Afternoon summary
Suella Braverman has said the Conservatives have run out of time to oust Rishi Sunak but he needs to “own this and fix it”, after local election results indicated the UK is heading for a Labour government. As Rowena Mason reports, the former home secretary said Sunak’s “plan is not working” and the prime minister needed to change course, as “at this rate we will be lucky to have any Conservative MPs at the next election”. Braverman spoke out after the Conservatives lost 400 council seats in the local elections, as well as Andy Street as the West Midlands mayor, and 10 police and crime commissioners. Street has called for the Conservatives to move to the centre to address voters’ concerns, while others have warned the party is facing more of a challenge on their left flank than the right. (See 7.55am.)
The Rwandan government cannot guarantee how many migrants it will take from the UK under Rishi Sunak’s flagship deportation scheme, PA Media reports. But Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the east African state, told the BBC this morning that Rwanda would be able to welcome more than 200 migrants initially. Asked by the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg if Rwanda would be able to process tens of thousands of migrants as part of the deal, Makolo said:
We will be able to welcome the migrants that the UK sends over the lifetime of this partnership. What I cannot tell you is how many thousands we are taking in the first year or the second year. This will depend on very many factors that are being worked out right now.
John Swinney, who is the leading, and so far only, candidate to replace Humza Yousaf as SNP leader and Scottish first minister, has urged a party activist who is not an MSP to drop plans to trigger a contest. It is reported that Graeme McCormick believes it is very likely that he will be able to collect the nomination he needs to be a candidate before tomorrow’s deadline. Swinney said having a contest would “delay the possibility for the SNP to start its rebuilding”. Swinney does not seem to think there is any risk of McCormick winning. (See 3.09pm.)
Updated
John Swinney says SNP's revival will be delayed if party activist stands against him to be next leader
John Swinney, who seems all but certain to be Scotland’s next first minister, has urged an SNP activist who is considering triggering a leadership contest to stand aside.
In an interview this morning on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Swinney said that he thought a contest would hold up the party’s recovery.
Swinney, a former deputy first minister and a former party leader, is the only MSP standing for the post and has the backing of most senior figures in the party who have spoken about the leadership. After Kate Forbes, the former finance secretary, announced last week that she was not standing, Swinney was seen as a shoo-in.
But under the SNP’s rules the leader does not need to be an MSP and a candidate can stand with 100 nominations from at least 20 branches. According to a post on the Yours for Scotland blog, Graeme McCormick, a veteran activist, is collecting names to run.
The deadline for nominations is noon tomorrow. According to the National, the pro-independence paper, McCormick thinks he is very likely to get enough nominations to stand.
McCormick told the paper in a letter that he wanted to stand because Swinney was not in favour of an early Holyrood election. McCormick said that if an election delivered a majority of MSPs committed to independence, they would have the authority to “dissolve the union” and establish an independent Scotland without a referendum. He explained:
The polls for independence are consistently positive. The SNP has the opportunity to regain its lost support if it promises to dissolve the union through the ballot box.
This morning Swinney said it would be better if McCormick did not run because, without a contest, Swinney could start reviving the party’s fortunes more quickly. He said:
I think the SNP has got a chance to start rebuilding from the difficult period that we have had, under my leadership, and bluntly, I’d just like to get on with that as quickly as I possible can do, because every day that we spend in an internal contest, which I think we all probably know the outcome of, we delay the possibility for the SNP to start its rebuilding.
If McCormick were to win the SNP leadership contest, he would not be able to become first minister because he is not an MSP. But McCormick reportedly think the two roles should be separated.
