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
Scottish Greens call exclusion from STV leaders debate 'outrageous'
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 is scheduled for 9pm on Monday 3 June, and will feature the leaders of the SNP, Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats in Scotland in a debate chaired by STV’s political editor Colin Mackay.
PA Media reports Greer said “It is outrageous that a national broadcaster has excluded us from their leaders’ debate despite the Scottish Greens having been one of the five major parties in this country for more than 20 years.”
The party does not hold any Scottish seats at Westminster, but is the fourth biggest party at Holyrood.
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Here are some more pictures from today’s election campaigning …
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Jessica Murray brings this report from Birmingham Ladywood constituency, which is among the most deprived constituencies in England and Wales.
Rishi Sunak has been out campaigning on a farm, where he fed some lambs.
The prime minister was there with local Tory candidate, David Rutley.
Ed Davey has taken a different tack with his photo opportunity today, with the Liberal Democrat leader taking the time to do some baking lessons with primary schoolchildren. It is in support of their policy to extend free school meals to all primary schoolchildren in England.
Here are the full quotes this afternoon from Labour leader Keir Starmer to broadcasters about Diane Abbott. He said:
Diane was elected in 1987. The first black woman MP. She has been a trailblazer. She has carved a path for other people to come into politics and public life. The whip has obviously been restored to her now, and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate.
He was then asked “Have you spoken to Diane, and do you understand that she wants to put herself forward to stand?”
Starmer replied:
She’s free to go forward as a Labour candidate. The whip is back with her. It’s been restored. And of course you know she was a trailblazer for many, many years and has been a path for others to come into politics. So, formally a matter for the NEC, I’ve not expressed a view up until now. She’s free to go forward as a Labour candidate.
Supporters of Faiza Shaheen have announced a rally in support of her candidacy at the general election in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency. Labour has announced Shama Tatler as its candidate for the seat that has been held by Iain Duncan Smith since it was formed in 1997.
Shaheen has said she will challenge the decision in the courts, claiming she has faced “a systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia and bullying”. She said she was given five and a half hours’ notice of an NEC panel meeting on Tuesday to discuss her social media activity, and was informed by email on Wednesday evening that she had been blocked from standing as a Labour candidate.
In a statement, the organisers said: “We are appalled by the treatment of Faiza Shaheen, who was democratically selected to represent our community. We call for her immediate reinstatement as the Labour party candidate and the right to vote for her to be our local MP.”
Keir Starmer confirms that Diane Abbott is 'free to go forward as a Labour candidate'
Keir Starmer has said that veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott is “free to go forward as a Labour candidate” after days of speculation fuelled by media briefing that the party was forcing her to step down.
On Wednesday Abbott promised to stay on as an MP for “as long as it is possible”, having issued a statement to broadcasters confirming she had been handed back the Labour whip after a months-long investigation into her conduct, but would not be allowed to stand again as a Labour candidate.
Since then Starmer had repeatedly said a decision had not been made, while he also appeared not to actively endorse Abbott standing again. The Labour leader on Friday told reporters: “The whip has obviously been restored to her now and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate.”
Martin Forde KC, previously appointed by Starmer to investigate allegations of sexism, racism and bullying in the party, told the Guardian that there continued to be a perception that complaints against some Labour figures were treated more seriously than others.
“There is still very much a feeling that if you step out of line as a black MP or councillor you get the book thrown at you,” he said. “If you do so as a right-leaning supporter of the current leader, you’ll be treated more leniently.
Abbott criticised the party this week for what she said was a “leftwing cull” after Faiza Shaheen, who had been Labour’s candidate in Chingford and Woodford Green, and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who had been the MP for Brighton Kemptown since 2017, were prevented from standing.
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Abbott free to stand as a Labour candidate, says Starmer
PA has a quick snap: Diane Abbott is “free” to stand as a Labour candidate in the general election, Keir Starmer has said.
More details soon …
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PA have updated their count of the number of MPs standing down at the next election, after Aaron Bell said he would not stand, and Julian Knight announced he would be standing as an independent.
It records that 135 people who were MPs in the 2019-2024 parliament are not standing in the general election.
It includes 79 former Conservative MPs, which is the highest number in modern political history, surpassing the previous postwar record of 72 Tories who stood down ahead of the 1997 election.
33 Labour MPs are known to be standing down – although this figure includes Natalie Elphicke and Dan Poulter, who both defected to the party in recent weeks.
Nine whipless independent MPs are standing down, Caroline Lucas is standing down for the Greens, and Hywel Williams is standing down for Plaid Cymru.
The SNP has nine MPs stepping down, and Sinn Féin has three.
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Plaid Cymru have immediately responded to the news that ITV have invited “leaders or senior representatives” by challenging Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to accept the invitation, and debate their leader Rhun ap Iorwerth directly on the programme. The debate will be broadcast at 8.30pm on Thursday 13 June. Sunak and Starmer will participate in a head-to-head debate on Tuesday 4 June at 9pm.
In a social media message the Welsh party said “Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth will be shouting for Wales on 13 June. We’ve called on Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak to respect Welsh voters – debate us directly. No substitutes!”
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.
At the time Knight criticised the whips’ office, accusing it of a “desperate attempt to cover up the identities and motives of those in parliament who colluded for many months to bring the false allegation against me to the police”.
Knight, who had always denied the claims, posted to social media today:
After discussions with family, Conservative members and constituents I have decided to run as an independent in the forthcoming election. Solihull deserves more than a whips appointed candidate who doesn’t get the issues.
It is important that having been forced out of the party after an entirely false allegation, which is now being investigated by police for perversion of the course of justice, it is important to make a stand. People should not lose their position because of a false allegation.
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.
Bell has elected in 2019 and has acted as an assistant whip since November 2023. In 2022 he was vocal with his criticism of then-prime minister Boris Johnson over partygate, saying “The breach of trust that the events in Downing Street represent, and the manner in which they have been handled, makes [Johnson’s] position untenable.”
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.
Dale, a longstanding Tory supporter, had resigned his job on LBC to stand as a candidate in the Kent seat but said he was “not willing to suffer death by 1,000 cuts” over his comments.
Speaking of his decision to withdraw on LBC, Dale said: “I got a text from the local Conservative party saying they’d had a communication from the Lib Dems with this clip from the For the Many podcast two years ago in which I had said – I hadn’t remembered this – I didn’t like living in Tunbridge Wells and would quite happily live somewhere else … There is a context to it but nobody’s interested in context or nuance in these situations.”
Dale, who had previously been a Tory party adviser and then a broadcaster, said he had made the comments two years ago on the podcast and they were part of banter between him and his other presenter, the former Labour home secretary Jacqui Smith.
ITV announces multi-party election debate for 13 June
ITV has announced a further 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.
The ITV Election Debate 2024 will be at 8.30pm on Thursday 13 June. That is the day before ITV is showing the opening Euro2024 match between hosts Germany and Scotland.
ITV has also announced that it has invited the leaders of the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Reform UK and the Greens to be interviewed by Anushka Asthana to be shown after the head-to-head debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. An interview with the leader of Plaid Cymru will be shown in Wales.
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Conservatives in Wales are launching their general election campaign today. Ahead of it, Andrew RT Davies, opposition leader in the Senedd, said the way Labour had run Wales was a warning to the rest of the UK.
Davies said:
Labour’s record of 25 years of running Wales is a stark warning to the rest of the UK of what a Labour government in Westminster would mean for them.
Keir Starmer says Wales is his “blueprint” for what a UK Labour government would look like, and thanks to Labour, Wales has record high NHS waiting lists, the highest business rates in Britain, an ideological and damaging war on motorists and proposals that would risk 5,500 farming jobs.
Welsh Secretary David TC Davies, who is standing in Monmouthshire, said his party would get people moving faster in Wales with the planned electrification of the north Wales mainline, and said Conservative plans to end “far too many” people going to university and “getting nothing out of it”, plus the introduction of national service, would give young people the “best start in life”.
SNP calls for emergency UK summer budget after election to avoid a continuation of 'Tory cuts'
John Swinney has called on the next UK government to hold an emergency budget after the election, and said he was proud his own administration had taken “deep and hard decisions on tax”.
Speaking at a campaign launch event, he said “we’ve asked those on higher earnings to contribute more to the public funds … and if we hadn’t done that, Scotland would have £1.5bn less to spend on our schools and our hospitals.”
Scotland’s first minister said he was proud of his government’s record on child poverty, saying “we are keeping 100,000 children out of poverty in Scotland as a consequence of the Scottish child payment. That is action to protect children in our society.”
He also said the SNP was committed to net zero. “On our record alone,” he said “we’ve transformed renewable energy in Scotland,” stating that when the SNP came into office just “20% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption was coming from renewable energy” and now it is significantly higher.
He said Labour’s plans for a Great British energy company would not reduce bills, but would be “a bodyblow to the Scottish economy” from reduced employment in the oil and gas sectors.
On the economy the SNP leader said “growth in Scotland has risen faster since the SNP came to power than it has in the rest of the UK. And in addition to that, we are the most attractive place for foreign direct investment of any part in the UK other than London and the south-east [of England].”
Swinney said “fundamentally, we believe in economic growth so we can invest in the NHS and invest in our schools. That’s what we’re about. We’re about investing and the quality of life of people in our country.”
Ahead of the campaign launch he set out a challenge for the UK government to have an emergency summer budget, saying:
The Tories have trashed the economy and decimated funding for public services. The SNP is calling for an immediate emergency budget following the election to deliver the real change that people in Scotland want to see. More funding for the NHS. The reversal of Tory austerity cuts. And meaningful investment in economic growth, including green energy.
Keir Starmer must say whether he will back our calls. Any delay would see a Labour party government continue to impose Tory cuts and mean Starmer is offering no change at all.
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Keir Starmer has just been asked if he used a private jet to travel to Scotland to launch Labour’s green energy policy. He confirms he did.
He says:
Yes, we did use a private jet because we needed to get very quickly to Scotland from Wales yesterday. We have to use the most efficient form of transport in the middle of a very, very busy, general election campaign. We offset the carbon. We always do whatever we use transport in the air. So, that’s the approach we’re taking. We’ve got five weeks to take our argument to the country. I need to get across the country to speak to as many people as possible and from time to time we have to do it as efficiently as possible.
I imagine some sections of the media will seize on this answer with glee.
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Ed Davey: Lib Dems would extend free school meals to all primary schoolchildren in England
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.
Speaking in his first newspaper interview of the general election campaign, the Lib Dem leader announced a manifesto policy aimed at the nearly 1 million more children living in poverty in England and their families.
The £500m cost of the pledge would be paid by introducing a 4% share buyback tax modelled on the one brought in by the US president, Joe Biden, which the Liberal Democrats estimate would raise £1.4bn.
At present the government only provides meals to children in reception, year 1 and year 2, and to children who meet family income conditions in year 3 and above. The Child Poverty Action group estimates that 900,000 children living in poverty – a third of school-age children in England – miss out on free school meals.
“We think the case for it is overwhelming,” Davey said in his interview from the West Country, where his party is targeting a swathe of Conservative-held seats. “The Liberal Democrats are very progressive politicians. That’s who we always have been. It’s who we are. We believe in social justice … If we can get some Liberal Democrat MPs in the next parliament, many more of them, these are the things we’ll provide for.”
Read more here: Lib Dems would extend free school meals to all primary schoolchildren, says Ed Davey
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Keir Starmer is about to take questions from the media after his speech. BBC Scotland are going first. He has been asked given that he has ditched candidates and ditched policies, how can Scotland trust he won’t ditch these first six steps. He said “Those first steps are fully funded, fully costed, fully set out.”
ITV go next and ask about Diane Abbott. He trots out the same line as earlier: “No decision has been taken. So that’s a factual position. No decision to ban Diane. Obviously she’s got the whip back, and she’s been a trailblazer for many years, but the fact remains no decision has been taken.”
He is asked by Sky News about the risk of job losses under Labour’s energy plan. Starmer says “I’ve been very very clear when it comes to the transition that we’re not turning off the taps. Oil and gas will be part of the mix for many years. We’re not revoking any licences. But a transition is coming. Everybody knows the transition is coming. Everybody’s working towards that transition. The worst thing we could do now is do what Rishi Sunak is doing and put our head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening.”
He brings in Anas Sarwar, who says he understands why workers in the oil and gas industry are “really nervous about what happens next”. He says “Oil and gas will play a significant role for decades to come. Partly because it’s the right thing for us to do – we have to protect jobs – but also if we are to get the scale of investment that’s required we need the oil and gas giants we part of that investment.”
Chris Hope of GB News, who possibly has never heard of batteries, asks Keir Starmer “What if the wind stops blowing? Will the lights turn off?”
Keir Starmer says Scotland has a chance to vote for “a government with Scotland at its heart”. He says the SNP say use your vote to send a message to Westminster, and “I don’t want you to vote to send a message I want you to vote to send a government.”
He tells the audience:
We have to stop the chaos in Westminster. We’ve had 14 years now, 14 years of chaos and division. In Scotland 17 years of spinning around in circles getting nowhere. At Westminster five prime ministers in a row. Here in Scotland, three first ministers in three years. As failure that’s not delivering.
He tells an anecdote of meeting a seven-year-old girl in Scotland who couldn’t read, and said “she is paying for the failure here in Scotland under the SNP.”
He continued:
They’re not going to change. The Tories won’t change in Westminster. The SNP won’t change here. It will be more chaos. More division. More sleaze. More scandal. We have to stop the chaos. We have to draw a line.
He makes a direct pitch to Scottish voters, saying:
I know that in the past some people here in Scotland who wanted the Tories out, didn’t vote Labour, because they didn’t think that we could win.
But we’ve changed Labour. We now have that opportunity and you have to vote for it. Because there is no change without Scotland. There is no Labour without Scotland.
He said that “the solidarity of working people” is “probably the only force that can bring our four nations together.”
While she was speaking, Angela Rayner said “Scotland is the zero-hours contracts capital of the UK”, and said Labour’s plans on worker’s rights were “the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation” and “a new and true partnership between government, trade unions and business to unleash the real potential of this country”.
Keir Starmer is about to speak now.
Here are a couple of pictures from this Labour event in Scotland.
Ed Miliband: Tories and SNP are 'the two faces of energy failure'
Ed Miliband has said the Conservatives and the SNP are “the two faces of energy failure, and Labour says it’s time to turn the page.”
He says:
We have been left exposed to energy markets controlled by dictators like Putin, and the Tories and the SNP, both were to blame. The Tories because they blocked homegrown clean energy because of their boneheaded dogma and the SNP have failed to build it because of their chaos and incompetence.
Miliband says “our mission is simple, which is to ensure energy security and cut bills for good, with the biggest investment in homegrown clean energy in our history.”
He says that “the SNP promised a publicly owned energy company for Scotland seven years ago, and abysmally failed to deliver.”
He jokes that the Tories believe in public ownership of energy, “by France, by Sweden, by Norway. They’ll have any public ownership, as long as it’s not British public ownership.”
Ed Miliband tells the audience:
It’s time to mobilise our scientists and engineers, our businesses, our innovators and communities across Scotland in this mission. It’s time to end the defeatism that says Britain can’t lead any more. It’s time to face up to the climate crisis and take it on.
When Keir talks about mission driven government, it’s not a slogan. It’s a call to arms for our country. We are the optimists in this election.
Anas Sarwar has been followed by a pitch from a businessman about making Scotland a centre for entrepreneurialism, and deputy Labour leader in Scotland Jackie Baillie, who spoke about the NHS.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner is now making a pitch to Scottish voters. She said:
In just over a month’s time, Scotland will be going to the polls to make a big choice. A choice between change or more of the same. More chaos, more division, more managed decline. If it’s ever been managed that is.
But here in Scotland, this choice has never been so critical for all of us. Because whatever Scotland decides will decide whether the rest of the UK gets changed too I don’t say this lightly. We need you.
Rayner has then promised to “make work pay and restore dignity and respect at work with a new deal for working people”. She adds “You don’t need me to tell you how the Tories have treated working people.”
She has now introduced Ed Miliband to the stage to talk about Labour’s energy plans.
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Labour’s leader Anas Sarwar has said “With Keir Starmer in Downing Street, we will have a government on the side of the people of Scotland. On your side. Because Labour is the only party trying to pull our country together.”
He has reiterated the Labour party attempting to broaden its appeal to people who have not previously voted for it. He told the audience:
This election isn’t about how you voted in the last election, or the one before that. Or even how you voted in the referendums. No matter how you voted in the past, if you agree that our country needs change, then vote Scottish Labour.
Labour’s six first steps for Scotland have a slight variance from the version being promoted in England. At the event in Scotland the audience have been given booklets which list the six steps as:
Deliver economic stability
Cut NHS waiting times
Set up Great British Energy
Make work pay
Create jobs and opportunities
Maximise Scotland’s influence
Labour’s campaign event has started, and Labour leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar is speaking now.
He says this election is “a choice between the Tory government that wants to take away opportunities from young people, or a Labour government that will create opportunities and give young people hope for the future.”
He continues “I know from listening to people here and across Scotland that they are crying out for change. They’re tired of the sleaze. Tired of the chaos, tired of the failure to grow the economy and protect our public services. And after 14 years, we finally have an opportunity to rid ourselves of this rotten Tory government. An opportunity that we cannot afford to miss.”
Maj Peter Oweh, the City of London Corporation’s common cryer and serjeant at arms, has just read a Royal Proclamation on the steps of the Royal Exchange in London dissolving the present parliament and declaring the calling of another.
Keir Starmer is expected to be joined by Anas Sarwar, Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband and Ian Murray at his campaign event in Greenock, Scotland this morning. I will bring you any key lines that emerge.
The SNP’s John Swinney is giving a statement in Glasgow in the next hour. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey will be in Hertfordshire this morning, and south-west London in the afternoon.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak is in north-west England this afternoon. We are expecting him to make a media appearance at 4.30pm.
Workers at steel giant Tata are to ban overtime as part of industrial action in protest at job losses, PA Media reports. Unite said about 1,500 of its members based in Port Talbot and Llanwern in South Wales will take action from 18 June.
Earlier this month first minister Vaughan Gething went to meet Tata bosses in India, and came back saying the “only way to shift their position realistically is if there was a different UK government.”
In January the owner of the Port Talbot steelworks confirmed that its two blast furnaces would shut down, in what unions condemned as an “absolutely devastating” blow
Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride was on the media round for the Conservatives this morning, and he expressed his disappointment that former Tory MP Mark Logan had defected to Labour.
“It’s disappointing,” PA Media reports he said. “Mark will have his own reasons as to why he’s decided to do that. Of course we’re disappointed when those things happen, but the big picture here, and there’s a lot at stake here – over and above what Mark Logan may or may not decide to have done – is the future of our country.”
The Conservative party has announced plans for fly-tippers to get points on their driving licences. The party also pledged to pass a law that would allow tenants to be kicked out of social housing after three proven instances of antisocial behaviour.
PA Media reports it said the moves are part of the party’s “plan to stamp out antisocial behaviour across the board to restore pride in place, improve people’s quality of life and boost community cohesion”.
Labour rejected the announcement as “more empty words from a chaotic Tory party who have let antisocial behaviour run rampant.”
More than 600 households in Surrey have been told not to drink their tap water after tests carried out by Thames Water. The company said results on Thursday indicated “a possible deterioration in quality” of drinking water “in some areas”.
There’s more here: Thames Water tells hundreds of Surrey households not to drink tap water
Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, has said the SNP’s opposition to his party’s Great British energy plans were “utter nonsense” and “grievance-driven politics”.
Speaking to the BBC, Sarwar said:
What we are talking about here is a publicly owned energy generation company headquartered in Scotland, backed up by the UK Treasury, meaning billions of pounds of investment here in Scotland, investment in onshore wind, offshore wind, carbon capture, storage, and so much more. And that means over 50,000 more jobs here in Scotland.
Asked about Unite general secretary Sharon Graham’s warning that the plans risk making oil and gas workers in Scotland “the coalminers of our generation”, referring to the way that Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s virtually wiped out the industry, Sarwar said:
Let me be really clear to oil and gas workers across the country, and to companies that operate in oil and gas. There will be no cliff edge. There will be no turning off the taps. Oil and gas will play a significant role for decades to come. We will not make the same mistakes as Margaret Thatcher made with the coal mining industry.
We recognise that the large scale investments that are required for us to realise our transition is going to require partnership with members of the oil and gas industry, as well as the renewables industry, to give them the confidence to invest.
People have heard promises for 14 years from the Conservatives, for 17 years from the SNP, and those promises were broken time after time after time. We will not make that same mistake. And that’s why this is at the heart of our growth plan for Scotland, and our economic growth plan for the whole UK.
Some 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%.
The polling, for the Scotsman, suggests that Labour would be on course for 28 Scottish MPs, up from two. The SNP would be left with 18 seats, and the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives would have five and six MPs respectively.
You can find our UK-wide aggregated poll tracker here:
Sunak: Labour's Great British energy plan announcement is just 'a logo'
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.
All this new policy is, is a logo. You don’t deliver energy security for our country with a logo.
There’s a clear choice on this issue. My view is we have to prioritise this country’s energy security, that’s why we’ll continue to support Britain’s North Sea energy industry.
That’s not something that the Labour party supports, they will ban further energy exploration there even though independent experts all say that we need that energy for decades to come.
On top of that, I’ll make sure we get to net zero in a proportionate way that does not load up ordinary families with thousands of pounds worth of costs. So yes, we’ll get to net zero, but I will do it in a way that prioritises our country’s energy security and household bills.
All we’ve seen from the Labour party today is a logo. And as our experts have described their ideas: they’re incoherent, incredible and completely unachievable.
The prime minister is campaigning in the north-west of England today, and is expected to make a media appearance later this afteroon.
Sarwar: election campaign can't just be about internal workings of Labour party
Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, has been asked for his opinion on the row over Diane Abbott’s selection during an interview this morning with the BBC to promote Labour’s new energy plans. He did also get a chance to talk about those, I’ll come to that in a minute.
He said:
It’s not for me to decide who our candidates are in England. I wouldn’t take kindly to anyone trying to tell me who our candidates should be in Scotland, so I’m not going to do it the other way around. It’s for the NEC to decide.
What I’m very clear about is that Diane has a proud history in the Labour party. She has been a great servant of our party, our country and the community that she serves.
Asked if there was a “cull” of left-wing candidates going on, Sarwar said:
Look, I don’t accept that, because I look at the diverse candidates we have here in Scotland, from every wing of our Labour party, fighting for change across the country. And I recognise people from across the political spectrum standing as candidates.
Our party is unified on the purpose of getting rid of this rotten Tory government who’ve done so much damage to Scotland and the UK over the last 14 years. And we’re unified and delivering the change our country needs.
Of course in any election process, selection processes, appointing of candidates, there is always this kind of thing that goes on, but what we have to do is get right behind this campaign, because this is an opportunity Scotland and the UK cannot afford to miss after 14 years of chaos.
We can’t make this about the internals of the Labour party. This has to be about the country. It has to be about delivering change. And that’s what the Labour campaign is all about.
Starmer declines to say whether he wants Diane Abbott to run for election
Labour leader Keir Starmer has declined to say whether he wants Diane Abbott to run as a Labour candidate in next month’s election, while repeating that she has not been formally barred by the Labour party.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, he told listeners “Diane Abbott has had the whip returned to her, no decision has been taken to bar her from standing and the NEC will come to a decision in due course.”
Asked if he would like her to be a candidate, Starmer added: “Ultimately, that will be a matter for the NEC but no decision has been taken.”
Shadow science secretary Peter Kyle was asked about the situation while appearing on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, and said:
I’m sure there’s lots of conversations going on. They will be going on in as sensitive a way as possible. Diane was a trailblazer. We have a lot of respect for that. This election, though is about the future. And the NEC will be making sure that our party is fit for the future. And I think all these things will be discussed. They will come to a decision in the coming days.
Pressed on whether he was suggesting that Abbott wasn’t fit to stand as an MP again, Kyle said:
These are real issues about standards, and I’m not going to apologise for the fact that Keir Starmer, when he became leader of the Labour party, raised the standards by which sitting MPs, candidates, anybody that represents the Labour party and speaks on his behalf, are held.
That is why just today another Tory MP endorsed the Labour party That is because of the standards that we’re holding ourselves to and we are holding ourselves to extremely high standards.
Martin Forde KC has also spoken to the BBC about the row surrounding her selection. He told listeners:
It looks utterly shambolic to me, in ways that are probably predictable, in the sense that you need a system of regulation which is transparent, as swift as it can be, and consistent in outcome.
And when you have situations where the various factions are able to point to unequal treatment, or lack of consistency, it allows them to argue that this is a system which is factional.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has also spoken ahead of the launch of Great British Energy in Scotland. The shadow energy security and net zero secretary said:
Great British Energy will kickstart our mission for clean power to lower bills and boost our energy independence. It’s time to move on from the Tories’ bone-headed opposition to clean energy, for which British families are paying the price. The choice at this general election is clear: higher bills and energy insecurity with the Conservatives, or lower bills and energy independence with Labour.
Keir Starmer to launch Great British energy pledges in Scotland
Keir Starmer is expected to warn that “family financial security depends on energy security” and accusing Tories of failing to make Britain resilient, as he launches the logo and website for Great British Energy at an event in Scotland with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Labour’s pledge to set up a publicly owned company to invest in domestic power sources – part of the party’s six-point “first steps” policy – aims to tackle the cost-of-living crisis by cutting energy bills.
Early investments by Great British Energy will include wind and solar projects across the UK, as well as making Scotland a world leader in new technologies.
Ahead of the launch Starmer said:
The pain and misery of the cost-of-living crisis was directly caused by the Tories’ failure to make Britain resilient, leaving us at the mercy of fossil fuel markets controlled by dictators like Putin.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Our clean power mission with Great British Energy will take back control of our destiny and invest in cheap, clean homegrown energy that we control.
We will turn the page on the cost-of-living crisis. The choice at this election is clear: higher bills and energy insecurity with the Conservatives, or lower bills and energy security with Labour.
The plan has also been endorsed by former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, who said: “The prize is huge, lower energy bills, good jobs, more innovative businesses, energy security and climate leadership.
“If we choose to go slowly, others will provide the answers and we will ultimately end up buying the solutions rather than selling them. Getting to a clean power system fast and with appropriate technologies is an investment, not simply a cost.”
Welcome and opening summary …
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of the general election campaign. Here are your headlines …
Labour’s treatment of Diane Abbott is having impact on voters, a senior lawyer has said
Angela Rayner has said she loves campaigning in an interview with Pippa Crerar
Outgoing Conservative MP Mark Logan defects to Labour in fresh blow to Rishi Sunak
The Tories have announced a new policy that people caught fly-tipping will get points on their driving licence
The Greens and Plaid Cymru have pledged to push Labour on climate, housing and poverty
Keir Starmer is campaigning in Scotland and holds a launch event this morning. Ed Davey is visiting south-west London and will do a media event this afternoon.
It is Martin Belam with you again today. I do try to read all your comments but if you want to get in touch with me then email is probably the best bet. You can reach me martin.belam@theguardian.com.
