Rishi Sunak has apologised for leaving D-Day commemorations in Normandy early to head back to the UK and return to the general election campaign.
The Prime Minister tweeted this morning: “After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I apologise.”
Mr Sunak did attend a British ceremony yesterday morning to mark the 80-year anniversary of D-Day but he did not attend an international gathering with other world leaders including Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron later in the day.
Instead, the Prime Minister returned to the UK and sat down with ITV to defend claims he had made about Sir Keir Starmer’s tax plans.
Labour accused Mr Sunak of a “dereliction of duty” while the Liberal Democrats said the premier had “brought shame” to the office of prime minister.
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Labour pitch mortgage guarantee for first-time buyers
Labour says it will make permanent a scheme designed to ensure low-deposit mortgages are available for first-time buyers, if it wins the general election.
The mortgage guarantee scheme was introduced by the Conservatives in 2021 when Rishi Sunak was chancellor of the Exchequer.
It was extended until July next year by current Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to "turn the dream of owning a home into a reality".
The measure sees the government act as guarantor for part of a home loan – to encourage lenders to offer low-deposit deals.
The Labour Party says its plan will help more than 80,000 young people get on to the housing ladder over the next five years.
But according to the Office for National Statistics, some 40% of 16.5 million people aged 15 to 34 in the UK were living with their parents in 2022 - about 6.7 million people.
'Locked out of homeownership'
Labour says making the scheme permanent will mean young people facing tough conditions in the private rented sector or struggling to save will not be "locked out of homeownership".
It would be known as "Freedom to Buy", the party says.
In a statement, Sir Keir said that Labour would be "on the side of the builders, not the blockers", announcing the plans around home ownership.
The party leader said: "A generation face becoming renters for life."
"My parents' home gave them security and was a foundation for our family.
"As prime minister, I will turn the dream of owning a home into a reality," he added.
The existing scheme allows lenders to purchase a guarantee on part of mortgages, so if a bank decides to repossess a house, the government could compensate some of its losses.
The Treasury has designed its existing programme "to increase the appetite of mortgage lenders for high loan-to-value lending" - so buyers face paying smaller deposits for their mortgage.
Brokers have pointed out though that borrowers still have to pass checks to show they can afford mortgage repayments, not just raise a deposit.
Mortgage providers may only lend to those with a sufficient regular income, irrespective of any government guarantee.
This could just end up being a backstop as many lenders do not use the guarantee, as they are happy to offer deals with a 5% or 10% deposit in any case.
As part of the plans announced on Thursday evening, the Labour Party also pledged to "reintroduce housing targets", fast-track planning permissions on brownfield land and prioritise "grey belt" building - moves which it claims could boost building by 1.5 million homes.
David Sturrock, a senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said that big falls in homeownership during the 2000s meant young adults are now a third less likely to own their own home than they were 25 years ago.
He said that making the current scheme permanent had the "potential" to reduce one of the barriers to getting on the housing ladder.
"Prospective buyers also need to have a sufficiently high income to take out a (bigger) mortgage and afford the repayments," he said.
As a result, potential buyers in their 30s and from more well-off backgrounds looking to buy outside of London and south-east England were more likely to be able to take advantage of the offer, he suggested.
For its part, the Conservative party is putting forwards its "Family Home Tax Guarantee".
The Tories have pledged not to increase the number of council tax bands, carry out a council tax revaluation, cut council tax discounts or increase the rate or level of stamp duty which buyers pay when they purchase property.
Laura Trott, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: "Only Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have a clear plan, backed by bold action, to strengthen the economy, bring mortgage costs down and help more people get on the housing ladder."
SNP candidate for Airdrie and Shotts, Anum Qaisar, said Scottish households were "being punished by Westminster failures", adding that "the cost of mortgages and energy bills are too high and families need help now."
The Liberal Democrats said they would "put community need over developer greed, giving people the chance to get on the housing ladder with genuinely affordable houses."
D-Day events marking the contribution of French men and women
who worked for the French Resistance seem somewhat muted, compared to the
boisterous array of events commemorating Allied soldiers.
“I don’t forget them. Please don’t forget them,” urges Catherine Nivromont, an elegant, spritely 81-year-old, as she leans forward,
intently, in her chair.
Catherine’s brother Pierre was just 17 in 1944. He worked
alongside other Resistance members, gathering intelligence on German positions
along the Normandy coast, to help Allied forces plan their June assault.
Pierre was in touch with locals who did German soldiers’ laundry.
Their clothing was marked with battalion details, revealing the quantity and
location of troops.
“Each person played their small part. Under occupation, you
had to resist silently. Secretly. You never knew who you could trust.”
Marianne BaisneeCopyright: Marianne Baisnee
Catherine’s dad Robert, who was also in the Resistance, along with Pierre, were eventually betrayed by a Frenchman they’d relied on to help make fake passports for Allied airmen stuck behind enemy lines.
Both men were sent to concentration camps. Her brother to Buchenwald. Her father, to Auschwitz.
“I think his homeland was more important to him than family,” Catherine observes a little sadly. “The risks he took were huge.”
But you’re proud of him, I ask. “Oh yes. So proud. That is why I see it as my job to still visit schools and universities. To tell the youth what the Resistance did. And how much they sacrificed for us.”
It’s thought only 2% of French citizens worked full time for the Resistance, though they relied on a far broader network of people willing to help.
For such a small group, they’ve had a big influence on modern-day France too.
Many in the Resistance were left-leaning. A large proportion, communist. After the war, they helped set up the new French Republic, implementing France’s strong welfare and health system which is still firmly in place today.
Royalty and world leaders will gather with veterans in Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
The King and Queen will pay tribute to fallen soldiers at the UK's national commemoration event at the British Normandy Memorial, in Ver-sur-Mer.
They will be joined by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The site, which opened in 2021, pays tribute to 22,442 service personnel under British command who died on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944.
This will be the first major anniversary event hosted at the memorial, and Charles and Camilla will officially open the Winston Churchill Centre for Education and Learning following the commemorations.
Meanwhile, Prince William will attend the Canadian commemorative event at the Juno Beach Centre, Courseulles-sur-Mer, before joining more than 25 heads of state and veterans for the official international ceremony on Omaha Beach.
The day will begin early with a piper on the beach at Arromanches helping to mark the moment the biggest seaborne invasion in military history got under way.
More on D-day
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Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France, will host a service led by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
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Candle-lit vigil in Bayeux marks D-Day anniversary
In the UK, an 80-strong flotilla of boats will leave from Falmouth, Cornwall, where thousands of troops departed to take part in the invasion.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh will join veterans at a Royal British Legion remembrance service at The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will meet veterans at a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
It will be the second day the general election campaign has been being largely put on hold as the prime minister, Labour leader and other political figures are taking part in the commemorations.
Also in Normandy will be US President Joe Biden, who is on a state visit to France, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canada's Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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On Wednesday the Prince of Wales spoke to veterans and gave a reading at a D-Day event in Portsmouth.
He told one veteran who asked how his wife was that Kate would have "loved" to have attended 80th anniversary events.
Image:King Charles and an emotional Queen Camilla in the Royal Box at the UK's national commemorative event . Pic: PA
The King also addressed the crowd and paid tribute to the "courage, resilience and solidarity" of those involved in the historic invasion of Normandy - a pivotal moment in defeating the Nazis.
At one point, the Queen was pictured in tears as Royal Navy veteran Eric Bateman recalled the horrors of the day.
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After the event in Portsmouth, tributes moved to the beaches of Normandy, where hundreds of allied defence personnel parachuted into a historic D-Day drop zone to commemorate the airborne invasion of 80 years ago.
Princess Anne unveiled a statue of a rifleman storming the beaches and hailed the "loyalty, bravery and duty" of Canadian forces.
Later on Wednesday evening a candle-lit vigil was held at Bayeux War Cemetery following the annual D-Day service of thanksgiving at Bayeux Cathedral in Normandy, and at Pegasus Bridge, a champagne toast was held shortly before 11pm, carrying on a tradition which has occurred since 1944, as fireworks were launched into the air overhead.
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Keir Starmer knew that all he had to do was to get through the debate without making a horrible mistake. No wonder he was nervous, unsure whether to address the audience, his opponent, or presenter Julie Etchingham.
He had a good start, sounding more sympathetic to Paula from Huddersfield, who has to cook in batches to save electricity – although it took him some time to get round to “my dad was a toolmaker; my mother was a nurse; our phone was cut off”.
Sunak knew that he had to disrupt his opponent and unsettle people about the prospect of a Labour government. He seemed relaxed but combative, interrupting Starmer repeatedly and demanding to know why he wanted to make life more difficult for people by putting up their taxes.
The Labour leader was slow, again, to respond, eventually calling the figure of £2,000 in extra taxes that the prime minister used “garbage”. It was, he pointed out, arrived at by feeding assumptions into the Treasury – assumptions that included Tory policies by mistake.
Sunak scored the first win of the debate on the unexpected subject of NHS strikes, drawing applause from the studio audience, saying the junior doctors want “a 35 per cent pay rise and I don’t want to raise your taxes to pay for that”.
Starmer looked genuinely frustrated when Sunak challenged him on how he would resolve the dispute, and was reduced to a sulky “when I can get a word in edgeways”, which he repeated later. But the prime minister had made his point – that Starmer’s airy promise to “get people in a room together” was a bit rubbish.
After that, though, Starmer turned the tide, mentioning Liz Truss as often as he could and having the better applause lines. He was clapped for saying that VAT on school fees was “a tough choice, I do understand that”. He was clapped for promising to “end non-dom status completely” – even though, as Sunak pointed out, the Conservative government has already done it – and to make “oil and gas companies pay their fair share”. And he was clapped for promising to “smash the gangs” to stop the boats.
Sunak, on the other hand, attracted mocking laughter when Starmer challenged him on his claim that NHS waiting lists were “coming down”. Starmer pointed out that they had gone up since Sunak had promised to get them down; Sunak countered: “They are coming down from when they were higher.”
By then, Starmer had got over his early nerves and appeared to realise that he was playing politics on easy mode. He kept pointing out that the Tories had been in power for 14 years, and that Sunak didn’t seem keen to defend the record. Sunak kept saying that the election was about the future.
Sunak finally had a strong message for his closing statement: “In uncertain times we simply cannot afford an uncertain prime minister. If you don’t know what you’re going to get from Labour don’t vote for it.” But before he got to it, he had to pause to take a sideswipe at the ghost at the feast: Nigel Farage. The election was a choice between him and Starmer as prime minister, said Sunak: “A vote for anyone else makes it more likely that it will be him.”
The debate confirmed that Sunak was quicker and sharper, and that Labour’s policies are only barely battle-ready. But it also confirmed that Sunak has been fighting a hopeless battle from the start, and that the words “Liz Truss” are enough to bring most political arguments to an end.
YouGov’s snap poll showed nearly a dead heat, with 51 per cent saying Sunak “won”, and 49 per cent Starmer.
That was all that Starmer needed to do to clear the most important of the foreseeable hurdles in this election campaign. It was striking that his irritability was more in evidence than Sunak’s past tetchiness, which had been suppressed completely.
We had better get used to Starmer’s weary and humourless dismissiveness, because we will see a lot more of it when he becomes prime minister.
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The first leaders’ debate dominates the headlines, along with Nigel Farage being doused in milkshake while on the campaign trail.
The Prime Minister’s repeated accusations of tax hikes for all under a Labour government have taken the lead on the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express, and The Times.
The Daily Mail leads on “fiery Rishi”, claiming the Prime Minister came out “swinging” in the first of three debates in the general election campaign.
The Guardian summarises the topics discussed during the first debate: migration, the NHS, the cost of living, security, and increased taxes.
The i‘s splash describes the debate as an “ill-tempered contest” between the two leaders.
The Independent leads on Nigel Farage’s first day on the campaign trail and his vow to “replace the Tories” with a “revolution”.
The Metro also opted for a piece on Mr Farage after a woman threw a milkshake at the Reform UK leader as he left the Moon and Starfish pub.
Instead of politics, the Daily Mirror leads on British war veterans as the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings approaches.
Looking abroad, the Financial Times is focused on an entirely different election: Indian voters have caused an upset for prime minister Narendra Modi, with his party failing to reach a majority vote.
Lastly, scientists have claimed a recent uptick in orcas attacking boats is merely a case of “bored teenagers having fun”, as per the Daily Star.
A newborn baby girl found in a park in east London earlier this year has an older brother and sister also abandoned in very similar separate earlier incidents, it can now be reported.
The girl was named Elsa by hospital staff after she was found in a shopping bag wrapped in a towel in Greenway park in Newham on a night last January when temperatures dropped to -5C.
DNA tests revealed she has the same parents as a girl, temporarily named Roman, after being found next to a bench in a park near Roman Road, Newham in January 2019. Like Elsa, she was found by a dog walker in freezing temperatures wrapped in a towel inside a shopping bag.
Elsa and Roman also have an older brother, who was provisionally named Harry, after he was found wrapped in a blanket in another east London park in Plaistow in September 2017.
The two older children have since been adopted and given different names.
The parents of all three children have yet to be identified, as the Metropolitan police reiterated a call for anyone with information to come forward.
On Monday, a judge in a family court ruled that the relationship between the siblings could be reported because of the public interest of the case, due to the rarity of babies being abandoned.
In the ruling, which came after an appeal by the BBC and PA Media, Carol Atkinson, the most senior judge at east London family court, said: “Abandonment of a baby in this country is a very, very unusual event.”
She acknowledged there would be “enormous interest” in the sibling relationship between the three children.
The BBC and PA argued that reporting the sibling links would help the police find the parents of the three children.
Baby Elsa was discovered by a dog walker on 18 January. It is believed she was less than an hour old when she found with her umbilical cord still attached. Hospital staff gave the name Elsa in reference to a character in the film Frozen, due to the sub-zero temperatures in which she was found.
At the time the Metropolitan police said it was highly likely that Elsa was born after a concealed pregnancy.
A woman was spotted entering the Greenway from the High Street South entrance at about 8.45pm on the night of 18 January, around half an hour before the baby was found.
Elsa remains in foster care. In terms of health, she was described as well, the court heard.
It was also told there were plans for the siblings to have contact as they grew up. The public reporting of the sibling link was not support by the public bodies who advise courts about the children’s best interests.
East London family court is part of a pilot study that has partially lifted automatic restrictions on the reporting of family proceedings.
