Starmer claims voters being ‘conned’ by Tories and Reform UK as parties are planning a coalition – as it happened

Keir Starmer meets healthcare professionals during a visit to Rossendale Primary Health Care Centre. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

6.16pm BST

Early evening summary

• Pay rises for NHS staff and teachers must be paid from existing budgets, the Treasury has warned, setting up the potential for strike action.

• Keir Starmer has claimed that Conservative voters and Reform UK voters are both being “conned” because neither party is being honest about the prospect of the two parties merging. (See 1.55pm.)

• A teaching union has agreed to pay £78,000 in legal costs after being forced to withdraw its controversial appointment of Matt Wrack as general secretary.

• The daughter of the Conservative MP who was stabbed to death has called on the Irish-language rap group Kneecap to apologise over comments in which they allegedly called for politicians to be killed.

• Labour’s employment rights bill could substantially increase the party’s plunging popularity with Reform and former Conservative voters, but few are aware of the changes, new data by a pollster has suggested.

• Plaid Cymru has proposed a new Welsh Development Agency as part of its New Economic Plan for Wales. Launching it, the party’s economy spokesperson Luke Fletcher said: “Our plan will see wealth built, retained and recycled in our communities instead of it leaking, and in some cases flooding, out of Wales. It will grow and sustain Welsh owned businesses, delivering good jobs, reviving our own centres and boosting living standards.”

For a full list of all the stories covered here today, scroll through the key events timeline at the top of the blog.

Updated at 11.47am BST

6.02pm BST

Steve Akehurst, director of Persuasion UK, has a good thread on Bluesky giving more detail of the Getting to know ‘Reform curious Labour voters’ (see 5.52pm).