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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Martin Belam

Starmer has given in to the Labour left over Diane Abbott, says Sunak – as it happened

Sir Keir Starmer United Kingdom ​​Rishi Sunak Voter Angela Rayner NHS
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner. Photograph: Lucy North/PA

Summary of the day …

  • Rishi Sunak has accused Keir Starmer of giving in to Angela Rayner and the left of the Labour party over the selection of Diane Abbott as a Labour candidate, and told Conservative activists in Redcar that if Starmer became prime minister, he would give in to them in government

  • Keir Starmer has said he will lead from the centre ground if elected prime minister and declared wealth creation to be his “number one mission”. In an interview with the Times, Starmer said the centre ground was “where most people are at” and that “people don’t like the extremes of the right or the left”

  • The Conservatives have promised to give another 30 towns in the UK £20m each in levelling up funding over the next decade if they win the election. Sunak said the 30 would be added to the government’s long-term plan for towns, which is intended to pay for the regeneration of underfunded areas. Sunak, whose party has been in power for 14 years, denied it was an attempt to buy votes when asked, and said towns were “neglected” under the previous Labour government. Starmer said the Conservative campaign has been “shredding their economic credibility” with daily unfunded policy announcements

  • Labour announced a Back to Work plan, which aims to get 2 million more people into work. The initiative would include a combined national jobs and careers service, devolved funding and leadership from mayors to “get more people with health conditions and disabilities into work” and opportunities for 18- to 21-year-olds to access training and apprenticeships

  • Labour and the Conservatives launched a campaign battlebus each, with Sunak in Redcar and Starmer, Rayner and Rachel Reeves in Uxbridge. Starmer joked they needed to check Boris Johnson wasn’t hiding in the fridge of theirs as it visited the former prime minister’s old constituency

  • The Liberal Democrats are to call for the abolition of voter ID at polling stations, describing the policy as part of a “Tory war on the younger generation”. On a day when Ed Davey rested from campaigning to care for his son, the party also pledged to make some Premier League football games free-to-air on television, with former leader Tim Farron saying “the slide away from accessible football on our televisions over the last generation is an indicator of unfairness and injustice”

  • A Labour government would “lead to the devastation of employment” in the oil and gas industry in north-east Scotland, first minister John Swinney has said. He also urged people to take part in a “Scottish national service” by using the general election to vote Tory MPs out of office, saying those who had imposed Brexit and austerity on Scotland “deserve the democratic drubbing that is coming their way”

  • Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused the SNP of failing rural areas and claimed that Labour and the SNP had “very similar policies”

  • Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru, has said the Labour party has not appreciated the situation Vaughan Gething is in, as he faces a no-confidence vote in the Senedd next week. Speaking during a campaign visit to Ammanford in south Wales, he said voters are “absolutely” talking about Gething on the doorstep

  • Asylum seekers detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation to Rwanda are set to take legal action against the government after Sunak admitted that no flights will take place before the general election

  • Liz Truss has told her local newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press (EDP), that Tony Blair was a worse prime minister than her

Thank you for reading, and for all your comments earlier. I hope you get to enjoy the rest of your weekend. Yohannes Lowe will be here tomorrow, and I will be back with you on Monday. Andrew Sparrow returns on Tuesday. Take care.

Police are assessing a further complaint in relation to former Scottish health secretary Michael Matheson’s near £11,000 iPad roaming bill.

PA Media report a Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A complaint which had been received in November 2023 was assessed and no further action was taken. A further complaint has been received which is being assessed.”

Matheson has been banned from Holyrood for 27 days this week for incurring the bill on the parliamentary device when his children were using it as a hotspot to watch football while they were on holiday.

Today’s campaigning has been rather bus-heavy, with both the Conservatives and Labour launching a battlebus each. Rishi Sunak was in Redcar in north-east England, while Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves were in Uxbridge in London.

A Labour government would “lead to the devastation of employment” in the oil and gas industry in north-east Scotland, first minister John Swinney has said.

Speaking with media at the Grey Hope Bay cafe on the outskirts of Aberdeen, the SNP leader said:

I think the Labour party has got a real problem in the north east of Scotland because their policy programme will lead to the devastation of employment in the north east of Scotland through the proposals that they are bringing forward, which will have a significant and damaging impact on employment within the oil and gas sector.

And what I want to make sure of is that people understand the dangers of Labour’s plans and the damage that could be done to employment.

And, you know, we’ve got a commitment to manage to transition to net zero and that’s what the SNP will work with the oil and gas sector to deliver because we’ll need the oil and gas sector to contribute to our economy, but we will also ensure that there is the support that that sector can give, to enable the transition to renewables to be undertaken.

Swinney said windfall taxes, which he described as a “tax grab that is being perpetuated by the Conservative and Labour parties” were “having a real damaging effect on investment in the oil and gas sector.”

Lee Anderson, Reform UK’s only MP, has been campaigning in Ashfield, accompanied by Nigel Farage.

Earlier leader Richard Tice, who unlike Farage is standing for election, published a video in which he claimed whistleblowers had informed the party of what he called the “big university degree rip off” of international students, which Tice said was “a form of legal backdoor immigration”.

Tice is standing in Boston and Skegness constituency. The Brexit party did not put up a candidate in 2019, and in 2017 Ukip’s Paul Nuttall came a distant third in the constituency, with just 7.7% of the vote. However in 2015 Robin Hunter-Clarke only lost to Tory Matt Warman by just over 4,000 votes.

Plaid Cymru have been campaigning in Cardiff West, and their candidate Kiera Marshall has had an emoji dig at her Labour opponent Alex Barros-Curtis, who she says has been parachuted in to the constituency which was won for Labiour in 2019 by Kevin Brennan, who is standing down.

In the post she says “Cloudy skies means a bumpy landing for Keir’s 🪂 candidate in Cardiff West, but there is no stopping the Plaid Cymru campaign.”

John Swinney has posted to social media to say that his SNP campaigning today has taken in the constituencies of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Aberdeen South and Aberdeen North.

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru, has said the Labour party has not appreciated the situation Vaughan Gething is in, as he faces a no-confidence vote in the Senedd next week.

Speaking during a campaign visit to Ammanford in south Wales, he said voters are “absolutely” talking about Gething on the doorstep.

He said: “We have a very, very troubled first minister, it seems that Keir Starmer doesn’t appreciate the trouble that his leader in Wales is in. But it’s very clear to me from conversations on doorsteps, from emails I’ve received, from messages I’ve received, from just conversations on the street that people absolutely recognise that we have a leader, a first minister in Wales, that isn’t up to the high standards to which we should hold our political leaders.”

Ap Iorwerth continued: “The opposition parties haven’t got confidence in Vaughan Gething, more importantly than that, we’re clear that the people of Wales don’t have confidence in him. This one is down to Labour, if Labour members of the Senedd, and more importantly, Keir Starmer want to keep him in place, he will stay in place. It’s their call.”

All opposition parties in the Senedd have indicated that they will support the no-confidence motion, with a vote taking place on 5 June.

Liz Truss: Tony Blair was a worse prime minister than I was

Liz Truss has told her local newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press (EDP), that Tony Blair was a worse prime minister than her.

She said Blair, who won three general elections and who was in Downing Street for ten years and seven days more than she was, “created things like the Equality Act, the Human Rights Act and the Climate Change Act,” making him “the worst prime minister in recent years.”

In April she wrote for the Telegraph that Blair had trashed the UK constitution, telling its readers:

Until 2005, the Lord Chancellor held a special constitutional position not only as a Cabinet minister but also as the head of the judiciary and Speaker of the House of Lords. These were historic duties dating back to before Magna Carta. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 changed this by denuding the Lord Chancellor of much of this power. One of the justifications for this act of constitutional vandalism was a desire to fit in with the rights-based philosophy of continental Europe. These constitutional arrangements were tried, tested and successful for centuries. Hopefully, in time, the experience of the last couple of decades, following Blair’s trashing of our precious judicial system, will come to be seen as a temporary aberration.

In the EDP interview, published today, she also criticised the role of media, saying “The media tend to go for the politicians instead of asking ‘what the CEO of Natural England is doing? What’s the governor of the Bank of England doing?’ These people have a lot of power.”

She repeated in the EDP her claim that “unelected” establishment figures forced her out of power. Earlier this week, appearing on the Lotus Eaters podcast, which was founded by ex-Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin, Truss said “What we need to do is, we need to repeal the Human Rights Act. We need to abolish the supreme court. We also need to repeal the Equality Act. We also need to make the civil service more accountable. You also need to scrap the OBR.”

Benjamin sent a tweet to Labour’s Jess Phillips in 2016 saying “I wouldn’t even rape you.” He added to the comments in a subsequent video saying: “With enough pressure, I might cave, but let’s be honest nobody’s got that much beer”. Phillips has called on prime minister Rishi Sunak to take action against Truss for appearing on the podcast.

Truss left office after 49 days as prime minister, having been forced to sack her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after a disastrous mini-budget spooked the markets and forced his successor, Jeremy Hunt, to raise taxes.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has told a media briefing on Saturday morning that it was “emotional” to stand down from his Moray seat.

Ross claimed that a “lot of key seats” in the election were “a straight choice between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP” and claimed that Labour and the SNP had “very similar policies”.

PA Media report Ross said “I don’t think anyone can honestly say that the SNP, their remaining representatives in rural areas or the Government as a whole, have done enough for rural Scotland. The SNP have absolutely turned their backs on these areas. The SNP have failed rural and island communities, in particular with respect to health. The shortage of teachers across Scotland, again, is a more significant problem in rural communities than it is in urban ones in the central belt.”

Ross, who posed yesterday in Glasgow with an over-sized red card to “send off” three SNP first ministers, criticised the SNP’s “obsession” with independence, adding “people can see their focus is not on the issues that really matter”.

Rishi Sunak has been asked by PA why his campaign events appear to have a focus on seats that were won by the Conservatives in 2019, rather than going in to areas held by opposition parties.

Sunak said “Well, I’m going right across the country. We’re just over a week into this. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, across England. And I’m just trying to talk to as many people as I can.”

He was also inexplicably asked by the Sunday Times which Taylor Swift song “best describes (his) current position in the polls”, to which Sunak said “my encyclopaedic knowledge of Taylor Swift is probably not sufficient to deal with that.”

Rishi Sunak had an awkward encounter earlier this week with 16-year-old singer-songwriter Henry Hassell, who asked the prime minister why he “hates young people so much” in a Devon pub.

A clip of the moment went viral on TikTok, and Hassell has now been interviewed about it.

He said of Sunak’s national service announcement: “Obviously there’s been a lot of negative reactions to that from people my age, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask Rishi Sunak himself why he was doing it and to be honest, why he hated young people so much.”

Hassell asked the prime minister “I’ve volunteered all my life, why do I have to do it all again when I’m finally coming out of education?” to which Sunak replied “I wouldn’t view it like that. A culture of service is a good thing for our country”

Of Sunak’s response, Hassell added: “I thought he was trying to escape the question”. At the time he said to Sunak “You’re waffling.”

Rishi Sunak, in questions from broadcasters, was also critical of plans announced by Labour to increase the percentage of people employed from 75% to 80%.

The prime minister told broadcasters “They might say a lot of things but the question is, ‘what are they actually going to do when it comes to people’s standard of living?’

“They’re not going to help anyone build any wealth or have security in retirement. When it comes to getting people back to work, I set out a few weeks ago the most comprehensive set of reforms to our welfare system in an incredibly long time to get people off welfare and into work. And you know what, the Labour party criticised me for those plans, didn’t support any of those plans.”

Labour this morning announced a Back to Work plan, which aims to get 2 million more people into work. The initiative would include a combined national jobs and careers service, devolved funding and leadership from mayors to “get more people with health conditions and disabilities into work” and opportunities for 18- to 21-year-olds to access training and apprenticeships.

In a statement, Starmer said: “With Labour, those who can work, will work. We want more people into work, to get on at work and to get the benefits bill down. Under the Tories, there are too many people who are not in work, who should be.

“Too many people stuck in jobs with no promise of earning a better income. Young people who are yet to experience work, at risk of falling off the radar. We can’t go on like this. It’s time for change.”

With the whole D:Ream saga going on, PA noted that the songs played at the Conservatives battlebus launch were “a soundtrack of indie and pop from the 2000s and 2010s” including Mr Brightside by the Killers and Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People.

Speaking in Redcar, Rishi Sunak has defended his announcement of a promise of new levelling up cash for 30 towns across the UK, saying it was “on top of the 70 towns that have been announced.”

He denied a question from broadcasters that it was just an attempt to buy votes, saying:

100 towns across our country that are going to receive £2m each. Crucially, it will be local people in all those areas that are in charge of how to spend that money, to make sure it’s spent and invested on their priorities – an example of us levelling up everywhere, backing local people and their priorities, and giving them the long-term funding and assurance to do so. I’m not going to make any apology for supporting towns.

Sunak, who party have been in power for 14 years, said towns were “neglected” under the previous Labour government.

Sunak: Starmer has given in to Angela Rayner and the left of the Labour party over Diane Abbott selection row

Rishi Sunak has accused Keir Starmer of giving in to Angela Rayner and the left of the Labour party over the selection of Diane Abbott as a Labour candidate, and told Conservative activists in Redcar that if Starmer became prime minister, he would give in to to them in government.

Speaking as the Conservative party launched its election battlebus in Redcar in England, the prime minister said Starmer didn’t stand for anything, and that “if he was happy to abandon every promise that he made to become Labour leader as soon as he got that job, what makes you think that he wouldn’t do exactly the same thing all over again if he became prime minister?”

Sunak said:

Just see what’s happened over this Diane Abbott situation, right. And it confirms what we know about him. It’s that he doesn’t stick by anything he says. Just constantly changes his mind.

And it’s clear that Angela Rayner is in charge of the Labour party, and not him at the end of the day. And if he’s given into her and the left on that, imagine what he’ll give in to when it comes to higher taxes, the unions’ demands, or weakening our defence and security.

“If he doesn’t stand for anything himself, how can he stand up for all of you?” Sunak asked.

Asked again about the selection of Diane Abbott while campaigning in Uxbridge this morning, Starmer refused to be drawn further on the issue, saying “I dealt with that issue yesterday.”

Yesterday the Conservatives used an image of Rayner on her phone in a social media attack on the Labour party over the Diane Abbott row.

Sunak launches Conservative battlebus with speech in Redcar

Rishi Sunak’s speech touched on the same themes he was been campaigning on all week, and used several phrases and passages that we have heard at events already.

He spoke specifically about how Russia, Iran, North Korea and China were hostile powers “acting in a way that’s threatening our values and our interests abroad and at home”. He said across Europe that the “penny has dropped” that the Conservatives’ plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was the right approach, and said “We’re the ones taking bold action, getting the planes off to Rwanda, establishing that deterrent, so that people know that if they come here illegally, they can’t stay.”

He said that Labour would, by contrast, make the UK “a soft touch of Europe when it comes to asylum seekers.”

He again criticised Keir Starmer for wanting people to believe “this election is over before it’s even started” and “the result is a foregone conclusion”, again saying “I’m gonna work my socks off every day of this campaign, talk to as many people as I can, earn the trust of the public.”

The Guardian’s aggregate poll tracker at the moment puts voting intention for Labour on 44.7%, 20.7% ahead of the Tories.

He contrasted the announcements that Conservatives were making on national service, the pension triple lock plus and 100,000 new apprenticeships with the fact, he claimed, “we’ve heard nothing from Keir Starmer, and the Labour party. Not a single new idea about what they would do in the future.”

The Conservatives have previously published a 24 page booklet which they said were costings by Treasury officials of Labour policy promises.

Sunak ends his stump speech by saying:

We’re working for a Britain where we have a renewed sense of confidence in our communities, a pride in our country. A Britain where your hard work, everyone’s hard work, is rewarded. Where the opportunities that were there for the previous generation are there for the next. And a Britain, where above all, your safety, our security is assured. That’s the secure future that we’re fighting for this election.

The Conservative bus has got “Clear plan, bold action, secure future” emblazoned on it. Rishi Sunak finishes his speech by saying “let’s go out there and smash it!” to activists.

Rishi Sunak is currently talking at an event to launch the Conservative battlebus. I will bring you the key lines that emerge, but it appears to me to be exactly the same stump speech he has delivered several times already this week.

Regular readers will know that I always enjoy managing to shoehorn some football into a politics live blog, and the Liberal Democrats have obliged me today, by announcing a new manifesto pledge for 10 Premier League games a season available to watch on free-to-air TV.

Speaking on Sky News, former leader Tim Farron immediately conceded it was “the most important of unimportant things” and that football was not “the be-all and end-all”, but he explained:

If you have a comprehensive manifesto, you also cover these issues. I think the slide away from accessible football on our televisions over the last generation is an indicator of unfairness and injustice. And I think government’s job is to act as referee and to bring these things to an end, and bring football back to the people. It’s not the most important thing, I grant you, but it’s not unimportant.

In a statement announcing the pledge, leader Ed Davey accused broadcasters and Premier League clubs of being “money-grabbing” and said “The Conservative government has completely failed football fans, from breaking their promise to create a football regulator, to allowing greedy broadcasters to hide Premier League football away from millions.”

Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has been campaigning in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine this morning.

Keir Starmer did take some questions from the media after that event, with the lines dropping on the wires so far that he was asked about Diane Abbott and concerns among Black voters that the row might have caused.

Starmer said “I dealt with that issue yesterday. Today is about taking our argument to the country and getting people back to work. Let me give my message to voters, because I think this is very, very important, which is if you want change, the power is with you. You have to vote for change.”

LBC asked Starmer about the pressing issue of D:Ream saying Labour shouldn’t use their song Things Can Only Get Better and that they regret allowing Tony Blair to have used it. “Well, look, we’re not in 1997. We’re in 2024,” said Starmer, adding “The choice before the country is absolutely stark. We’ve had now 14 years of chaos and division. And if the Tories get back in there’s just going to be more of the same.

“We can turn the page, we can start anew rebuild our country with Labour. And we will have a song for that moment if we’re privileged enough to come in to serve.”

PA Media have a couple of key facts about Labour’s battlebus, which is going to start a 5,000 mile tour of the country.

Starting in Uxbridge, where Keir Starmer once suggested that London’s expanded ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) cost it a byelection victory, PA notes the bus is Ulez compliant. Someone has also counted up that it says “Change” on the side 15 times.

Of the planned tour, Angela Rayner said she had been “looking forward to this day”, adding “I’m going to really enjoy being out and about up and down the country on our bus. We want to send a message to the people of this country - we are a changed Labour party, in the service of working people. And we will never ride high and roughshod on the economy.”

Ed Davey has made the most of some photo opportunities this week as a way to attract attention to the Liberal Democrats and their policies, but he has posted a message to social media to point out that he won’t be out campaigning today.

In the message, the Liberal Democrat leader said:

This weekend I get to do the most joyful and important thing I do: being a dad. Together, Emily and I care for our wonderful son John, who has severe physical and learning disabilities.

Carers – paid and unpaid – are the lifeblood of our NHS and our economy. The work they do is undervalued and underappreciated. I’m looking forward to putting them front and centre of the Liberal Democrats campaign next week.

Davey added in a further message “I’ve loved every minute of this election campaign so far – meeting people across our United Kingdom and hearing directly about their hopes for the future and their strong desire for change.”

Keir Starmer appeared in good spirits at this event and attempted a couple of jokes.

Standing beside the red Labour bus with “Change” written down the side, he joked that buses were like Tory defectors, saying “You wait for ages and then three come along in a row.”

In recent weeks the Labour party has welcomed former Tory MPs Dan Poulter and Natalie Elphicke, and this week Mark Logan, who represented Bolton North East, joined them. All three former MPs are stepping down at this election.

Starmer then moved on to say of the bus that “I’m reliably told it has got a fridge in the back of it. So check that Boris Johnson isn’t in there. He used to be around these parts.”

The former prime minister famously ended up hiding inside a fridge during the 2019 election campaign to avoid an interview. The Labour battlebus was being launched in Uxbridge, where Johnson used to be an MP. Angela Rayner will be using it to tour the country.

Starmer: Tories 'shredding their economic credibility' during election campaign

Keir Starmer has said that the Conservative campaign has been “shredding their economic credibility” with daily unfunded policy announcements.

Starmer said “They are saying today about some levelling up. I remember them saying that five years ago. Have they done it? No. I don’t think they’ll do it now.

“They say in politics the worst thing you can do is prey on people’s fears. What they’re doing with this is preying on people’s hopes, their hope that things will level up after non-delivery.

“What they’ve done today with this is another unfunded commitment. There’s one a day. They’re using the same money that last week they said was going to pay for a teenage Dad’s Army. They are shredding their economic credibility. The Tories cannot be trusted with the finances of the country.”

He added “We need Rachel [Reeves]. We need a stable economy. And we need to give working people the foundation that they need for the life that they want to build.”

On the subject of the NHS, Starmer said “When Labour left office we had the lowest waiting list and the highest satisfaction in the NHS. They’ve turned that completely on its head. So now we have the highest ever waiting list, and the lowest ever satisfaction. I don’t care what political party you support. If you leave our NHS worse than when you found it in government, you don’t deserve one day more in government.”

“They’re not going to change,” he said. “They’ve already failed. They’ll fail again. And it will be costing every single person in this country.”

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves spoke next. She said “I will never play fast and loose with the public finances in the way that the Conservatives have. Because when you do that, you put family finances at peril. And that is why we will bring stability back to our economy.”

She said Labour would “power up Britain … so that our economy can fulfil its potential so that everyone can contribute wherever you live.”

Angela Rayner has said she is looking forward to being on the campaign bus, and promised to bombard Keir Starmer with pictures from every stop. She said:

This is what this general election is about. It is about putting the country first, about giving people that hope and opportunity that 14 years of the Tories have taken away. They’ve crashed the economy. Nothing works any more. People can’t get appointments for their GP. People waiting on the hospital NHS waiting lists. We’ve got to turn the page, we’ve got to change this country, and on 4 July we can make that change happen together.

Danny Beales, the Labour candidate for Uxbridge & South Ruislip has opened this event in London for the party, and introduced Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.

He said when he spoke on the doorstep to people they were “terrified about the next bill coming through the door, worried about rising waiting lists, the state of the local hospital after 14 years of no progress under the Conservatives, terrified about what the future holds for their children, and whether they’ll ever get on the property ladder.”

Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves will shortly be launching Labour’s campaign bus. You can watch the event here.

Swinney: Tories 'deserve the democratic drubbing coming their way' for imposing Brexit and austerity on Scotland

SNP leader John Swinney has urged people to take part in a “Scottish national service” by using the general election to vote Tory MPs out of office, PA Media reports.

Scotland’s first minister said his party could “remove the remaining rump of Tory MPs”.

Swinney said they had been “cheerleaders for a Westminster government which has imposed austerity, Brexit and a cost-of-living crisis on Scottish communities”.

He added “Every Scottish Tory MP who, at the last general election, backed Boris [Johnson] and backed Brexit must now face the consequences for the damage their political choices have caused. They deserve the democratic drubbing that is coming their way.”

The Green party of England and Wales has issued a fundraising message this morning, as it seeks to achieve its target of getting four MPs elected.

Co-leader Carla Denyer said the party had already raised a third of the £400,000 it was seeking, but contrasted it with the “tens of millions” that the Conservatives and Labour were spending in what she said was “the most expensive election campaign” in UK history.

She said the party wanted its campaign “to remind voters that there is an alternative to the Sunak v Starmer show”.

The four constituencies that the Greens have as their targets are:

  • Brighton Pavilion – Siân Berry

  • Bristol Central – Carla Denyer

  • North Herefordshire – Ellie Chowns

  • Waveney Valley – Adrian Ramsay

Lorna Slater, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, has backed the introduction of low emission zones (LEZs) in three major Scottish cities.

PA Media reports she said “There is no such thing as a safe level of air pollution, and LEZs have a key role to play in delivering cleaner, greener and safer cities. If we are to have liveable and clean cities then we need to reduce the numbers of cars on our roads, and LEZs are a big step towards doing that.

“It has taken a lot of work by a lot of people to get here, but these zones will save lives, and have a positive impact that will be felt for years to come.”

Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen have introduced the regulations in the city centres this week, one year after Glasgow did the same.

The Scottish Green have reacted angrily to the fact that they have been excluded from STV’s Monday night election debate, which will only feature representatives from the SNP, Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, despite the Scottish Greens being the fourth largest party at Holyrood.

The centrepiece of Labour’s campaign message today is its “Back to Work plan”. The party is announcing that it intends to target an increase in the employment rate from 75 per cent to 80 per cent, which it says would be the highest in the G7.

Keir Starmer said “With Labour, those who can work, will work. We want more people into work, to get on at work and to get the benefits bill down. Under the Tories, there are too many people who are not in work, who should be. Too many people stuck in jobs with no promise of earning a better income. Young people who are yet to experience work, at risk of falling off the radar. We can’t go on like this. It’s time for change.”

Saying that the country needed to get a grip on what he described as “the spiralling welfare bill” he said “We will set about, within days of a future government, reforming work support to get more people into work.”

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the policies “includes a youth guarantee that will mean training, an apprenticeship or help to work for all 18- 21 year olds.”

She added there will also be “New local plans, supported by Mayors across the country, to get people from economic inactivity and into work. And a national jobs and careers service to help people not only get into work but get on at work.”

Starmer: 'wealth creation' is 'number one mission'

In another section of his interview with the Times, Keir Starmer has said that “you could say our number one mission is wealth creation,” saying “It’s the only way our country can go forward and we should nourish and encourage that. Not just individuals but businesses.”

Confirming that Labour will stick to Conservative plans to freeze income tax thresholds until 2028, a move which is expected to drag millions of people into paying income tax for the first time, Starmer said “We’re going to keep the decision as it is because we cannot afford to do otherwise.”

He said he had told his team “there are good Labour things that we won’t be able to do as quickly as we would like” and an emphasis will be on public service reform rather than simply increasing public spending.

He gave job centres as an example, saying “I think the government has turned the DWP and job centres into places where they administer the rules on benefits rather than get people back to work”, and promising that a national careers service offering advice and free training courses would be embedded in them.

Who Targets Me have picked up an interesting new Facebook advert from the Conservatives, which they suggest “appears to be leaning into Davos/WEF/Great Reset conspiracy theories” by asking whether Keir Starmer prefers Davos or Westminster.

It is a somewhat disingenuous line, as while Rishi Sunak himself has not been seen at the Davos World Economic Forum gathering over the last couple of years, Kemi Badenoch and Grant Shapps were there in 2023, and in January this year the government sent Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron, and was happily issuing press releases about what they would achieve there for the UK.

Sunak to campaign in northern England with promise of extra cash for 30 more towns in UK

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has pledged cash to 30 more towns as part of a bid to try to capitalise on the party’s levelling up agenda.

Tamworth, Preston, Corby, Halifax, Bognor Regis, Newtown, Flint, Perth and Newry would be among the places to benefit.

PA Media reports Sunak said: “We, the Conservatives, have a plan for towns because we know they are the beating heart of our country. This bold action will transform 30 more towns – reviving their high streets, growing their local economies and making people feel proud of the place they call home.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has described the Tories levelling up agenda as “a scam and a sham”. She said “For 14 years the Tories have failed to do what they promised and held back Britain’s potential. Levelling up was a phoney gimmick which has now been abandoned to fund mandatory national service. It was a scam and a sham, and we should call it what it is.”

Keir Starmer has said that his wife’s work gives him a greater insight into the NHS. He told the Times his wife Victoria will continue to work in occupational health if Starmer becomes prime minister, saying “She’s absolutely going to carry on working, she wants to and she loves it. It’s also good for me because it gives me an insight into the NHS.”

Starmer also said the election had come at an unfortunate time for one of his children, who is in the middle of his GCSEs. He said the Labour team had been preparing for an election for four-and-a-half years, and were “buzzing” when it was called, but on the exam front “At the moment I just want to create the environment where he can get on with what he’s got to get on with as untroubled as he can be.”

Starmer: 'I think you win from the centre ground' because people don't like 'extremes of right or left'

In an interview in the Times, Keir Starmer has said he believes that elections are won from the “centre ground”, because that is where most people in the country are.

He told the newspaper “I think you win from the centre ground, the centre ground is where most people are. As a nation, broadly speaking we’re a pretty reasonable, tolerant bunch but we are in the centre ground of politics. People don’t like the extremes of the right or the left. They are reasonably tolerant. They want themselves, their families and the country to improve and make progress.”

Stressing his message that he has changed the Labour party, he said you did not have to be a lifelong Labour supporter to be part of his mission. He said “One of the invitations we’ve thrown out is to say we want a decade of national renewal. The national bit is really important to people. This isn’t a tribal Labour. You don’t have to be a lifelong Labour supporter and voter to want to have a decade of national renewal. Very many Tories would want it. I want it to be wide enough to accommodate people who wouldn’t identify as Labour. They’d vote Labour this time.”

Starmer told the Times that he wanted “politics that treads a little lighter on all our lives”, saying many politicians had become “too self-entitled”. He said “There would be a mindset shift if we are privileged enough to come and serve.”

He said he believed Labour needed to pass a test in the eyes of voters on whether it could trusted primarily on the economy and on security.

Welcome and opening summary …

Good morning! It may be the weekend, but a general election campaign never sleeps, and we will bring you the latest developments as they unfold today. Here are your headlines …

  • Rishi Sunak is heading to north-east England today after a scratchy start to his campaign

  • Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves will be launching a battle bus in London. He maybe could have done with that yesterday to avoid awkward headlines about private jets

  • Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney will be visiting Eastbourne, while Scotland’s first minister John Swinney will be in Aberdeen with Stephen Flynn

  • D:Ream have said they won’t let Labour use their anthem Things Can Only Get Better

It is Martin Belam here today for the next few hours. I always try to read all of your comments, but if you want to get my attention then email is usually the best way – martin.belam@theguardian.com.

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