A summary of today's developments
Former Conservative Party donor and voter John Caudwell has announced he is voting for the Labour Party. Caudwell, who founded Phones4U, was one of the biggest donors to the Tories ahead of the 2019 general election, donating £500,000 to Boris Johnson’s campaign.
Labour would “reset devolution” in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader said. Speaking at the launch of Scottish Labour’s election manifesto, he said Labour would take devolution back to its founding principles with a “turbo-charged Scotland Office”. Sarwar also pledged not to raise income tax if he becomes first minister.
Labour is heading for a landslide win in the election, according to a new projection, but more than 100 Conservative-held seats appear to be on a knife-edge with the results in the hands of millions of undecided or swing voters, according to the MRP poll by Ipsos.
Keir Starmer said he is “concerned” about the impact of the law introduced by the Conservatives requiring people to produce photo ID to be allowed to vote in general elections. Labour has not committed to repeal the law, but Starmer confirmed that his party will review how it operates if it wins the election.
The BBC will allow Reform UK to take part in an extra Question Time leaders’ special on Thursday after Nigel Farage complained about being excluded from the programme.
Rishi Sunak said that interventions by Boris Johnson in the election campaign could “make a difference” for the Tories. Asked about reports that the Conservatives plan to distribute tens of thousands of letters signed by the former PM, Sunak said: “It’s great that Boris is supporting the Conservative party, I very much welcome that.”
Former Conservative party donor and voter John Caudwell has announced he is voting for the Labour Party.
Caudwell, who founded Phones4U, was one of the biggest donors to the Conservative party ahead of the 2019 general election, donating £500,000 to Boris Johnson’s campaign.
He said: “For many years now I have been rather despairing about the performance of the party that I have supported for the last 51 years: the Tories.
“Only five years ago, I donated half a million to the Conservatives to help avert the disaster that would have been Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.
“But I’ve been increasingly critical of Tory failures since then, particularly over Rishi’s mismanagement of the economy during Covid, Boris’ lowering of ethical standards – and, of course, associated with that the accusation that Tory cronies benefited improperly regarding Covid PPE – and then the Liz Truss debacle.
“Over the last two years especially, I have been amazed by how Keir Starmer has transformed the Labour party and brought it back from that Corbyn brink.”
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