UK general election: The key battlegrounds in Northern Ireland - BBC

Brendan Hughes

BBC News NI political reporter

1 hour ago

A summer UK general election may have been a surprise, but Northern Ireland's political parties have long been preparing for this campaign.

All 18 seats are up for grabs when polling day arrives on 4 July.

In the 2019 Westminster election, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) won the most seats in Northern Ireland with eight, but now has seven after former party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was suspended from the party.

Sinn Féin came second with seven, while the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) secured two and the Alliance Party one.

Some constituencies will be more competitive than others.

The election being held during Northern Ireland's school summer holidays and parading season could affect turnout.

Constituency boundary changes may also have an impact.

BBC News NI has been looking at some of Northern Ireland's key battlegrounds for the 2024 election.

Lagan Valley

PA

The constituency will be a major focus following Sir Jeffrey's shock departure in March.

He has been MP for 27 years, but is not standing again after facing historical sex charges which he has said he is strenuously contesting.

It leaves his former party with a dilemma over who their candidate should be.

Emma Little-Pengelly and Paul Givan are DUP assembly members for the constituency.

But they are also ministers in Northern Ireland's recently revived devolved government, meaning the DUP could be left with another vacancy to fill.

And success is not guaranteed, with the likes of Alliance Party assembly member Sorcha Eastwood strongly challenging for the seat.

Belfast East

The incumbent Gavin Robinson is perhaps the politician most under pressure in this campaign.

Just weeks since becoming DUP interim leader following the Sir Jeffrey turmoil, he faces defending his seat in Belfast East.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long was within 2,000 votes of unseating him in the last general election in 2019.

But since Stormont’s return she has been undecided on whether to stand, as an election win would mean giving up her assembly seat and role as justice minister.

There were only three candidates in the race last time. If there is a broader field in this poll, the result could be more unpredictable.

North Down

The Alliance Party's deputy leader Stephen Farry was the surprise winner in 2019.

Many thought the seat was the DUP’s to lose after independent unionist Sylvia Hermon stepped down.

The DUP's candidate last time, assembly member Alex Easton, has since quit the party and is now running as an independent.

There has been speculation the DUP and another unionist party, TUV, could step aside to give Mr Easton a clear run against Alliance.

But the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is contesting the seat with their candidate Tim Collins, a retired British Army colonel known for his role in the Iraq War in 2003.

Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Green Party all stepped aside last time, but could all re-enter the fray.

South Antrim

Paul Girvan has held South Antrim for the DUP since 2017 after unseating the UUP's Danny Kinahan.

But the UUP has made winning the seat back its key target of this election.

Robin Swann, an assembly member for neighbouring North Antrim, has switched constituencies to run for Westminster.

And he is stepping down as Stormont health minister to focus on the campaign - putting pressure on other parties to follow suit.

However, the bold strategy has caused some internal party divisions.

A senior UUP councillor quit over former party leader Mike Nesbitt being lined up for the ministerial role.

Foyle

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood won the seat in 2019 by a landslide of more than 17,000 votes.

The result ousted Sinn Féin's Elisha McCallion, who narrowly won in 2017 at the expense of the SDLP's Mark Durkan.

But since becoming the largest party in recent Stormont and council elections, Sinn Féin may have hopes of challenging for the seat once more.

It outpolled the SDLP in Foyle in the assembly election in 2022, although constituency boundaries have since changed slightly.

Belfast South and Mid Down

The constituency previously known as Belfast South has been renamed and made larger as a result of recent boundary changes.

It has been extended to include areas which were previously part of Lagan Valley and Strangford.

The SDLP's Claire Hanna won Belfast South in 2019 with a 57% majority.

Her campaign, which unseated DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly, was boosted by the Green Party endorsing her and Sinn Féin stepping aside.

But with Brexit no longer the main election issue, those parties are expected to be returning to the ballot paper this time.

With Alliance running and the dynamics of a first-past-the-post election, the contest could be more open than the stats suggest.

Related Topics

• Northern Ireland
• General election 2024

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2024-05-24 10:45:02Z
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Lucy Letby denied permission for baby murders convictions appeal - BBC

Ewan Gawne & Kara O'Neill & PA Media

BBC News, Liverpool

24 May 2024, 10:08 BST

Updated 28 minutes ago

Child serial killer Lucy Letby has been denied permission to appeal against her convictions for the murder and attempted murder of babies in her care when she worked as a neonatal nurse.

Letby, of Hereford, was convicted in August 2023 of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, said they had refused Letby's request to bring an appeal at a short Court of Appeal hearing earlier.

The full reasons for the judges' decision were not made public, with the full details of Letby's appeal bid also unable to be published for legal reasons.

Dame Victoria said: "Having heard her application, we have decided to refuse leave to appeal on all grounds and refuse all associated applications.

"A full judgment will be handed down in due course."

Lost bid

At a two-and-a-half day hearing last month, Letby's lawyers asked senior judges for approval to bring an appeal against her convictions.

Dame Victoria previously said it could be reported that her appeal was argued on four points related to the judge at her trial refusing legal applications.

As the judges have declined to give the go-ahead for the challenge, this ruling marks the end of the appeal process for Letby.

The 34-year-old will face a retrial at Manchester Crown Court in June on a single count that she attempted to murder a baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

Related Topics

• Chester
• Cheshire
• Lucy Letby

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General election 2024 live: Starmer mocks Sunak as PM admits Rwanda flights setback - The Independent

Key takeaways from Rishi Sunak's general election announcement

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Sir Keir Starmer has mocked Rishi Sunak’s rain-soaked general election announcement, saying his attacks on Labour asylum policy are “as daft as he looked standing in the rain without an umbrella”.

The Labour leader was responding to prime minister’s attacks on the party’s migration plans, which the Tories dubbed an “amnesty for illegal migrants”.

Sir Keir has promised to scrap the Rwanda scheme and free up £75m to spend on hiring a new Border Security Command force to crack down on people smuggling gangs.

He accused the prime minister of never having believed the Rwanda deportation plan would work after Mr Sunak conceded that flights would not take off before the election.

As party leaders began their campaigns, Mr Sunak urged voters to back him over the government’s flagship immigration scheme and admitted planes carrying asylum seekers to Kigali would take off after polling day.

Starmer has refused to take weekly TV debates with Sunak after being challenged by the Tories, saying he would rather talk to voters directly.

But energy secretary Claire Coutinho has attacked the Labour leader saying he is “too scared to debate” Sunak.

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Politics Explained | What are Reform's chances now Farage has ducked the election?

After five unsuccessful general election attempts and two by-elections, he said: “I will do my bit to help in the campaign, but it is not the right time for me to go any further than that.”

However, Richard Tice, the leader, bravely claimed that the party’s founder ‘will be everywhere’ during the campaign, writes John Rentoul.

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:59

1716543656

Diane Abbott fury as Starmer suggests her suspension is nothing to do with him

Diane Abbott has claimed that Starmer was wrong to claim that the decision about whether to readmit the MP back has nothing to do with him.

The Labour leader said this morning that Ms Abbott will find out if she can stand as a Labour candidate in a few years.

He told Sky News: “The final decisions on candidates is coming up in a few days’ time, I think June 4, it may be a little earlier, a little later, I can’t quite remember.

“But within a relatively short period of time the final list of candidates will be decided, and that will be a matter for the Labour party’s national executive committee.”

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:40

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Sir Keir Starmer is now speaking from Scotland

The Labour leader is at a campaign event in Glasgow alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

He tells Scottish voters: “There is no change without Scotland, Scotland is central to the mission of the next Labour government.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (right) and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar launch Scottish Labour's General Election campaign at City Facilities in Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:30

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Pictured: Rishi Sunak campaigning in Northern Ireland

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during his visit to a maritime technology centre at a dockyard in Northern Ireland (Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

(Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

(Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:27

1716542450

Jewish Labour Movement: ‘Party became unsafe under Corbyn’

The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) said the party became an unsafe space for Jews under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Archie Mitchell reports.

“He refused to acknowledge the scale of antisemitism in Labour, even when the EHRC found the party guilty of breaking the law,” a spokesman said.

The spokesman added: “The Labour Party we see today is unrecognisable from what it had become under Corbyn, thanks to the leadership of Keir Starmer. Voters in Islington North deserve a Labour MP and Government - we’ll be campaigning to make sure they get one.”

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:20

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Tories brand Starmer ‘scared’ as Labour leader rejects weekly TV debates with Sunak

Sir Keir Starmer has rejected a challenge by Rishi Sunak to take part in head to head TV debates every week between now and polling day, David Maddox reports.

The Labour leader defended his decision saying he would rather talk to voters directly and claimed the prime minister had nothing new to say.

But energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Sir Keir Starmer is too scared to debate the Prime Minister because he doesn’t have a plan and hasn’t got the courage to stand up and say what he believes in or to stand up for Britain.”

(PA Wire)

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:17

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‘Starmer’s inane waffle on TV,’ says Tory MP

The chairman of the Conservative Party said the Labour leader has an “inane waffle” during his morning round of TV interviews.

Richard Holden added that his interviews made the “strongest case possible” for holding TV debates.

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:14

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Charities slam Starmer’s claim to scrap two-child benefits limit

The Labour leader admitted the party can’t afford to scrap tow-child benefits limit.

Asked if he wanted to scrap the cap, Sir Keirsaid that “in an ideal world, of course, but we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment”.

Charities have now reacted to his comments urging him to commit to a policy change.

A spokesperson from Children’s Prosperity Plan said: “The one million children in the UK living in poverty because of this policy cannot wait for an ideal world.

“These children, many of whom are ethnic minorities and living in homes where someone is disabled, will have to contend with long-term impacts on their health, wellbeing and educational outcomes.

“This Tory policy denies the truth that all children are of equal and immeasurable worth. We cannot hope to achieve a strong economy and strong communities for as long as millions of our children are growing up in poverty.”

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 10:01

1716540448

Rishi Sunak ramps up debate challenge to Starmer

Rishi Sunak is ramping up his challenge to Sir Keir Starmer over whether the Labour leader will debate him six times during the campaign, Archie Mitchell reports.

The prime minister has said he wants a debate every week until the 4 July contest, while Labour officials have suggested Sir Keir will take part in two TV head to heads.

The prime minister on Friday shared a Conservative Party meme of Sir Keir mocked up as a Ken-like action figure which “can be anything”.

“Not coming to a debate near you,” Mr Sunak said.

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 09:47

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Nigel Farage says he was planning to launch MP campaign next week

(@Nigel_Farage/Twitter)

But Mr Farage admitted the prime minister had “wrong-footed” him by calling an election for July 4.

He said: “What I could not do in the space of six weeks… was to find a constituency from scratch and go around the country.”

He added he had not decided which constituency he would run in as of yet as there were “a variety of options” which he felt he could have gone for.

Despite not running as a candidate, Mr Farage said he would campaign for Reform UK and stressed his support for party leader Richard Tice.

He told GB News: “Am I going to be campaigning? Yes. Am I backing Richard Tice? One hundred per cent… I am utterly committed to Reform.

Salma Ouaguira24 May 2024 09:35

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Post Office IT inquiry: Vennells admits removing Horizon issues from Royal Mail privatisation prospectus – live - The Guardian

Filters BETA

The inquiry is now breaking and will resume at 11.10 with Sam Stein KC scheduled to ask questions. The video feed has a three minute delay.

Edward Henry KC is driving now at what Paula Vennells knew about Fujitsu expert witness Gareth Jenkins.

She is arguing she wasn’t a legal expert, but Henry isn’t having it. He asks her:

What legal knowledge do you need to know, Miss Vennells, that if an unsafe witness has given false witness or false evidence against somebody by not telling the whole picture about Horizon’s integrity, what legal knowledge did you need to know to say well, we should tell her lawyers.

He suggests that her witness statement, where she says she found out about Jenkins from a corridor conversation with a colleague which is not documented, is a “creation” and that she must have been fully briefed by the legal team. She denies this. Vennells over the last two days has accused senior colleagues, particularly including Post Office general counsel at the time Susan Crichton, of holding back vital legal advices from her.

Lead counsel Jason Beer KC criticised Vennells over the past two days, saying she has good recollection at the inquiry of undocumented corridor conversations that show her in a better light, while being unable to recall key documentation or key meetings.

Edward Henry KC is driving at the political angle of the scandal now. The Second Sight interim report revealing some bugs in Horizon was being published in July 2013 just at the time the then coalition government was looking to float Royal Mail.

Although Post Office and Royal Mail had separated by then, in the minds of the public they were still intrinsically linked and Henry is suggesting it would have been a political nightmare if problems with Horizon were exposed, and that Gareth Jenkins of Fujitsu was now considered an unreliable witness, which was endangering prosecutions, at the exact same time as the sale of Royal Mail shares was progressing.

Vennells tells him “I had no conversations about any strategy around the Royal Mail privatisation.”

Henry said “I suggest what must have been uppermost in your mind was keep the lid on this because of course you wanted to please stakeholders.”

She said: “I don’t think it was ever my style to try to please or to keep him with people” and stressed she had no role in the privatisation.

Henry then goes on to ask why she edited the Royal Mail privatisation prospectus.

She says:

This was very last minute. I wasn’t involved in the prospectus at all. I can’t remember how this occurred. It was flagged to me that in the IT section of the Royal Mail propsectus there was a reference to, I can’t remember the words now, but risks related to the Horizon It system.

It seemed the wrong place. So the line that was put in said that no systemic issues have been found with the Horizon system. The Horizon system was no longer anything to do with the Royal Mail group. So I got in touch with the company secretary, and said I don’t understand why this is here, please can we have it removed?

The line was removed. Henry points out that the unsafe convictions before the Royal Mail and Post Office separated in 2012 would have been a liability for the newly privatised Royal Mail. That included, for example, the high profile 2010 conviction of Seema Misra, in which Jenkins gave evidence.

Henry then points to an email after the reference was removed from the document where Vennells told the chair “I earned my keep.”

“You really had earned your keep on that one, hadn’t you?” Henry said. “You kept the lid on it.”

She repeats she had “no involvement with this” ie the prospectus, except for what she says is “this very last minute intervention”. It is difficult to see how a “last minute intervention” can also be “no involvement”.

Chair Wyn Williams intervenes to say this line of questioning is entirely new to him, and could Henry and his team notify the lead counsel of all the relevant documents so the inquiry team can read them. The inquiry was established in non-statutory form in September 2020, and converted to a statutory inquiry in June 2021.

Edward Henry KC is questioning Paula Vennells about remote access to the Horizon IT system. He put it to her that she was still, all through the scandal, was not determined in her CEO role to get to the bottom of how much external access was being used.

“This is la-la-land” says Henry, about her argument that senior figures did not know about the extent of the access, or attempt to uncover it.

Vennells said “it appears as though there were interventions on a on a fairly frequent basis, which as Mr Beer [lead counsel] said yesterday was not uncovered.”

Paula Vennells has told the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry that the business of the inquiry has been a full-time job for her for a year as she agreed with Edward Henry KC that she had “no one to blame” for her downfall except herself.

The former Post Office CEO, who stepped away from the business in 2019, said:

From when the Court of Appeal passed its judgment, I lost all the employment that I had, and since that time, I have only worked on this inquiry. It has been really important to me to do what I didn’t, or was unable to do at the time I was chief executive – and I have worked for three years and prioritised this above anything else – for the past year it has probably been a full-time job.

I have avoided talking to the press, perhaps to my own detriment, because all the way through, I have put this first and I was not working alone on this. I cannot think that any of the major decisions I took by myself in isolation of anybody. I did my best through this. And it wasn’t good enough, and that is a regret I carry with me.

Henry asked: “You have no one to blame but yourself, do you agree?”

Vennells replied: “Absolutely. Where I made mistakes and where I made the wrong calls … where I had information and I made the wrong calls, yes of course.”

Vennells has told the inquiry that colleagues withheld important information, including legal advices, from her, but that she did not think there had been a conspiracy.

Henry challenged her: “What I’m going to suggest to you is that whatever you did was deliberate, considered and calculated. No one deceived you, no one misled you. You set the agenda and the tone for the business.”

She responded:

I was the chief executive, I did not set the agenda for the work of the scheme and the way the legal and the IT parts of it worked. I had to rely on those colleagues who were experts and I had no reason not to take the advice that I was given. I accept I was chief executive and, as I have said, as a chief executive you have ultimate accountability and that is simply fact.

If you are watching the video stream, by the way, the woman sitting in front of Edward Henry KC in vision is former subpostmaster Jo Hamilton.

The 66-year-old was wrongly accused of stealing more than £36,000 from the Post Office branch she was in charge of at the time in South Warnborough, Hampshire. To avoid a potential jail sentence for theft, she pleaded guilty to a charge of false accounting, and was prosecuted in 2006.

Edward Henry KC has asked Paula Vennells whether she was aware of the Seema Misra case in 2010, which he described as “the high-water mark” of Horizon reliabilty being touted in court.

Henry said:

Her conviction became for years a validation of Horizon’s integrity for the Post Office was as it were a test case. And if the Post Office had failed in this prosecution, it would have opened up the floodgates to civil litigation, civil claims for damages. And a defeat in that trial in Guilford would have made civil claims difficult to defend.

Vennells says she thinks she had heard of it at the time, but has maintained in her witness statement that she did not know that the Post Office was carrying out its own prosecutions until 2012, and was not aware of any bugs, errors or defects in the Horizon system until mid-2013.

Paula Vennells told the Horizon IT Inquiry there are “no words” that will make the “sorrow and what people have gone through any better. It was an extraordinarily complex undertaking and the Post Office and I didn’t always take the right path, I’m very clear about that.”

Chair Wyn Williams has intervened after Edward Henry KC interrupts Paula Vennells for the third or fourth time.

The chair says “I appreciate that you [Henry] have a difficult task, but also the witness has a difficult task. So I’d ask you both, one to ask the question, one to complete the answer. And then we move on.”

Edward Henry KC has said to Paula Vennells that her witness statement is a “craven self-serving account” and that “to this day” she still lives in “a cloud of denial”.

Vennells has said that she lost all her work, and essentially has now been working full-time responding to the inquiry. “It is my commitment,” she said. “I have avoided talking to the press – perhaps to my own detriment – because all the way through I have put [the inquiry] first.”

Mounting a defence of her actions she said “I did my very best through this, and it wasn’t good enough.”

She said as chief executive she was responsible, but she did not work alone. “I had to rely on those colleagues who were experts. And I had no reason not to take the advice that I was given.”

Henry suggests to her she is very “politically adept” and was “managing up not down”.

Edward Henry KC has asked Paula Vennells about the case of Lee Castleton, was made bankrupt by the Post Office after a two-year legal battle as one of the early victims of the scandal.

Henry said to Vennells that Castleton was “locked out of the mediation scheme” because he was “an illustrious scalp that could be used a precedent”. He said to her “you instigated no investigation into why £32,000 pounds of public money was used to crush him and grind him into the dirt.”

She replied “I agree with what you’re saying”.

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Rishi Sunak shelves flagship Rwanda and smoking policies before election - The Guardian

Rishi Sunak has dropped flagship policies on deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda and banning smoking for young people on the first full day of his election campaign, leaving his legacy increasingly threadbare.

Ministers confirmed that key pieces of legislation that could be rushed through by MPs before parliament is suspended were likely to be dropped, including plans to end no-fault evictions and to introduce a football regulator.

Keir Starmer, kicking off his campaign in the target seat of Gillingham in Kent, said it was time to “turn the page on Tory chaos”, and Labour said the government’s legislative programme was in tatters with many proposed laws now “up in the air or in the bin”.

The prime minister’s admission that people who crossed the Channel in small boats will not be flown to Rwanda before 4 July was met with despair from Tory rightwingers, with many of his MPs already unhappy about his early election date.

Under the £500m scheme, which is the cornerstone of his government’s promise to “stop the boats”, flights would not start taking off for Kigali until after the election, the prime minister said.

As Sunak set off on a whistle stop tour of the UK, heading for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland over 24 hours, he insisted the Rwanda plan would go ahead if he was elected as the flights were “booked for July, the airfields are on standby”.

Starmer said his decision to call an early election showed he “clearly does not believe in his own Rwanda plan”. At Labour’s campaign launch, he said: “I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election.”

Those opposing the scheme, including trade unions and refugee charities, celebrated the likelihood that the Rwanda plan would now probably not happen, with Labour the clear favourites to win the election.

Sunak had previously agreed to a £1,000 bet with the broadcaster Piers Morgan that flights to Rwanda would take off before polling day, and the journalist is now demanding he pays up to a refugee charity.

Another key plank of Sunak’s premiership, a promise to ban young people from ever being able to buy tobacco legally, was also left in doubt after it was not mentioned among the final business in the House of Commons before the election.

Sunak had promised in his campaign launch that the “next generation will grow up smoke-free”. However, the leader of the Commons, Penny Mordaunt, did not include the tobacco and vapes bill as she set out the legislation that could be rushed through by MPs before parliament is prorogued on Friday during a period known as “wash-up”. Sources said it was not possible to get through legislation that was subject to a free vote during that time.

The government also appeared unlikely to pass Martyn’s law, the legislation to tighten venue security named in honour of one of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing.

The mother of Martyn Hett, one of the 22 victims of the attack, said she felt misled by Sunak after he had promised to rush through the bill in her son’s name before summer, hours before he called the general election.

Figen Murray met the prime minister at about 1pm on Wednesday, four hours before he announced the election, after walking 200 miles to Downing Street to mark the seventh anniversary of the terror atrocity.

“He promised me and we shook hands on it and he said he will definitely present the legislation in parliament before summer recess,” she said. “Obviously at that time he knew that he was going to call an election that day but we didn’t know that.

“Although what he said was good, what isn’t so good is that he can’t commit to it being totally done and dusted by the next election – and then later that day he called the election.”

Labour has indicated it would introduce the bill “as soon as possible”.

It was Sunak’s acknowledgment that Rwanda flights would not leave before July that caused the most consternation in his own already divided party. Pressed on whether any deportation flights would take off before voters go to the polls, Sunak repeatedly said the scheme would get up and running only after the election. “If I am re-elected as prime minister on 5 July, these flights will go … we will get our Rwanda scheme up and running,” he told the BBC.

Starmer said Sunak’s move to an election before the scheme had started meant the prime minister knew that the plan, devised two years ago under Boris Johnson, would not work. “We have to deal with the terrible loss of control of the border under this government, we have to tackle the small boats that are coming across but nobody should be making that journey,” he said.

Tories on the right of the party are frustrated and have said Sunak should have ensured that a plane would land in east Africa before any election date.

One former minister said: “If the PM truly believed in the plan, which ministers have spent so much time getting right, he would have seen it through, whatever it took. Instead it will be difficult if not impossible to defend because it has not been shown to work.”

Another Conservative said Sunak did not want to take on the European court of human rights, which stopped the last deportation flight to Rwanda in 2022 by issuing a rule 39 injunction. “The suspicion is that Sunak is worried that Strasbourg would attempt to stop the flights again and is unwilling to ignore their rulings,” they said.

Refugee charities that have been fighting the plan said it was a “dead duck”. Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The Rwanda plan will go down in the history of British policymaking as an Alice in Wonderland adventure that was both absurd and inhumane.”

Government lawyers had previously told the high court that the earliest date for flights was the week commencing 24 June. A government source confirmed that the aim was now for flights to take off in July, adding that the timetable and process for flights remained unchanged and that the “late June” date had only ever been the earliest possible date.

While the smoking ban and Rwanda plan appear set to fall by the wayside, the government did promise on Thursday that a bill would go ahead enabling compensation to be paid to the victims of the contaminated blood scandal. A bill to exonerate post office operators caught up in the Horizon IT scandal passed on Thursday evening.

At an event in Scotland on Thursday evening, at Nigg Energy Park north of Inverness, Sunak urged Starmer to agree to TV debates. “He’s had however many years to think about what he wants to do for the country and, as I said the other day, he doesn’t seem to be able to tell people what he wants to do, doesn’t have a plan, doesn’t have the courage of his convictions,” Sunak said.

“But that’s why we need to have these debates, so we can actually debate these issues and people can make a decision on who they think it’s going to provide a secure future for our country.”

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General election 2024 live: Tories hit new poll low of 26 points behind Labour - The Independent

Key takeaways from Rishi Sunak's general election announcement

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has hailed the July 4 election as a chance to “turn the page” following Rishi Sunak’s shock announcement.

Sir Keir gave a campaign speech in Kent and said a Labour government would be an opportunity to “end the chaos” of successive Tory governments.

It comes as Conservative MP Dame Eleanor Laing announced she would step down in the latest line of Tories to announce their resignations ahead of July’s election.

Tory MPs were left stunned by Sunak’s decision to fire the starting gun for the election, with members describing it as a “kamikaze move”.

After the astonishing announcement on Wednesday, political parties have wasted no time in launching their campaigns this morning.

Mr Sunak kicked things off touring broadcast studios before visiting all four nations in the UK in two days. He said the economy was “going gangbusters” in his first major election interview today.

The prime minister gave his upbeat verdict after being challenged over his claim that the British economy is now growing faster than the US. He also confirmed Rwanda flights won’t take off before the general election.

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Watch: Moment Rishi Sunak ‘scores own goal'

Rishi Sunak asked Welsh brewery staff if they were looking forward to football later this summer as a potential source of revenue, despite the national team not qualifying for the Euro 2024 tournament.

The prime minister met voters at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in Barry with Wales secretary David TC Davies and Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns.

Mr Sunak, who is teetotal, discussed his party’s support for the sector during a brief campaign stop.

His question about the football was met with a brief moment of silence before laughter erupted.

Sunak asks Welsh voters if they’re looking forward to Euros - but team didn’t qualify

Rishi Sunak asked Welsh brewery staff if they were looking forward to football later this summer as a potential source of revenue, despite the national team not qualifying for the Euro 2024 tournament. The prime minister met voters at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in Barry with Wales secretary David TC Davies and Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns. Mr Sunak, who is teetotal, discussed his party’s support for the sector during a brief campaign stop. His question about the football was met with a brief moment of silence before laughter erupted.

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 15:16

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Tories scramble to find candidates for seats - but not everyone is welcome

In the last few hours, the Tories have just sent people registered as potential candidates a list of 94 seats for them to apply for to stand in the general election, David Maddox reports.

The list includes some safe seats like Stratford-upon-Avon due to be vacated by Nadhim Zahawi, and winnable ones Central Suffolk and North Ipswich where Dan Poulter defected to Labour or Bury St Edmunds.

There are also ones with much less hope such as standing against Sir Keir Starmer in Holborn.

Among those looking for seats are party chairman Richard Holden, who has been suggested for Billericay and Basildon in Essex. Also, Michael Gove ally and former journalist Seb Payne, whose failure to get selected so far has become a running joke in the Tory party including with a Twitter account called “Has Seb Payne Got A Safe Seat Yet?”

There are thought to be more than 150 seats still where the Tories do not have a candidate and many on the candidates list are desperately scrambling to get an opportunity even though this is predicted to be the worst election for the party possibly in its history.

But it appears that Mr Sunak is getting his closest lieutenants to make sure that critics are sifted out of the process.

One would be candidate told The Independent that they had been informed all those applying would only stand a chance of being successful if they are endorsed by one of James Forsyth (Mr Sunak’s political secretary and close friend); Matthew Wright (chair of candidates); or Stephen Massey (the party’s chief executive).

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 15:05

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Tories challenging Sir Keir Starmer to a debate every week

The Conservative election campaign wants to face off Labour and record six TV debates, according to The Telegraph.

A source close to the prime minister said: “We will do as many as we can get. We will do one every week if he wants.”

(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 14:56

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Home secretary announces tougher rules for universities accepting international students

Tougher compliance standards will be introduced for universities recruiting students from overseas, the government has announced, Holly Bancroft reports.

Universities who accept international students who then fail to pass visa checks, enroll or complete their courses, will risk losing their sponsor licence, under the new measures.

International students will also have to do more to prove their financial self-sufficiency and the government will review the English language requirements to see if they are tough enough.

Home secretary James Cleverly said they were taking “decisive and necessary action to deliver the largest cut in legal migration in our country’s history”.

He added: “Applications are already falling sharply, down by almost a quarter on key routes in the first four months of this year compared to the last”.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan said it was “right that we strike the balance between controlling immigration and making sure the UK remains the ‘go to’ place for students around the world.”

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 14:49

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‘Who is he?’: Voter’s brutal response when asked opinion of Rishi Sunak

The prime minister on Wednesday (22 May) announced a general election for Thursday 4 July, but it appears he has work to do to make an impression on some members of the public.

“What do you think of Rishi Sunak?” ITV News deputy political editor Anushka Asthana asked one woman on the streets of Gillingham.

“Who is he? Is he the local?” the voter responded, before being informed he is actually the PM.

“Oh him. Yeah. He hasn’t been prime minister long enough for me to know his name,” she added.

‘Who is he?’: Voter’s brutal response when asked opinion of Rishi Sunak

A Gillingham voter offered a brutal response when asked for her opinion on Rishi Sunak. The prime minister on Wednesday (22 May) announced a general election for Thursday 4 July, but it appears he has work to do to make an impression on some members of the public. “What do you think of Rishi Sunak?” ITV News deputy political editor Anushka Asthana asked one woman on the streets of Gillingham. “Who is he? Is he the local?” the voter responded, before being informed he is actually the PM. “Oh him. Yeah. He hasn’t been prime minister long enough for me to know his name,” she added.

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 14:39

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Away from the campaign buzz...

The UK’s top civil servant, Simon Case, has told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that he found Boris Johnson was ‘dysfunctional’ and his style of working ‘very frustrating’.

Questioned by lead counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith KC on Thurday morning about Mr Johnson’s prime ministerial style, Mr Case replied: “Each prime minister has their own approach to doing it and as I say, in my job, I found it very frustrating.

“I just don’t think I understood how difficult he was finding it personally.”

In July 2020, before he became Cabinet Secretary, Mr Case said “I’ve never seen a bunch of people less well-equipped to run a country” in a message to Lord Sedwill, who was the Civil Service chief at the time.

He also described Mr Johnson and his inner circle as “basically feral” and suggested the then-prime minister’s wife Carrie was “the real person in charge” in No 10.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case giving evidence at the inquiry (PA Media)

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 14:38

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Pictured: Lib Dem leader launches election campaign

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey speaking during a visit to the town centre in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey (right) with Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham Max Wilkinson (Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

(Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 14:34

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Sunak decided to call summer election after local results blow, George Osborn reveals

The former chancellor has claimed the prime minister decided to call for an election since the start of this month.

Speaking on his Political Currency podcast, he says: “I am told by the people I’ve been speaking to that there was a wide circle of up to 40 people involved in the planning of this, ever since the local elections.

“The prime minister made a decision after the local elections that he was going to go for an early poll. It was a pretty brilliantly-held secret. And a secret held from most of the cabinet and from a lot of the broader Tory family.

“This is what Downing Street is thinking. Things are basically not going to get any better for the prime minister. Nothing is shifting the polls. They’ve tried a series of announcements from defence spending to national insurance, tax cuts – things haven’t shifted.”

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 14:29

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Scottish First Minister launches SNP election campaign

John Swinney is speaking now from Edinburgh at the SNP rally launch.

Addressing the Scottish electorate, he says “taken in Scotland, for Scotland, we can make a better country”.

Adding it “all starts by seeing the back of Rishi Sunak”.

The SNP leader claimed Scottish independence will be achieved through democratic pressure.

He adds: “We will win our country’s independence and win the powers to bring about a better Scotland through democratic pressure.

“So, on July 4, independence day, make sure your voice is heard.”

Salma Ouaguira23 May 2024 14:22

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Conservative MP Dame Eleanor Laing to step down

Conservative MP Dame Eleanor Laing will step down as an MP in the latest slew of Tories to announce their resignations ahead of July’s elections.

Ms Laing said: “I’ve had the great honour of being the MP for Epping Forest for 27 years. I love this job, but it’s time for me to move aside and give others the opportunities that I’ve been fortunate to have.

“I told the prime minister several days ago and wrote formally to my Epping Forest Conservatives Chairman today.”

Alexander Butler23 May 2024 14:09

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