Closing summary
Conservative rightwingers are planning to present Rishi Sunak with demands for tougher action on immigration and human rights law ahead of the election if the prime minister’s manifesto promises on Tuesday fall flat. Prominent party figures including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are said by Tory insiders to be among those waiting to see how their manifesto is received by the public before they act. In the event Sunak’s launch fails to shift the dial on Tories floundering election campaign, one option under discussion is a press conference next week to set out a series of alternative pledges.
Rishi Sunak has repeated his apology for his “mistake” of returning early from last week’s D-Day commemorations in Normandy. Speaking to the BBC as part of its Panorama interviews with Nick Robinson, Sunak said: “Well, the last thing that I wanted to do was cause anyone any hurt or offence or upset, which is why I apologised unreservedly for the mistake that I made.”
Sunak was also challenged about criticism from Nigel Farage and whether the Reform UK leader is more Conservative than him. The prime minister replied to BBC Panorama: “So the choice for everybody, there’s only going to be one of two people who’s prime minister, Keir Starmer or myself. A vote for anyone who’s not a Conservative candidate is just making it more likely that Keir Starmer is that person.”
Labour has been accused of leaving a gap in its childcare plans after the party confirmed its promise to offer 100,000 new childcare places would not involve extra funding to recruit more staff. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, appeared at a primary school in Nuneaton on Monday alongside the shadow education secretary to publicise the party’s pledge to expand childcare places through primary schools.
Rishi Sunak has acknowledged it has become harder for people to own their first home under the Conservatives. Speaking to the BBC as part of its Panorama interviews with Nick Robinson, Sunak said: “It has got harder and I want to make sure that it’s easier and what we will do is not just build homes in the right places and do that in a way that is sensitive to local communities, but make sure that we support young people in to great jobs so they can save for that deposit. I’m going to go back to tax, because it is important...”
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has responsed to Rishi Sunak’s admission that under a Conservative government it has “got harder” to own your own home. Rayner, who is also her party’s shadow housing secretary, said Sunak’s admission (see post 6.29pm) is a “damning indictment of 14 years of housing failure” and called home ownership a “pipedream” for young people.
The Liberal Democrats have become the first of the big parties to launch their election manifesto, with a pitch to voters based on boosting the NHS and social care. They also said that – unlike those of Labour and the Tories – their plans were fully costed. Speaking at a glitzy launch event in north London, the party’s leader, Ed Davey, told voters that electing enough Lib Dem MPs would bring “a strong liberal voice pushing for these policies” and could make a notable difference even with an expected Labour majority.
Reform UK has defended one of its candidates who said Britain should have “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality”, saying the comments were “probably true”. The row prompted the Conservatives to directly criticise Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle, who was reported to have written on a website’s comment section: “Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people.”
Reform UK has moved to head off its first split since Nigel Farage returned as leader, insisting he was “giving a personal view” when he backed two Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidates in a move that angered a smaller unionist party his party has officially allied with. The comments by Farage on Monday that he was backing Ian Paisley Junior and Sammy Wilson provoked a critical response from the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader, Jim Allister. “TUV entered an electoral arrangement with Reform UK in good faith. We have kept faith with that agreement. The comments by Mr Farage today are, of course, disappointing and not compatible with the content of a conversation I had with him last week,” said Allister.
Three Conservative candidates in key seats have previously backed other parties, it can be revealed, including criticising the Conservatives’ “inaction, delay and bluster” and posting the hashtag #NeverTrustATory. Two are former candidates for the Brexit party standing in seats previously held by the Conservatives – against the Reform defector Lee Anderson in Ashfield and in North West Leicestershire, where the former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen was suspended from the party. The third candidate in Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley is contesting Labour’s Yvette Cooper’s seat, where the Conservatives came within 1,276 votes.
George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor who now co-hosts the Political Currency podcast with Ed Balls, has claimed the Conservative party is short of money. Speaking on the latest edition of the podcast, he said: “The truth is they are short of money, shorter than they thought. They’re behind their targets, a couple of million pounds behind where they thought they would be. And that’s partly, of course, the early election caught the treasurer’s department by surprise as well.”
Rishi Sunak’s plans to make 18-year-olds take part in a form of national service will cost double the £2.5bn price tag, Labour have claimed, citing military experts. The party launched a pre-emptive strike on the eve of the release of the Conservative manifesto (see 4.21pm), claiming that the Tories’ expected tax and spending promises cannot deliver the savings linked to them.
The home secretary has told Times Radio that he wouldn’t “embrace” Nigel Farage joining the Conservatives. Asked about Nigel Farage saying Rishi Sunak “doesn’t understand our culture” by leaving D-Day commemorations early, James Cleverly said: “I disregard much of what Nigel says. He’s a showman. He likes getting attention. He does things and says things. So broadcasters like you ask serious politicians like me questions like this and the bottom line is I’m not going to play Nigel’s game. He does these things to get attention. And just like a spoiled child, I don’t think he should be rewarded for doing so.”
That’s all from the UK politics live blog today. Thanks for following along.
Tory right plans to present Sunak with set of demands if manifesto falls flat
Conservative rightwingers are planning to present Rishi Sunak with demands for tougher action on immigration and human rights law ahead of the election if the prime minister’s manifesto promises on Tuesday fall flat.
Prominent party figures including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are said by Tory insiders to be among those waiting to see how their manifesto is received by the public before they act.
In the event Sunak’s launch fails to shift the dial on Tories floundering election campaign, one option under discussion is a press conference next week to set out a series of alternative pledges.
They are hoping to capitalise on an already weakened Sunak who was forced to vow to fight on until the last day of the campaign after a torrid weekend in which he was criticised for missing part of the D-day commemorations.
On the campaign trail in West Sussex on Monday, the prime minister said he believed he could still win back voters and he did not accept that the election result was a foregone conclusion.
Asked if he had considered quitting, Sunak said “of course not” and said he was energised by the campaign, after ministers were forced to insist that he would not be replaced as leader during the course of the campaign.
In the run-up to the publication of the Tory manifesto, MPs on the right of the party launched a last-ditch attempt to toughen up the position on the UK’s membership in the European convention of human rights.
