Hitler
CCHQ has, until recently, tried to ignore Reform UK. It is issued countless press releases during the campaign attacking Labour, but it has said very little about the challenger Nigel Farage party grabbing votes from the Tories on the right.
Perhaps the Farage attack on Rishi Sunak’s patriotism (see 10.52am) has made difference. Responding to the news that a Reform UK candidate said it would have been better if Britain had made peace with Hitler (“Britain would be in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality ... but oh no Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people”), and that a Reform UK spokesperson broadly defended the comment, CCHQ issued this statement from Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister. Mercer said:
The suggestion from a Reform spokesman that Britain would have been better off accepting the Nazis’ squalid offer of neutrality instead of standing against them is shameful and shows a shocking lack of judgement.
These comments ignore the millions murdered by the Nazis in their bid for European domination and the ultimate sacrifice paid by the men and women who stood up to Hitler in our darkest hour.
Misusing appeasement to justify Nazi apologism is disgraceful and comments like this are deeply troubling coming from a political party.
Updated
Labour claims Sunak's national service plan would in reality cost twice as much as £2.5bn Tories say
Rishi Sunak’s plans to make 18-year-olds take part in a form of national service will cost double the £2.5bn price tag, Labour have claimed, citing military experts.
The party launched a pre-emptive strike on the eve of the release of the Conservative manifesto (see 4.21pm), claiming that the Tories’ expected tax and spending promises cannot deliver the savings linked to them.
On the national service plans, Labour claimed the Tories had overlooked the “minimum costs” which included training and accommodating new trainees (£1.5bn), paying and supervising trained recruits (£1.7bn) and non-military placements for those who do other types of service (£1.8bn)
All of this would amount to at least £5bn a year, according to the shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth.
He said that the Conservatives would be “lying” if they said their manifesto would be fully costed. Promises to generate £12bn on welfare savings were based on commitments already factored into the Office of Budget Responsibility’s fiscal projections, insisted Ashworth.
In another area, Ashworth said that the Conservatives would not raise £6bn through plans to crack down on tax avoidance because it failed to take account of the need to make upfront investments in HMRC enforcement capacity.
Ashworth declined to rule out raising capital gains tax if Labour wins the election. Asked about this, Ashworth replied:
Under a Labour government, there will be no increase in income tax, no increase in national insurance, no increase in VAT.
Nothing in our plans requires additional tax to be raised. We will be straight with the British public. Every commitment we put forward in our manifesto will be fully funded and fully costed. You’ll know where the money is coming from.
Tory manifesto will be 'most expensive panic attack in history', Labour says
The Conservative party is launching its manifesto tomorrow. Speaking in advance of its publication, Labour described it as “the most expensive panic attack in history”.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said:
Tomorrow, you will see a document littered with unfunded commitment after unfunded commitment – a desperate wishlist, the most expensive panic attack in history from a weak, desperate Prime Minister who in the chaotic scattergun of announcements which he has made in his campaign to date has not even bothered to try to make his sums add up.
They tried to mislead the British people once in this campaign, about the costings of Labour’s policies, and now they are doing the same about their own.
Ross denies he's 'rat deserting sinking ship' after announcing he's quitting as Scottish Tory leader after election
Douglas Ross has defended his decision to announce that he will stand down as Scottish Tory leader after the next election. He said he was doing this so that, if he is elected MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, he will be able to focus fully on the needs of the constituency.
Asked if he was standing down because he felt guilty about elbowing aside David Duguid, who had been the party’s candidate in the Westminster seat until last week, Ross said it was the party’s management board that decided Duguid would not be allowed to stand as the candidate.
💥 NEW: Douglas Ross rejects ‘deserting a sinking ship’ as he announces he will quit as Tory leader in midst of general election.
— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) June 10, 2024
☑️ Admits should’ve handled row over ousted David Duguid differently.
☑️Won’t say if he feels shame over stabbing colleague in back.
📺 @SkyNews… pic.twitter.com/A0yqXFbFD1
Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader who now leads Alba, described Ross as a rat deserting a sinking ship.
The first case of a rat deserting the sinking ship while simultaneously trying to clamber aboard a gravy train.
— Alex Salmond (@AlexSalmond) June 10, 2024
Douglas Ross requires to resign as candidate for Aberdeenshire and Moray, where he stabbed David Duguid in the back.
Ross is totally devoid of honour. https://t.co/MoUDjsTVGh
The first case of a rat deserting the sinking ship while simultaneously trying to clamber aboard a gravy train.
Douglas Ross requires to resign as candidate for Aberdeenshire and Moray, where he stabbed David Duguid in the back.
Ross is totally devoid of honour
When it was put to Ross that Salmond had a point, Ross said that Salmond himself was not even standing in the election. Salmond could be have been the Alba candidate in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East but chose not to run, he said.
At the end of his manifesto launch Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said he would be going on a rollercoaster later, because election campaigns are described as rollercoaster rides.
Here he is, keeping his promise with Lib Dem colleagues, at Thorpe Park this afternoon. Here is he on the Colossus ride (front, right), with Munira Wilson, the education spokesperson (front, left) beside him. Sarah Olney, the Treasury spokesperson, is behind her.
Judging by the pictures, Davey is having a good time (or pretending to successfully), but Olney is scared witless.
Reform UK has defended a parliamentary candidate who argued two years ago that Britain would be “in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality”, the BBC reports. The party said Ian Gribbin, its candidate in Bexhill and Battle, was highlighting “inconvenient perspectives and truths”.
(An alternative view might be that Gribbin does not understand “where this country is, how it feels about D-day” and that he has “no sense of our history”. See 10.52am.)
Farage dismisses Braverman's suggestion he should join Tories - but says she'll be welcome in Reform UK after election
The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says he will tell Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick “we will love to have you” once Reform UK has established an “electoral beachhead” in the House of Commons.
Speaking at his press conference this morning, Farage said:
If you think the last four years have seen the Conservatives engage in a very public civil war. I would suggest, after an election which they are going to lose heavily, then you have not see anything yet …
Once we have established the electoral beachhead in the House of Commons, of course we will say to Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick ‘we look forward to having you’ and I look forward to it very much.
Farage was responding to Braverman, the former home secretary, telling the Times that her party should embrace Farage. (See 9.26am.)
Farage also said he had written to the British Polling Council to complain about what he described as the “dishonest practices” which claimed were underestimating the strength of support for his party.
“There is a very misleading opinion being given to the British public as to what is going on,” he said, complaining that there was a lack of consistency in term of methodology. He went on:
One very well known polling company will say: how do you intend vote? and it will be Labour, Lib Dem Conservative and Greens - and then other. If you then take the trouble to go other you will find a list of parties I have never heard of and the Reform will be there. So if you don’t prompt for Reform you come out at 12%. One of the other practises is to re-weight the undecided voters back to the 2019 general election in which this party did not stand.
The true picture should show that Reform UK was consistently at 16 or 17%, he claimed.
The Guardian’s poll tracker currently has Reform UK on 11.9%.
A reader asks:
Farage said that the Treasury should stop paying interest on it’s reserves. [See 1.35pm.] What does that mean and what are the implications? Is it mad?
Not entirely. Chris Giles, the chief economic commentor at the Financial Times, has proposed a version of this idea, although he argues that it would free up around £23bn for more public spending, not the £40bn quoted by Reform UK. This is how he explained it in an FT column last week.
At present the BoE pays 5.25 per cent interest overnight on the money it created to buy government bonds under multiple waves of quantitative easing since 2009. It still holds roughly £700bn of bonds that were purchased and they earn a return of about 2 per cent. Netted off, the annual interest rate loss is around £23bn a year, a little shy of 1 per cent of GDP.
The central bank pays 5.25 per cent on reserves so that it can set the short-term policy interest rate at that level. It is effective, but not the only way to control short-term rates.
Instead, it could require banks to hold a fixed amount of money without interest, paying 5.25 per cent only on a small part of the reserves. Such tiering is used in a modest form by the European Central Bank, in a more substantial form in many emerging economies and was admitted to the BoE’s toolkit when it was thinking about setting a negative interest rate earlier this decade. It carries no threat to independent monetary policy and would limit the fiscal consequences of monetary policy decisions, arguably enhancing independence. The beneficial politics of such a move are obvious. If the BoE tiered reserves, saving some of the £23bn annual cost, it would lower measured public spending (net interest payments), allowing a new government to increase spending in other areas without raising measured taxes or borrowing. The opacity of the mechanism might be bad economics but it would help the politics: it is better to lack transparency in government than to underfund public services.
In his column Giles argued this was a policy Labour should adopt. In a series of posts on X, he revealed he was a bit shocked to find he was aligned with Reform UK on this, and said he thought they were over-estimating how much this would raise, but that it it was still a good idea.
And he did point out, in his column, that there would be losers: banks, their shareholders and their customers.
Labour 'has abandoned plans to raise £800m to reimposing pensions lifetime allowance', report says
Labour has abandoned plans to bring back the pensions lifetime allowance (LTA), the cap on the amount of money that people can put into a pension pot tax free, the Financial Times is reporting.
In their story, George Parker and Josephine Cumbo said Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, decided that reimposing the LTA would be complex and would create uncertainty for savers. Wealthy savers will benefit from the move, that will cost £800m.
Parker and Cumbo report:
The move is also a sign of Labour seeking to “de-risk” its election campaign — the party currently leads the Conservatives by about 20 points — by avoiding tax-raising policies that could be attacked by the Tories.
Reeves’s allies said the party had not allocated the £800m that would have been raised from reintroducing the LTA for any of Labour’s spending plans. “There will [be] no black hole as a result,” said one.
In his budget last year, chancellor Jeremy Hunt abolished the pensions lifetime allowance, which put a cap on how much people could save, or benefit from investment growth, in their pensions before tax charges kicked in. The move, which came into effect in April 2023, was welcomed by better off savers, including senior NHS doctors and other public servants, who were most at risk of breaching the old £1.073m cap …
At the time, Reeves vowed to reverse the change, saying it was “the wrong priority, at the wrong time, for the wrong people”.
The FT splashed on this story this morning.
Monday’s FINANCIAL Times: “Labour throws out proposal to bring back lifetime cap on tax-free pensions” #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/p7PrFO24AT
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) June 9, 2024
SNP says Douglas Ross has been forced out by his colleagues as Scottish Tory leader over 'shameful behaviour'
The SNP says that Douglas Ross has, in reality, been forced out as leader by the Scottish Tories and that he should resign as an MSP immediately. Commenting on Ross’s announcement about standing down as leader after the election, the SNP’s Seamus Logan said:
Douglas Ross must resign as an MSP today. It’s clear he’s been forced out as Scottish Tory leader after his shameful behaviour over David Duguid and his growing expenses scandal. Voters deserve a dedicated MSP - not one who is hedging his bets in case he loses the election.
Logan is the SNP candidate in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, where Ross is the Tory candidate, and favourite to win. Duguid, a former Scotland Office minister, was the Tory candidate in the seat until he was elbowed aside by the party leadership last week, supposedly on the grounds that his health was not good enough because he was still recovering from a serious illness.
Updated
Reform UK says it would fund £40bn income tax cut by ending interest payments on QE reserves
Reform UK has proposed raising the personal tax allowance for income tax from £12,570 to £20,000. At a news conference this morning, it said that seven million people would be taken out of tax by this measure, which it described as its “Great British tax cut”, and it said it would cover the £40bn cost by ending interest payments on quantitative easing.
In a briefing explaining the proposal, Reform UK said:
The cost of this measure is estimated at £40bn pa (depending on employment numbers) which will be mainly funded by ending the Bank of England’s current voluntary payment of base rate interest on the printed money reserves, known as quantitative easing (QE) reserves. This transfers some £30-40bn per year of interest payments (at current interest rates) to big banks from taxpayers and is neither necessary nor contractual. Other central banks are not paying this, nor should the Bank of England.
To understand this concept, imagine printing a £20 note on your home printer and giving it to your neighbour who is having a tough time. Having done him a major favour, why would you pay him interest every year on the money you gave him? This is what QE did: saved the nation from going bust in 2008 and 2020 – so the Bank of England should not pay ongoing interest on the money reserves that it printed.
Defending the plan, Richard Tice, the Reform UK chair, said:
I have been raising this for over 12 months. Journalists such as the FT Economics commentator Chris Giles and Robert Peston agree with me on the principle of this QE interest issue, as do two former deputy governors of the Bank of England, Sir Paul Tucker and Charlie Bean. Furthermore the leftwing think tank New Economics Foundation, Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and independent economists like Julian Jessop and Patrick Minford also agree. The fact that neither the chancellor, nor the Treasury, nor the Bank of England have proved why I am wrong, but instead have been silent on this issue, is because they are embarrassed to admit that I am right.
Reform said it would also raise the inheritance tax threshold to £2m, with estates worth more than that taxed at 20% (not 40%, the current rate); raise the threshold at which small business start paying VAT from £90,000 to £150,000; and abolish the IR35 tax rules for the self-employed. It said these three measures would cost between £5bn and £10bn a year, which could be funded by public sector efficiency savings.
Dharshini David, the BBC’s chief economic proposal, says the QE proposal is one that have been floated before, but not advocated by any of the main parties.
The Reform pledge to save c£35bn /yr by cutting taxpayer-funded interest on commercial banks’ QE reserves has been discussed in several quarters , thou not pushed by other major parties yet - & wouldn’t please banks.
— Dharshini David (@DharshiniDavid) June 9, 2024
One previous explainer: https://t.co/3QxfYYchCw
Sunak pays tribute to Douglas Ross, and rejects claims his resignation as Scottish Tory leader sign of more 'chaos' in party
Rishi Sunak has paid tribute to Douglas Ross following the announcement that Ross is going to stand down as Scottish Tory leader after the election.
In a pooled broadcast interview, asked if this was evidence of “more chaos” in the Conservative party, Sunak rejected that. He went on:
You can read Douglas’s statement about his reasons, and I respect his decision. It’s been a pleasure to work with him over the time that I’ve been prime minister.
He’s been a steadfast champion for the union but also he and I’ve worked together on delivering two freeports for Scotland, attracting jobs and investment, standing up to the SNP’s misguided gender recognition reforms and also being unashamedly champions of Scotland’s North Sea energy industry - the only party to consistently have done that. So I think that’s a pretty good track record that Douglas can be proud of.
Summary of key points from Lib Dem manifesto
PA Media has filed this summary of the key points from the Lib Dem manifesto.
The economy
The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto vows to repair the UK’s “broken relationship with Europe”, signalling that the party would want to redraw the post-Brexit trade deal with the EU as part of a series of measures aimed at improving economic stability and providing growth.
It would also seek to create “long-term help with the cost of living”, cutting energy bills through an upgrade programme, tackling rising food prices through a national food strategy, and getting mortgage rates under control through “careful economic management”.
The environment
Sewage is the Lib Dems’ headline pledge from their natural environment manifesto chapter.
It reads: “We will end the sewage scandal by transforming water companies into public benefit companies, banning bonuses for water bosses until discharges and leaks end, and replacing Ofwat with a tough new regulator with powers to prevent sewage dumps.”
According to party proposals, legally binding targets to prevent sewage dumping into bathing waters and highly sensitive natures sites would come into force by 2030.
Health
On health, the Lib Dem manifesto promises everyone in England “the right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to, with 8,000 more GPs to deliver on it”.
The announcement was trailed by the party in advance of the manifesto launch as part of a £9.4bn package for the NHS and social care in England, paid for by hiking taxes for banks and closing finance loopholes used by the super-rich.
The Liberal Democrats also want to guarantee access to NHS dentistry for those in need of urgent care, and they promise to implement the recommendations of the UK infected blood inquiry in full, including “full and fair compensation to all victims of the scandal in a timely and transparent manner”.
Care
The Lib Dems want to give unpaid carers a right to paid carers’ leave from work and a statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks.
The manifesto includes a pledge to expand access to carers’ allowance, and to stop pursuing anyone who has been overpaid the benefit in the past.
To create a longer-term settlement on social care, the party wants to establish a “cross-party commission” to create agreement about a sustainable funding model.
Pensions and benefits
The Lib Dems have vowed to maintain the triple lock on the state pension, in a similar move to Labour and the Conservatives.
They have also pledged to ensure women born in the 1950s who have been impacted by pension age changes are “treated fairly and properly compensated”.
Education
The manifesto pledges to increase school and college funding per pupil “above the rate of inflation every year” in its education offer.
The party also wants to invest in new school and college buildings to end the “scandal” of the crumbling schools estate.
Starmer defends free hours system of subsidising childcare
Just over a year ago, Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, gave a speech in which she promised to completely abolish the free hours system of subsidising childcare places, saying it was ineffective and inefficient. Soon afterwards Jeremy Hunt announced a massive expansion of that scheme, and suddenly Labour has discovered it quite likes it after all.
Providers argue it does not adequately fund the number of places it is supposed to. But speaking to reporters on the campaign trail today, the Labour leader Keir Starmer appeared to disagree.
“[The free hours scheme] is a good plan, but it is not deliverable,” he said. He would not commit to any extra funding to make it more deliverable, focusing instead on Labour’s promise to add an extra 100,000 places through primary schools.
Another thing Starmer doesn’t want to talk about is exactly how and when Labour might impose its tax rise on private schools. Some parents are concerned it might hit them before the next school year, while others want to know what will happen if they have already paid several years’ worth of fees up front.
“We will set all this out if we are elected into government in our first budget,” he said. “What I’m not going to do four weeks before the election, is to preempt that budget.”
Starmer refuses to rule out raising capital gains tax
Keir Starmer has been out on the campaign trail this morning, taking part in an arts and crafts session with primary school children to promote his party’s new policy of funding 100,000 extra childcare places.
That policy is one of a number of manifesto commitments that are being funded by specific tax rises. However the problem for Starmer if he gets into Number 1, as Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has repeatedly argued, is that existing levels of government spending already need substantial extra funding, whether through taxes or borrowing.
Asked about this by journalists following him on the campaign trail, the Labour leader said the gap could be filled with extra growth. He said:
I know what the experts and commentators are saying, and what underpins what they’re saying is that you can’t carry on like this without a plan for growth.
It is always tempting for a government to go to tax and spend, but I’m not going to pull those levers. We don’t intend to pull those levers. We want to go to the lever marked growth.
Tellingly however, he did not deny his party is considering a capital gains tax rise if it wins the election - for the second time in two days. The Liberal Democrats say they would raise more than £5bn from raising capital gains tax. (See 12.13pm.)
Starmer also insisted Labour would not “go back to austerity”, despite projections showing that current spending levels would mean heavy cuts to unprotected departments during the next parliament.
How Lib Dems would raise extra £26.9bn in tax, and where they would spend it
Here are the two pages from the Lib Dems’ costings document showing where the Lib Dems would spend £26.8bn a year more by 2028-29, and how they would raise £26.9bn a year in tax to pay for this.
Lib Dem plans to raise spending by £26.8bn
Lib Dem plans to raise taxes by £26.9bn
Updated
Sunak rejects suggestion he considered resigning over weekend over D-day fiasco
Rishi Sunak has denied suggestions he considered resigning over the weekend in the light of the row about his D-day snub.
In a broadcast interview shown on Sky News, asked if he had considered standing down, he replied: “No, of course not.”
At the weekend there were some rumours on social media suggesting Sunak might resign as party leader over the incident. None of them seemed well sourced, but on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, was asked if he was confident Sunak would remain party leader until polling day (he was), and the question did not seem 100% ridiculous, in the light of how badly people were reacting to Sunak’s D-day error.
Davey ends by saying his latest stunt will involve a rollercoaster, because he has been told an election is a rollercoaster.
And that’s it.
Q: [From Nicholas Watt from Newsnight] You seem to imply that you want to rejoin the EU single market before you rejoin the EU properly. In the past you said there was no point doing one without the other, because there was no point being a rule taker (in the single market) but not a rule maker (in the EU).
Davey says even rejoining the single market would not be easy. There would be several steps that would have to happen first.
And he says the UK is a rule taker anyway under the Boris Johnson deal.
Q: You want to raise more money from capital gains tax. Are you worried this will deter voters in the blue wall?
Davey repeats his point about how most people would pay less CGT under the Lib Dem plans.
Q: What is the point of voting Lib Dems when Labour are going to win by a big majority?
Davey says the questioner (Christopher Hope from GB News) seem to know the result of the election.
Voting Lib Dem will give people good local champions, he says.
But they will also get MPs to vote for change.
He says the manifesto contains many ideas that are
Q: On Europe, the manifesto talks about rejoining the single market. Is your ultimate aim to rejoin the EU?
Davey says the Lib Dems are the most pro-European party. They believe in working with other countries, he says.
But he says rebuilding the relationship will take time. That requires showing people the benefits of EU membership.
Q: How do you respond to the Institute for Fiscal Studies saying some of your costings are unrealistic?
Davey says the costings document is now available online.
He’s right.
Here is the manifesto.
And here is the costings document.
Updated
Q: Do you expect other parties to back your plan to raise capital gains tax? And does it mean you favour wealth tax, which is how this might be described?
Davey says people are disillusioned with politics. He wants to rebuild trust, and having a costed manifesto is part of that. Capital gains tax at the moment is unfair for some people. The Lib Dems’ CGT plans would reduce it for many people, because the allowance would go up. But millionaires and billionaires are using it to pay a lower rate of tax than many of the people they employ, he says. He says that is unfair.
He says only 0.1% of people would be affected by the plans. And he thinks this group, the most wealthy, should pay more.
This is “a reform that is deperately needed”, he says.
Q: You want a closer relationship with Europe. But the European parliament election results suggest voters want the opposite. Are you worried by that?
Davey says he is not sure that is the right way to interprete the European election results.
He says people were voting for change.
The Tories’ deal with the EU has been a disaster, he says. He is a tough negotiator; he would negotiate a good deal, he says.
Davey says rejoining EU can only be long-term project because Tories have done 'so much damage' to EU-UK relations
Davey has finished his speech. He is now taking questions.
Q: [From the BBC’s Vicki Young] You have been good at grabbing attention in the campaign. But after the election, what influence will you have?
Davey says he thinks politicians should not take themselves too seriously. (He is referring to his campaign photo opportunities, like falling off a paddle board.) But they should take the concerns of voters seriously, he says.
He says, if there are lots of good Lib Dem MPs in parliament, they will be able to affect the debate.
Q: The last time you launched a manifesto, stopping Brexit was front and centre. Now Brexit is not even mentioned until page 116, the penultimate page. Would you try to rejoin the EU?
Davey says the Lib Dems “believe in the long term we need to be back at the heart of Europe”.
But that is not going to be easy, he says. The Tories have undermined trust; people in the EU do not trust the UK anymore.
He says the UK is going to have to proceed step by step.
But the UK could get a better trade deal with the EU, and allow young people free travel over the EU. He goes on:
It is going to take time, regrettable, because the Conservatives have done so much damage.
Updated
Davey says the Lib Dems are also calling for proportional representation. This would help to ensure the powerful are held to account, he says.
Davey sums up the Lib Dems’ plans on health and social care
And he says he wants to mention one other policy he is particularly proud of – the proposal to give proper bereavement support to parents whose partners have died.
He says that is because he remembers how important the widow’s pension was to his mother after his father died. He says this was cut by the Conservatives in 2017. It was the first issue he raised with Boris Johnson at PMQs, he says.
Here is the video Ed Davey was referring to.
Caring isn’t just my family's story, it is the story of millions, caring for each other, dealing with tough times, and keeping going with love.
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) June 5, 2024
Sharing our story hasn't been easy, but it's important. It's time to bring carers' experiences into the light.pic.twitter.com/osj0bh33QI
At the campaign launch Davey says he started as a carer as a child. His father died when he was four, and his mother got cancer when he was a teenager. He had to look after her before she died, when he was 15.
Davey says the NHS and social care are at the heart of the maniesto. They are in crisis, he says.
Anyone in the NHS will tell you a major cause of the crisis in the NHS is the crisis in care. People cannot leave hospitals because care is not available for them at home, he says.
He says: “This is a manifesto to save the NHS.”
Ed Davey launches Liberal Democrats' election manifesto
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is speaking at the launch of the Lib Dems’ manifesto,
He says the 114-page document is full of detailed policies, which have all been costed.
And he says he has been struck by the many messages he has received from people who have heard him talk about his role caring for his seriously disabled son. He says other carers were particularly pleased to hear someone talking about an experience they have also shared.
Caring has been “in the shadows for far too long”, he says. He is proud the Lib Dems have brought it into the light.
You can watch the launch here
Updated
Sunak declines to hit back at Farage over his 'not understanding our history' attack, saying row it caused not good for politics
Speaking to the media this morning, Rishi Sunak refused to discuss Reform UK. With Tories divided over whether or not they should seek to unite with Nigel Farage’s party after the election, Sunak chose not to engage with questions about the party. Asked if he was concerned that Reform UK could overtake the Tories in the polls, Sunak replied:
I‘m not really interested in Reform, quite frankly, I’m interested in delivering for the British people with the agenda that I’m setting out.
And I’m very clear about what I stand for, and the action that we’re prepared to take to deliver a more secure future for everybody.
Sunak also declined to criticise Farage for saying in an interview over the weekend that Sunak’s decision to miss part of the D-day commemoration in France showed that he was someone who did not understand “our history”.
Farage said:
You either understand where this country is, how it feels about D-day and especially how it feels about those last remnants, or you don’t. [Sunak] has no sense of our history, or feeling genuinely for the culture that is out there among ordinary people. He’s utterly disconnected in every way.
Asked about the comment today, Sunak said:
I can’t speak for him and what he meant by those comments. I’m not going to get involved in that because I don’t think it’s good for our politics, or indeed, our country.
Labour suggested Farage’s comment was a racist “dog whistle” about Sunak’s Indian heritage, and Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, also said the remark was “deeply regrettable”.
But Farage has denied that this is what he was implying. He used the remark in an interview with Andrew Billen published in the Times on Saturday and in it Billen says that, as soon as Farage accused Sunak of not understanding British history or culture, he asked Farage if this was a smear about race.
Farage told Billen:
No, no, no. Forty per cent of the total contribution into world wars came from what we now call the Commonwealth.
Instead Farage claimed that Sunak was out of touch because of his class and his job.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Sunak restated his apology for missing part of the D-day commemoration. He said:
When it comes to the D-day events, I spoke about that a lot last week, and absolutely didn’t mean to cause anyone any more upset, and that’s why I apologise unreservedly for the mistake that I made.
And I just hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me and look at my actions that I’ve taken as prime minister, both to support our armed forces with an increase in defence spending, but also have a minister focus on veterans affairs around the cabinet table.
Updated
Don't write me off, says Sunak, insisting he'll fight on and election result not 'foregone conclusion'
A defiant Rishi Sunak vowed to “fight on” until the last day of the election campaign after a torrid weekend where the prime minister was criticised for missing part of the D-day commemorations.
On the campaign trail in East Sussex, the prime minister said he believed he could still win back voters and said he did not accept the election was a foregone conclusion.
The visit marks his first media appearance since his apology last week for missing part of the ceremony in Normandy. Over the weekend cabinet ministers were forced to insist that Sunak would not be replaced as leader during the course of the election campaign.
Sunak said he was still fighting despite polls consistently showing he was 20 points behind. He went on:
People are gonna say what they’re gonna say. What I’m doing is fighting very hard for every vote. I will keep doing that until the last day of this campaign. And I am very confident in the actions that we’re putting forward for the British people.
There’s lots of people who want to write me off write this off, say this campaign or the election is a foregone conclusion. They’ve been saying that, by the way, since I’ve gotten this job. But the reality is, I’m not going to stop going. I’m not going to stop fighting for the future of our country. I believe in what we are doing.
The prime minister said he had spent the morning knocking on doors and said voters were “recognising and accepting that we are the party that have put forward big ideas for this country … people can see that in this campaign it is only the Conservatives have big ideas that can change our country for the better and that started in the first week.”
Douglas Ross says he will stand down as Scottish Tory leader after election
Douglas Ross has announced that he will stand down as leader of the Scottish Conservatives on July 4 following sustained criticism of his three jobs and fresh allegations about improper expenses claims.
In a surprise statement on Monday morning, Ross also announced that – should he win the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency at the Westminster election – he will also stand down as an MSP at Holyrood.
Last week Ross announced he plans to stand again for Westminster in a key SNP target seat, after the party blocked the anticipated candidate who is recovering from a serious illness.
David Duguid, who had been expected to stand, insisted that he was fit enough to contest the election but the party’s management board said it had a “duty of care” to protect the health of their candidates.
The decision, and Ross’s move to immediately replace Duguid, was met with fury by local party members while the Holyrood opposition dismissed it as “tawdry” and “a betrayal”.
Alongside his dual roles in two parliaments, Ross also works as a part-time match official for the Scottish FA, prompting regular jibes about his “three jobs” from political opponents. He donates his MSP salary to charity.
In his statement, Ross said
I have served as MP, MSP and Leader for over three years now and believed I could continue to do so if re-elected to Westminster, but on reflection, that is not feasible.
My party has a chance to beat the SNP in key seats up and down Scotland, including in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East. We must now come together and fully focus on doing exactly that.
The most recent YouGov MRP suggests Ross is on course to win the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, beating the SNP by 37% to 31%.
The SNP is calling for Ross to make a personal statement to Holyrood about his expenses after the Sunday Mail reported that a Tory whistleblower had told the newspaper that Ross had submitted 28 parliamentary expense claims relating to his third job as a football referee.
UPDATE: Here is Ross’s statement in full.
Today I announced that I will be standing down as leader of the Scottish Conservatives after the General Election. You can read my statement below: pic.twitter.com/p8y0zEyqD4
— Douglas Ross MSP (@Douglas4Moray) June 10, 2024
Updated
Bridget Phillipson says Labour colleague wrong to say VAT on private school fees could lead to overcrowding in state schools
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, this morning slapped down a shadow cabinet colleague who claimed that Labour’s plans to put VAT on private school fees could lead to overcrowding in state schools.
In an interview with GB News yesterday, Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, implied she was not bothered by the prospect of the policy leading to parents taking their children out of private schools and putting them in the state sector instead, driving class sizes up.
Thornberry said that some state schools had vacancies and could accommodate extra pupils. But she went on:
And if we have to, in the short term, have larger classes, we have larger classes.
This morning Phillipson said Thornberry was wrong because she was not making allowance for the fact that a fall in the number pupils enrolling in schools meant this would not be a problem. She told Times Radio:
I am afraid [what Thornberry said] just wasn’t right.
Actually what we are seeing across the state sector is a falling number of pupils in our classrooms because of the falling birth rate, and there are fewer young people arriving at school.
So, actually, we are going to be in the position pretty soon – and it is already the case in places like London – where schools are merging and closing because of falling numbers.
Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey are discussing the week ahead in the Guardian’s latest Politics Weekly podcast, which you can listen to here.
Minister ‘surprised and disappointed’ by Sunak’s D-day blunder
Chris Philp, the policing minister, said he was left feeling “surprised and disappointed” on learning Rishi Sunak had left D-day commemorations early, but insisted the prime minister would recover politically from the mistake, Peter Walker reports.
Tories split over whether they should seek post-election merger with Reform UK
Good morning. It’s manifesto week, and this morning Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, will be publishing the Liberal Democrats’ policies for government. The Conservatives, the Green party of England and Wales and Labour are all due to follow later this week. As Jessica Elgot reports, the Liberal Democrat document will include plans to overhaul capital gains tax to raise £5bn for the NHS.
Speaking on the Today programme this morning, Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dems’ deputy leader, said:
Our manifesto is a manifesto to save the NHS and social care.
We want to boost GP numbers, we want to improve cancer survival rates, we want to end the access crisis in terms of people trying to reach their NHS dentists, we want to improve waiting lists for cancer treatment and mental health as well. And we have a bold plan to do that.
We believe that that plan is going to require an additional £9bn per year and we’re going to get that money by taxing the big banks and billionaires.
Manifestos are all about what parties would do in government. But in the Conservative party, where the polls make it impossible for any sane Tory to believe for a moment they have any chance of staying in power after 4 July, the debate is focused on where they go in opposition, and Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has kicked off a row by suggesting the party should work with Nigel Farage and his Reform UK. In an interview with the Times, “she said that the Tories should find a way to merge with Reform UK because ‘we shouldn’t be divided on this side of the political spectrum’,” Matt Dathan and Chris Smyth report in their story. Braverman told the paper:
We need to, in the future, to find some way to work together because there shouldn’t be big differences between us. I would welcome Nigel into the Conservative party. There’s not much difference really between him and many of the policies that we stand for.
We are a broad church, we should be a welcoming party and an inclusive party and if someone is supportive of the party, that’s a precondition and they want Conservatives to get elected then they should be welcomed.
Monday’s TIMES: “Tories must embrace Farage, says Braverman” #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ByeaXnVIZT
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) June 9, 2024
But on Radio 4’s Westminster Hour last night, Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, said he was strongly opposed to the idea. Buckland
Nigel Farage wants to see the destruction of the Conservative party. He has said that very often. He’s not a Conservative.
In fact, he’s a very European-style of politician. He’s not a very British politician at all. It’s a one-man band, this Reform outfit, and he fits much more, I think, the populist mould of politicians in other countries not too far away. He’s much more of a Poujadist than a Conservative. We are a broad church, but we’re not an Amazon warehouse.
I’ll post more on this as the day goes on. Here is what is coming up.
Morning: Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, are on a visit in the West Midlands as Labour say they plan to create more than 100,000 new nursery places.
10am: Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, co-leaders of the Scottish Green party, speak at a campaign launch in Stirling.
Morning: Rishi Sunak is on a vist in West Sussex where he is due to speak to reporters.
11am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, launches his party’s manifesto at an event in London.
12pm: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference.
Afternoon: John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, is on a campaign visit in Glasgow.
8pm: The BBC broadcasts an interview with Rishi Sunak conducted by Nick Robinson.
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