Summary of the day …
Diane Abbott is “free to stand” as a Labour candidate in the general election, Keir Starmer has said. The news comes three days after it was revealed that the Labour party had concluded an investigation in December into controversial remarks Abbott had made, and that she had completed the required antisemitism training in February, but the party had not decided whether or not to readmit her.
Starmer admitted he used a private jet to travel to a campaign rally in Scotland where he promised to create “tens of thousands” of clean energy jobs with a new publicly owned energy company in the country. Prime minister Rishi Sunak has dismissed Labour’s Great British energy plan as being just a “logo”, saying it will not deliver the energy security that the country needs.
The Liberal Democrats would extend free school meals to all primary schoolchildren in England, starting with those in poverty, Ed Davey has said in a challenge to Labour to match the pledge.
John Swinney has called on the next UK government to hold an emergency budget after the election, and said he was proud his own SNP administration had taken “deep and hard decisions on tax”.
The decision not to include the Scottish Greens in an STV debate next week has been criticised by MSP Ross Greer as “outrageous”. The programme on Mondaywill feature the leaders of the SNP, Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats in Scotland. The party does not hold any Scottish seats at Westminster, but is the fourth biggest party at Holyrood.
New opinion polling from Savanta in Scotland shows Labour maintaining a narrow lead in Westminster voting intention, with support on 37% ahead of the SNP’s 34%.
ITV has announced a further national multi-party election television debate. Moderated by Julie Etchingham, the network says “leaders or senior representatives” from the Tories, Labour, SNP, Lib Dems, Green, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK parties will appear at 8.30pm on Thursday 13 June.
Former Tory MP Julian Knight has announced that he will stand as an independent in the general election. Knight was the Conservative MP for Solihull from 2015 to 2022, but lost the party whip in December 2022 after it was revealed he was being investigated by police over sexual assault allegations. Police dropped the investigation in March 2023.
Former Conservative MP Aaron Bell, who represented Newcastle-under-Lyme, has announced “with a very heavy heart” that he will not be standing at the general election. 135 people who were MPs in the 2019-2024 parliament are not standing in the general election, including 79 former Conservative MPs.
Conservatives in Wales launched their campaign, with Andrew RT Davies, opposition leader in the Senedd, saying the way Labour had run Wales was a warning to the rest of the UK.
Workers at steel giant Tata are to ban overtime as part of industrial action in protest at job losses.
More than 600 households in Surrey have been told not to drink their tap water after tests carried out by Thames Water.
The radio presenter Iain Dale has withdrawn his bid to be the Conservative candidate for Tunbridge Wells after he was found to have said he did not like the town.
Thank you for reading and all your comments today. It is the weekend tomorrow, but there is a general election campaign going on, so I will see you here again bright and early on Saturday morning. Take care and have a good evening.
When PA posted its story about Rishi Sunak visiting a farm earlier, it said “one of the lambs was initially distracted by nearby photographers and nibbled on a press camera” and I was disappointed there was no photographic evidence to accompany it. But the prime minister clearly kept the receipts.
You just can’t beat the Great British countryside. pic.twitter.com/VoUBCRhuD6
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) May 31, 2024
