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A new poll suggests disaster ahead for Rishi Sunak, with the Tories on track to win just 72 seats in the next election.
A Survation poll for Best for Britain, published by The Sunday Times, predicted that Labour would win as many as 456 seats, which would far surpass Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.
Meanwhile, Labour and Nigel Farage have accused the Tories of a ‘con’ over plans to send more migrants to Rwanda during the election campaign.
The Independent understands plans are in place to fly a person from Nigeria and another from Pakistan, who are in the UK illegally, to the East African country before the election on 4 July. But much like the first person who was sent in April, it is a voluntary move and so not an enforced deportation.
Mr Farage this week claimed Reform UK is the “new opposition” following a YouGov poll that put his party ahead of the Conservatives for the first time.
Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said Mr Farage is “incredibly divisive” and trying to “destroy” the Conservative Party.
Key Points
- Two polls spell out disaster for Rishi Sunak
- Labour ‘will negotiate’ with junior doctors
- Labour leader is prepared to make ‘enemies’ to grow economy
- Starmer: I have a ‘bold’ plan for growth
- Labour leader denies changes in Labour’s manifesto ‘very small’ in Panorama grilling
- Farage challenges Starmer to face off on head to head debate
Former subpostmaster criticises ‘buffoonery’ of Sir Ed Davey campaign
A former subpostmaster who lost his livelihood in the Horizon scandal has accused Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey of “buffoonery” for his stunt-laden election campaign.
Lee Castleton compared Sir Ed’s actions to those of former Tory prime minister Boris Johnson, adding trust is “never going to be built” by “paddleboarding in Cumbria”.
Sir Ed has come under fire for not doing more to help wrongly-convicted subpostmasters between 2010 and 2012 when he served as postal affairs minister in the coalition government.
He has previously apologised for failing to see through the Post Office’s “lies” and insisted he is taking voters’ concerns seriously during a campaign in which he has visited a theme park and also sped down the Ultimate Slip n Slide near Frome, Somerset.
Mr Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was found to have a £25,000 shortfall at his branch in 2004 and was made bankrupt after he lost his legal battle with the Post Office.
He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning With Laura Kuenssberg: “I don’t particularly like the buffoonery, I find it very Boris-esque and I don’t think there’s any need for it.
“It’s really, really, really important that we trust him and trust is never going to be built by swinging around on ropes or paddleboarding in Cumbria.
“Trust is about engaging with the people that need that engagement.”
Holly Evans16 June 2024 12:58 1718537076UUP leader says no Westminster seats will be a failure but vows not to quit
Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has said it would be a “personal failure” if his party does not return to Westminster following the General Election.
However, he insisted he would not walk away from the leadership if the UUP fails to win any seats.
Mr Beattie said his party is “in the hunt” in five constituencies across Northern Ireland.
In an interview, Mr Beattie also hit out at the “incredible” personal abuse he receives from other unionists.
He pointed to the hostile political environment as a reason why his party has been unable to persuade more women to run as candidates in the election.
The Army veteran has been party leader for three years.
Actor Brian Cox says Brexit is ‘the demon we don’t talk about'
Actor Brian Cox has said he is “worried” that the Scottish National Party (SNP) will not make securing an independence referendum a clear goal of the General Election.
The 78-year-old Succession star has been very vocal about his support for Scotland breaking off from the UK and in his criticism of Brexit.
He referred to the referendum in which Scotland voted to stay in Europe while the majority of the UK voted to leave.
Cox also said his “main thing is… still the demon that we don’t talk about, which is Brexit” before citing economic figures.
He added: “It seems to me that we are still suffering from that, and we’ve not done anything about it.
“So when we talk about other things, we can’t really talk in terms of where we are because we are suffering from Brexit.”
Holly Evans16 June 2024 12:05 1718534726Wes Streeting says nothing to be 'achieved' by junior doctors strike action ahead of election
Are there any seats where the big three parties are not standing?
Yes. By tradition, none of the three main parties – the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – is putting up a candidate against the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, in his constituency of Chorley in Lancashire.
And there will be no Conservative on the ballot paper in Rotherham in South Yorkshire, due to a last-minute withdrawal by the candidate.
It is the first time since 1945 that there has not been a Tory candidate contesting this seat at a general election.
No Liberal Democrat candidate will appear on the ballot in Manchester Rusholme, due to an invalid nomination paper.
Every other seat in England, Scotland and Wales has a candidate for the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems.
Streeting warns against complacency and giving ‘matches back to the arsonist’
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has 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 Sir Keir Starmer’s party at the General Election.
Polls have continued to heap pressure on Rishi Sunak and underline why the Tories have shifted strategy to warn would-be Reform UK voters not to risk handing Labour a landslide win.
Cabinet minister Mark Harper insisted the Conservatives are “fighting to win this election” as he repeated the Prime Minister’s warning that a vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK would give Labour “a very large majority” and a “blank cheque” in office.
It came after analysis and modelling by Survation put Labour on course for a 262-seat majority with the Tories reduced to a rump of just 72 MPs and Reform potentially picking up seven seats.
Holly Evans16 June 2024 11:05 1718531126‘I am the original Brexiteer’ - Rishi Sunak hits back at Nigel Farage challenge
Rishi Sunak has insisted he is the original Brexiteer and boasted of the Tories’ record on international trade since the UK left the European Union.
With polls predicting a Tory defeat in the election, and with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK attracting Leave voters, under-fire Sunak maintains it is the Conservatives who have delivered “Brexit freedoms”.
“As was said in last week’s debate by [Sky News presenter] Beth Rigby, I am the original Brexiteer,” he told the Times.
Read the full article here:
‘I am the original Brexiteer’ - Rishi Sunak hits back at Nigel Farage challenge
Rishi Sunak came out fighting after Reform overtook the Conservatives for the first time in one YouGov poll
Holly Evans16 June 2024 10:45 1718529926Voters’ trust in Tories on tax plummets as Rishi Sunak’s final election gambit fails
Trust in the Tories on tax has collapsed, a new poll has revealed, in another massive blow to Rishi Sunak as he tries to turn his party’s election fortunes around with less than three weeks to go.
According to an exclusive poll by Techne UK for The Independent, Sir Keir Starmer has a trust rating of more than double that of Mr Sunak as postal votes are sent out this weekend in a crucial stage of the campaign.
It comes after the Tories put all their efforts into using tax as the key dividing issue and launched an assault on Labour’s plans in a last-ditch bid to stop Sir Keir from winning power with “a supermajority” on 4 July.
Read the full article here:
Voters’ trust in Tories on tax plummets as Rishi Sunak’s final election gambit fails
Exclusive: A new poll has revealed that trust in the Tories on tax has collapsed as the party desperately tries to use the issue to stop a Labour ‘supermajority’
Holly Evans16 June 2024 10:25 1718529026How the Euros could change the result of the election
One of the first mishaps Rishi Sunak made on the election trail was tripping over a traffic cone. He was at Chesham United Football Club in Buckinghamshire, gamely taking part in a training session with a bunch of junior players.
It was pretty clear from his attempts to kick a ball in a straight line that none of football’s leading scouts would have been too upset at their failure to sign up a generational talent. But proficiency – or rather complete lack of it – was not the point.
Sunak was there to deliver an indicator of something else: his ordinariness. He was there failing to run with a ball at his feet to show the electorate that, whatever the assumptions of wealth and privilege that cling to him, he is just like us. But like the comment about his parents not being able to afford Sky TV when he was younger, it was an own goal.
Read the full article here:
How the Euros could change the result of the election
Harold Wilson said England only ever win a World Cup under a Labour leader, meanwhile a pollster has found that the shirt colour of the winning cup final team is a precise an indicator of who will succeed at the ballot box. Jim White reads the runes and asks: is Rishi’s election timing an own goal – or a win?
Holly Evans16 June 2024 10:10 1718528112Wes Streeting declines to rule out council tax hikes
Wes Streeting has declined to rule out council tax hikes or re-evaluations.
Pressed on whether this could happen under a Labour government on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour frontbencher repeated the party’s line: “We don’t want to see the tax burden on working people increase…
“None of those pledges in our manifesto requires increases in council tax or increases in fuel duty or any of the other number of taxes the Tories are claiming we want to increase.”
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