General Election LIVE: Diane Abbott insists SHE WILL STAND after Starmer stood down on row
Diane Abbott insists SHE WILL STAND after Starmer stood down on row
PA
Britain's first black female MP Diane Abbott has vowed to run as the Labour candidate in Hackney North & Stoke Newington amid speculation she could have been elevated to the House of Lords.
In a social media post, Abbott said: “This is factually incorrect. I have never been offered a seat in the Lords, and would not accept one if offered.
“I am the adopted Labour candidate for Hackney North & Stoke Newington. I intend to run and to win as Labour’s candidate.”
Sir Keir Starmer was forced to accept Abbott could stand after a row broke out about her candidacy.
The former Shadow Home Secretary was suspended from the Labour Party after comparing antisemitism to hate faced by people with ginger hair.
Despite rumours she was barred from standing, Abbott was re-admitted to the Labour Party and Starmer said she was "free to go forward" as the Labour candidate in her North East London constituency.
Tory grassroots group issues 5-point plan to save Rishi Sunak from ‘oblivion’
The Popular Conservatism grassroots group (PopCon) has called on Rishi Sunak to ensure core Conservative principles are included in the upcoming manifesto.
A five-point plan put forward by the group would, according to PopCon, save the Tory Party from oblivion on July 4.
The group hope that the plan will be popular among would-be Conservative voters.
Annunziata Rees-Mogg, head of communications at PopCon, says: “Polls show that former Conservatives are currently the most likely of any political group not to vote.
“With thousands of supporters and activists around the UK, we have listened to the grassroots of our party, we understand the disillusionment millions feel.
“If they do not turn out the Party will be a shadow of itself by 5th July.
“The Conservative party can prevent oblivion but it needs to be bold.”
Rees-Mogg added that Rishi Sunak’s manifesto needs to include: taking back control of British borders by leaving the ECHR; Abolishing the OBR and reforming the Bank of England mandate; Scrapping 2050 Net Zero targets; Scrapping the Equality Act; and Restoring democratic accountability to the Civil Service.
Police examine electoral fraud claim after Tory MP accused of 'mimicking' Labour
Derbyshire Police have confirmed the force is reviewing allegations of electoral fraud after Tory MP Robert Largan was accused of "pretending" to campaign for both Labour and Reform UK in adverts posted to social media.
Largan published an image on X on Saturday morning in red Labour colours which said “Labour for Largan”.
However, a spokesman for the Conservative Party said: “The materials clearly carry imprints, as required by electoral law.”
The Telegraph reported that Largan has not yet been contacted by Derbyshire Police and his spokesman said he had done nothing wrong.
EXCLUSIVE: Starmer slammed over immigration U-turn as Labour’s ‘vacuous’ leader pledges crackdown
Sir Keir Starmer has come under fire from both sides of the political divide after vowing to cut immigration and crackdown on foreign visas.
The Labour leader is looking at banning bosses who break employment law from hiring workers from abroad and force sectors to train Britons before receiving foreign worker visas.
Critics of the Labour leader were left bewildered by Starmer given he previously expressed his concern about Tory plans to end freedom of movement.
Former Brexit Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is seeking re-election as the MP for North East Somerset, told GB News: “Starmer has become a feather cushion bearing the imprint of the last focus group that sits on him.”
Lib Dems can win up to 50 seats, ex-MP claims
Veteran Liberal Democrat Norman Baker has defended Ed Davey’s approach to the General Election campaign - and tipped them to win up to 50 seats.
Mr Baker, a former Lib Dem MP and Transport Minister, said the party had to find a way to cut through and Davey's tactics were working.
Speaking to Camilla Tominey about the leader's nationwide tour which has seen him throwing himself down slides and plunging into water he told GB News “The reality is that over the last few years it's been very difficult for the Lib Dems to get coverage from the media, because the media is obsessed with Labour versus Tory.
“When he was standing on that board, in the middle of Windermere, he was able to then talk about pensions, talk about the NHS, talk about sewage.
“You do get an opportunity to get on TV, which we need to do to cut through and we can't cut through to voters with our issues if we're not being covered.”
Pressed on how many seats he expects the Lib Dems to win he said: “My own assessment of how many seats we can win is upwards of 50. The reality is that people have stopped listening to the Conservatives.”
Some reports have claimed the support for Lib Dems might have been behind Michael Gove’s decision not to stand.
Asked if thought Gove was worried about losing to the Lib Dems, Mr Baker said: “
I think it is a good possibility. If you look across Surrey, look across Hampshire, Sussex tat swathes of the home counties, the Tories are in big trouble.”
Quizzed on whether he'd encourage the Lib Dems to enter into a coalition Government, like the one he was a part of, Mr Baker wouldn’t be drawn.
But he did point out the success the last coalition Government had
He said: “If you look back at the last 14 years, the coalition government was the most stable government of any government in that period. And we've had a succession of disasters and Tory Prime Ministers. So a coalition government is actually quite a good way of government.
But I think hypothetically, I think it's unlikely to be a coalition and we did get our fingers burned last time. We’d need to see what happenedNew polling puts Starmer over Sunak as 'Best Prime Minister'
🚨NEW Best PM rating
— Savanta UK (@Savanta_UK) June 2, 2024
📈Starmer's biggest lead over Sunak ever in Savanta polling
🌹Starmer 44% (+4)
🌳Sunak 30% (-1)
◻️Don't know 27% (-2)
2,239 UK adults, 24-28 May
(Changes from 17-19 May) pic.twitter.com/agHUmciL0t
Victoria Atkins rejects claims Sunak has given up on young people
Victoria Atkins rejects claims Sunak has given up on young people
GB News
Speaking to Camilla Tominey on GB News, Victoria Atkins said working-age people had benefited from a £900 tax cut from the Government and criticised Labour's silence over the issue of whether they'll target pensions pots or not.
Atkins also claimed Keir Starmer had been "late to the party" in coming up with ideas to tackle illegal immigration.
She told GB News: "We’ve absolutely not given up on young people. If you look at our plans, not just for the National Citizen Service, which I have to say I think is a great idea, I think that's a real range of opportunities for our younger people.
"It's about ensuring that they have the skills and qualities for later in life. But also, of course, we've given a tax break this year of £900 to people of working age through the national insurance tax code.
"And what is more, we have said that we want to ensure that pensions, those workplace pensions that we've done so much to encourage people to invest in, will be maintained.
"What worries me is that Labour is absolutely silent on whether or not they're going to raid those pension pots, we have made it clear we will not but Labour has not.
"And it is these incremental policies or silences from Labour that is, I think, building a very different picture from the one that perhaps they like to come on the camera and talk about."
Yvette Cooper has defended Labour’s plans for ending tax breaks on private schools
Yvette Cooper has defended Labour’s plans for ending tax breaks on private schools.
Speaking to Camilla Tominey on GB News, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the policy was about fairness.
Cooper told GB News: "We think this is about fairness. Other organisations and institutions have to pay VAT.
"We do think it's fair for private schools to pay VAT and for that money to be used to recruit 6,500 teachers for our schools, our state schools right across the country.
"This will help to make sure we can get mental health professionals into our schools because there is a mental health crisis going on with our children.
"So I think this is a fair and sensible thing to do. I know that there have been many institutions that have been raising their fees for their own reasons over the last few years.
"That's for them to decide and to explain.
"We think this policy is just about having a fair approach across different organisations and making use of that money to give the best possible chances for children in schools right across the country."
New polling predicts there will 'barely be a Tory left in sight' following election
New polling has suggested that there will "barely be a Tory left in sight" following the election.
Speaking on the Camilla Tominey show, deputy political editor of the Mail on Sunday, Anna Mikhailova, suggested the Tory's new approach could be to target the so-called 'grey wall' of elderly voters.
Speaking on the new PopCon plan to include 5 key points in the Tory manifesto, Mikhailova said: "This plan is designed to try and do something with the polls, because at the end of the day, I mean, there was a significant poll in the weekend in the Daily Mail, which showed that the Conservatives could be down to as little as 70 something seats."
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE
Sadiq Khan begs Keir Starmer to open floodgates to MORE immigration
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been begging Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to open the floodgates to more EU migrants.
Khan, who won his third term in City Hall last month, claimed those aged between 18 and 30 should be allowed to live, study and work in the capital as part of a youth mobility scheme.
The European Commission put forward proposals allowing young people to move to the UK for up to four years for any purpose, with family members able to join them thereafter.
Khan stressed he would “make the case” to the Labour leader and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
SNP forced to hand EU £450m - 'Chucked down the drain'
'Chucked down the drain!' SNP forced to hand EU £450m as Brexiteers bemoan giving Brussels 'UK cash'PASNP Ministers have been accused of “negligence” after it emerged Holyrood would hand back £450million to the European Union after failing to spend the cash on key economic and anti-poverty projects.
Scotland will likely return 28 per cent of the cash allocated from Brussels' structural and investment funding over the past six years.
Holyrood has already coughed up €199million from the funding pot, data compiled by the European Union has revealed.
Nigel Farage plots Tory 'takeover' after 'sarcastic' talk of deal with Rishi Sunak
Nigel FaragePAFarage has opened up on his “real ambition” to contest the 2029 General Election and vowed to supplant the Tories as “the opposition”.
Farage said: “I want to reshape the centre-right, whatever that means.”
He added: “Why do you think I called it Reform? Because of what happened in Canada — the 1992-93 precedent in Canada, where Reform comes from the outside, because the Canadian Conservatives had become social democrats like our mob here.
“It took them time, it took them two elections, they became the biggest party on the centre-right.
“They then absorbed what was left of the Conservative Party into them and rebranded.”
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