Closing summary
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting urged voters not to give “matches back to the arsonist to finish the job”, as he suggested a Conservative election victory would be a “nightmare on Downing Street”. The Labour frontbencher warned against “breathtaking complacency” over opinion polls predicting a victory for Keir Starmer’s party at the general election. The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said Labour will have a “blank cheque” if they win the 4 July general election with a large majority.
Wes Streeting failed to rule out an overhaul of the council tax system if Labour win next month’s election and said his party wanted to do more in power than it had promised in its manifesto. The shadow health secretary told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg none of his party’s manifesto pledges required a rise in council tax. But pushed by the presenter to rule out the country’s first revaluation since 1991, he refused to do so.
Polling expert Prof John Curtice said support for the Conservative party is now at its lowest ever in British polling history. “Every poll has reported a fall in Conservative support and nearly all the narrowing of the Conservative lead over Reform,” he told the BBC. “So, what last week was an average eight point Conservative lead over Reform has now halved to just four points – and standing at just 20%, Conservative support is now at its lowest ever in British polling history.” His comments came after the latest Opinium poll for the Observer showed a shift away from the main parties.
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth accepted that the 4 July poll “isn’t an independence election”, while in Scotland, SNP leader John Swinney accused the Tories and Labour of threatening the NHS. Analysis by the Nuffield Trust thinktank suggested both Labour and Tory pledges on the NHS would leave the health service with lower annual funding increases – at 1.1% and 0.9% respectively – than during the austerity era.
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Updated
Douglas Ross’s decision to stand to be an MP has left a “bad taste” in the north-east Scotland constituency where he is running, first minister John Swinney has said.
The Scottish Conservative leader put himself forward as candidate for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East after David Duguid was told by the party’s management board that he could not stand due to his ill-health.
Ross said he would step down as leader shortly afterwards, when his colleagues expressed unhappiness at the move.
Boundary changes mean that Aberdeenshire North and Moray East is being contested for the first time, but most of the constituency was in Banff and Buchan, previously represented by Duguid.
Duguid has been in rehab after a serious spinal injury but had believed he was sufficiently recovered to stand and had been adopted by his local party – before they were overruled by the Scottish Tory management board, of which Ross is a member.
While campaigning in Keith, Moray, alongside SNP candidate Seamus Logan on Sunday, Swinney told the PA news agency:
Aberdeenshire North and Moray East is a key seat for the Scottish National Party.
It’s obviously the seat where the sitting Conservative MP has been ousted by Douglas Ross and I think that leaves a really bad taste in the mouths of people in this constituency.
I’m keen to make sure that people elect Seamus Logan as a strong advocate of this community for the SNP- who will go to the House of Commons and put the interests of Scotland first.
