UK general election latest: Diane Abbott may not stand, suggests ally
Rishi Sunak focuses on health and John Swinney launches the SNP’s campaign as Sir Keir Starmer seeks to move on from ‘purge’ row with pledge on immigration
Key moments
Sir Keir Starmer is vowing to cut immigration as he seeks to move on from the row over an apparent purge of left-wing figures and the question of whether Diane Abbott will be a candidate.
Rishi Sunak, who has remained cheerful despite a deficit in opinion polls, is campaigning in London and focusing on healthcare, and John Swinney launches the SNP’s campaign in Glasgow.
Is Sunak’s smile just a mask?
Rishi Sunak seems surprisingly upbeat for a man who might be about to lose his job.
His speech at Redcar racecourse was a notable bouncy affair, despite the fact that the first seat-by-seat analysis has put the Tories on course for a devastating defeat. The poll from the Electoral Calculus suggests the party is putting together its worst performance ever and will win just 66 seats.
Behind the scenes, the Tories are worried and trying desperately to raise £10 million in a fortnight. But, according to one his aides, “the PM is incredibly pumped up”.
Read in full: Is Rishi Sunak’s underdog cheer masking trouble behind the scenes?
Starmer is ‘parachuting allies into Wales’
The leader of Plaid Cymru has said accused Sir Keir Starmer of acting as “the puppet master” after two of the Labour leader’s allies were installed as candidates in safe Welsh seats.
Rhun ap Iorwerth told Sky News that Starmer presided over “parachuting of candidates last-minute to Wales”.
Torsten Bell, the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, has been selected as the Labour candidate for Swansea East. Alex Barros-Curtis, the party’s director of legal who was at the centre of Starmer’s early efforts to root out antisemitism in the party, is now the Labour candidate in Cardiff West.
Cleverly: Starmer ‘keeps foreign criminals in the UK’
The home secretary has accused Sir Keir Starmer of lacking “conviction” after Labour said it would not set a target for cutting net migration.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, had told the BBC the party would neither set a target nor a deadline for the move.
Referring to Starmer’s time as director of public prosecutions, James Cleverly said the Labour leader “has a track record of supporting high immigration levels and helping foreign criminals stay in Britain because he believes all immigration law is racist”.
He added: “This is yet another day where Starmer will say what he thinks people want to hear during an election because he lacks conviction to say what he believes. A Labour government would allow open-door immigration, making the UK a magnet for illegal migrants. Only Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are committed to cutting migration and stopping the boats.”
MPs are not guaranteed peerages, says Cooper
Yvette Cooper has claimed that Labour cannot promise former MPs peerages to make way for allies of Sir Keir Starmer, after reports in this morning’s Sunday Times.
The shadow home secretary told Sky News: “It’s not the way the system works, there’s a whole process with an independent committee that will vet nominations. No party can do that or make that sort of commitment.”
In reality, prime ministers have exactly that power. There is an independent House of Lords Appointments Commission which vets nominations for all life peers, including those recommended by the UK political parties.
But the commission only looks at whether the individual is “in good standing” and whether they would “bring the House of Lords into disrepute”.
Crucially, the commission does not have a veto on candidates. It merely advises the prime minister, who decides whether to recommend a life peer to the King, which is in reality a rubber stamp.
While prime minister, Boris Johnson did exactly that and overruled the commission’s recommendation to ensure that the businessman Peter Cruddas received a peerage.
Street’s warning over Farage
Andy Street has said that Nigel Farage bidding for the Conservative leadership after the election would not be “a moderate inclusive Conservative Party with a broad appeal”.
The former West Midlands mayor told the BBC it was “appropriate” to think about the leadership of the party “well before we know the outcome of the general election”.
Street said he had decided against standing as an MP because he was “naturally an executive”.
Read more: Nigel Farage plans Tory ‘takeover’ after election
Tories must target centre ground, says former mayor
The Conservatives must start thinking now about how they can be led from the centre ground, the former West Midlands mayor has said.
Andy Street, who lost the mayoral election in May by about 1,500 votes, told the BBC there was “a lesson in what happened”.
He said: “We got so close … because of the brand of conservatism that we followed. It was about an agenda which was about deliberately getting stuff done. It wasn’t particularly philosophical, it was about responding to all communities, holding a broad church together with the leadership absolutely in the middle ground.
“Whether we win or lose the general election, the point is simple. You have to have that broad church, you have to be centred in the middle ground.”
Abbott may not stand, suggests ally
Diane Abbott may choose not to stand as a candidate, a key ally of the former home secretary has suggested.
Sir Keir Starmer said on Friday that Abbott was “free to go forward as a Labour candidate”.
Baroness Chakrabati, the former attorney general, told the BBC: “I hope she will take some time to consider what she wants to do, and that’s what I’ve suggested to her as a friend.”
Chakrabati said the question of whether Abbott should stand should not be “decided by fans or detractors of my dear friend”.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said she “would obviously support her if she decides to stand … but it has to be Diane’s decision. This is for Diane to decide and I completely support that.”
Labour ‘will act fast’ on access to children’s data for bereaved parents
Labour would make sure bereaved parents have access to their children’s data, the shadow home secretary has said.
The party would commit to the move “as soon as legislation would allow”, Yvette Cooper told the BBC.
The Online Safety Act allowed coroners the power to force technology companies to unlock children’s social media accounts. But the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill had initially narrowed the powers so they could be used only when coroners suspected suicide.
The bill was one of several to be ditched by the government due to the early election being called.
No deadline for Labour migration pledge
Labour will not set a target or deadline for its promised decrease in net migration, the shadow home secretary has said.
“We’re not setting a target,” Yvette Cooper told the BBC. “The reason for that is because I thought partly because, to be honest, every time the Conservatives have done this, frankly, they have just ended up being totally all over the place and ripping it up.
“And also because from one year to another, there are variations. So for example, the pandemic means that net migration figures of course fell. But the Homes for Ukraine visa rightly meant that the figures increased because of the war in Ukraine.”
Asked to set a deadline, Cooper said: “We would expect to see the numbers coming down swiftly.”
Private schools ‘should pay VAT just like other organisations’
Private schools should pay VAT as “other organisations do”, the shadow home secretary has said. Yvette Cooper told Sky News: “That’s what organisations do right across the economy, right across society.”
Labour has pledged to introduce the 20 per cent tax on private school fees and use the money to hire 6,500 more teachers in state schools.
Cooper added: “We know that many of these organisations have put their own fees up quite substantially over the last few years. That’s for them to deal with.”
Read more: Priced out of private education — and turned away by the local school
Treatment of Abbott appalling, says Labour peer
A Labour peer has described the row over Diane Abbott’s selection as a candidate as “pretty appalling”.
Baroness Chakrabati, the former shadow attorney general, told Sky News it had been a “sometimes sordid week of unauthorised anonymous briefings by overgrown schoolboys in suits with their feet on their table and maybe too much West Wing”.
She added: “I hope they remember it is supposed to be country first not faction first … It’s been pretty appalling trying to bully someone of her stature … It’s not good for Keir Starmer’s leadership, it’s not good for the Labour Party, and it hasn’t been very nice for Diane or for common decency really.”
‘Clear standards for Labour candidates’
Labour is still a broad church despite accepting the backing of Tory MPs while suspending former Labour MPs, the shadow home secretary has said.
Natalie Elphicke and Mark Logan, both former Conservatives, have recently backed Labour, while Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a former Labour MP, and Faiza Shaheen, a former candidate, were suspended.
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Yvette Cooper told Sky News: “We want people to change their minds, that’s what politics is about. We want to persuade people to change their minds, and we want people to vote Labour.”
Asked about Russell-Moyle and Shaheen, she said: “Yes, it’s true. We have clear standards and complaints processes around having standards for candidates and yes, it’s true that Keir Starmer has changed the Labour Party after the 2019 election and right that he should do so.”
No promise of peerages, says Cooper
The shadow home secretary has insisted Labour cannot “make that sort of commitment” when asked if MPs had been promised peerages to persuade them to retire.
The Sunday Times reported that key figures, including Diane Abbott, had been offered places in the House of Lords so they could be replaced with allies of Sir Keir Starmer.
Yvette Cooper told Sky News: “It’s not the way the system works, there’s a whole process with an independent committee that will vet nominations. No party can do that or make that sort of commitment.”
Cooper said Starmer would change the way honours are awarded and would not have a resignation honours list.
Labour will betray pensioners, warns Hunt
In a direct appeal to older voters, Jeremy Hunt has pledged that the Conservatives will not raise or introduce any taxes on pensions.
The chancellor said the Tory party would “always have their backs” and highlighted the introduction of the triple lock and a £3,700 increase in the state pensions.
He also warned that Labour would raid pension funds by the “back door”, pointing to Gordon Brown’s decision to scrap tax relief on dividends in 1997.
Hunt told The Sunday Telegraph: “Labour betrayed pensioners before … We will never allow it to happen again. We want to send a message to pensioners that there is only one party you can trust.”
Read more: The data that explains the Tory focus on older voters
Yvette Cooper ‘assumes’ Abbott will be Labour candidate
The shadow home secretary has said she is “very glad” that the row over Diane Abbott’s candidacy has been “resolved”.
Yvette Cooper told Sky News she was “very glad it has been resolved for Diane”, adding “everybody would have liked to see the process speeded up”.
Cooper said she assumed Abbott would be a Labour candidate in the election.
The Sunday Times reported that left-wing MPs, including Abbott, have been offered peerages to stand down.
Davey: We’ll put carers front and centre
The Liberal Democrats are promising to reverse £1 billion in Conservative cuts to local government funding in an effort to improve public health services.
After spending the weekend with his family, Sir Ed Davey, the party’s leader, said he wanted to put care workers “front and centre” of his campaign over the coming week. His son John has severe physical and learning disabilities.
“Carers — paid and unpaid — are the lifeblood of our NHS and our economy,” Davey said. “The work they do is undervalued and underappreciated.”
The Lib Dems say they will pay for their plan to restore the public health grant by cracking down on tax evasion.
SNP to launch campaign
Eleven days after Rishi Sunak announced the general election, the SNP is formally launching its campaign in Glasgow.
John Swinney, who took over as party leader on May 8, is expected to blame the government in Westminster for “austerity, Brexit and a cost of living crisis being imposed on Scotland”.
“There has been very little planning done,” one senior figure told The Sunday Times. “Humza [Yousaf] left the cupboard bare.”
Read more: Split and spluttering SNP clings to notion it can’t get any worse
Starmer pledges to ‘control our borders’
Sir Keir Starmer revealed a manifesto pledge to cut immigration to the UK as he vowed to “control our borders and make sure British businesses are helped to hire Brits first”.
The Labour leader said in an interview with The Sun on Sunday that he would bring down net migration from last year’s figure of 685,000 but refused to set a target level or a date for achieving it.
Starmer accused the Conservatives of repeatedly promising to cut migration numbers without success. Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton famously pledged to reduce net migration to the “tens of thousands” before he was elected prime minister in 2010.
Tories promise 100 new GP surgeries
The Conservatives have promised to build 100 new GP surgeries and 50 community diagnostic centres if they are re-elected.
Rishi Sunak also wants to expand the Pharmacy First scheme so patients can be treated at their pharmacy without seeing a GP first.
He said the plans would make it “quicker, easier and more convenient for patients to receive the care they need and help to relieve pressure on hospital services”.
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2024-06-02 10:40:00Z
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