Keir Starmer, speaking about defence and national security, has stated that “the postwar era is over” and a “new age of insecurity has begun.” He expressed surprise at witnessing the “rumble of war” in Europe as Russian tanks entered a European country, emphasizing the need to confront not only conventional warfare but also hybrid threats like cybersecurity and information warfare. Starmer shared his family’s personal experience during the Falklands War, highlighting the anxiety they faced while waiting for news after his mother’s brother’s ship was bombed.
General election: Keir Starmer says ‘new age of insecurity has begun’ in speech on defence and security – UK politics live | Politics
Starmer: ‘postwar era is over’ and ‘new age of insecurity has begun’
Keir Starmer, speaking about defence and national security, has said that “the postwar era is over” and a “new age of insecurity has begun”.
He said he had never expected in his lifetime to see the “rumble of war” in Europe as Russian tanks rolled into a European country.
Starmer said the threat was not just conventional warfare, “We must face down malign actors who tried to attack and weaken our nation. And not just through traditional warfare over air, land and sea but with hybrid threats to our energy supply, cybersecurity information warfare.”
He also spoke of his family’s own experience of service, describing an anxious wait for news during the Falklands War, after his mother’s brother’s ship was bombed.
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Key events
Mikey Smith from the Mirror here pointing out that it is all beginning to get rather meta on the polling front.
Not content with trying to predict the election, pollsters are now busying themselves predicting each others’ predictions. https://t.co/kj13GaSfJX
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) June 3, 2024
You can find our aggregated poll tracker here – which has Labour on 44.7% and the Conservatives on 23.8%.
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Here are some more of the pictures from today’s election campaign.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross gives a big thumbs up while pretending to drive a bus at the First Bus Caledonian Depot in Glasgow. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesLabour leader Keir Starmer and shadow defence secretary, John Healey meet with some of the 14 former military parliamentary candidates Labour has selected to fight the general election during a visit to the Fusilier Museum in Bury. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PARishi Sunak with parliamentary candidate for Wokingham Lucy Demery (second left) and parliamentary candidate for Henley Caroline Newton (centre right), speaking to rowing club members during a visit to the Leander Club in Henley-on-Thames. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PAAngela Rayner takes a selfie with supporters in Doncaster. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty ImagesShare
Rishi Sunak has attempted to laugh off the LIberal Democrats photobombing his campaign visit to Henley by posting a video clip of it with the line “Classic Lib Dems, always selling voters down the river.”
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The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry was due to resume at noon today, but shortly before that chair Wyn Williams issued a statement to say that the session was being postponed. He told the inquiry:
Today we would do to hear evidence from Ben Foat, the group general counsel of Post Office Ltd. Unfortunately that cannot take place because the member of the inquiry counsel team who was due to question Mr Foat is unwell. I was informed of this earlier this morning, and Jason Beer KC and I took the view that counsel was not fit to conduct a lengthy questioning session, and that it was not practicable for another member of the counsel team to take over at very short notice. Arrangements will be made in due course for receiving Mr Foat’s evidence.
The inquiry is now due to resume tomorrow at 9.45am to hear evidence from Chris Day, former chief financial officer of Post Office Ltd.
ShareLibby Brooks
John Swinney chracterised Rishi Sunak’s Equality Act proposal as an “explicit outright threat” to Holyrood and said: “What this tells us is that the Conservatives are interested in using any excuse they can to erode the powers of the Scottish parliament.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also criticised the move, saying that the Conservatives were “trying to create a culture war”.
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Updated at 14.09 BST
First minister of Scotland, John Swinney, has said that today’s announcement by the Conservatives on plans to amend the 2010 Equality Act was part of a “deliberate strategy to undermine the powers of the Scottish parliament.”
PA Media reports Swinney said:
This is just another step in the Conservative attempts to erode the powers of the Scottish parliament. It’s been going on for some time. I want the Scottish parliament to be a parliament that can address all of the issues that affect the lives of people in Scotland. So, what the Conservatives are doing today is part of a deliberate strategy to undermine the powers of the Scottish parliament.
Swinney cited Brexit and the Internal Market Act as examples of Holyrood’s powers being weakened.
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Updated at 14.10 BST
Rishi Sunak has denied that the Conservative party are using gender recognition laws as a way of stoking a culture war during the election campaign, saying that the policy was aimed at protecting “the safety and security of women and girls and the wellbeing of our children.”
He told broadcasters “The Equality Act was passed over a decade ago. And what’s clear today is that there’s a lack of clarity. And that’s risking the safety of women and girls.
“So we’ve announced the bold action that we would change the Equality Act so that sex means biological sex. And what that will do will mean the providers of single sex services and single sex spaces will be able to protect women and girls and ensure their safety and security.”
Earlier the party had posted to social media “We know what a woman is. Keir Starmer doesn’t.”
We know what a woman is.
Keir Starmer doesn’t.
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) June 3, 2024
Sunak, who once refused to apologise to the family of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey after making a jibe at Starmer about trans rights during PMQs when he had been informed Ghey’s mother was in attendance, said the policy announcement “builds on our track record of treating these issues sensitively and with compassion.”
Asked why the government had not amended the 2010 Equalities Act in the 14 years the Conservatives have been in power, Sunak said the announcement “builds on the incredible progress we’ve made in this truly evolving area.”
He went on to say:
The strides that we’ve made, in particular recently, publishing new guidance for teachers and schools about how to treat these issues sensitively, but ensuring the parents are at the heart of all those conversations, over what is common sense and right. It was widely welcomed by children’s campaigners.
We were also, of course, dealing with the SNPS aims to try and make gender recognition on a self-ID basis, which wasn’t right. So that’s what we’ve been dealing with.
The SNP bill blocked by action from Westminster aimed to introduce a system of self-declaration for obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC) which would have removed the need for a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria and reduce the time someone had been permanently living in their gender before they could apply.
Proponents of the change had hoped it would streamline a process that many transgender people find intrusive and distressing, but critics argued that the simplification would fundamentally alter who could access women-only services and leave them vulnerable to abuse. The bill was backed in the Scottish parliament by MSPs from the SNP, Labour, Scottish Greens, Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties. Scottish ministers dropped legal action to try to overturn Westminster’s intervention in December 2023.
Earlier this morning the UK government equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, seemed unable to clarify what type of paperwork would be acceptable for people to prove their at birth biological sex. “This is not a paperwork issue. This is a practical issue”. Asked what paperwork would be used to assign people to prisons based on their biological sex, Badenoch said “The fact of the matter is the prison authorities will know. They will know.”
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Updated at 14.14 BST
On his campaign trip today prime minister Rishi Sunak was seen cleaning a boat.
Rishi Sunak polishes a boat as he visits Leander Rowing Club in Henley-on-Thames, England. Photograph: Carl Court/AP
Sky News political correspondent Rob Powell just mentioned on television that he spoke to one of the rowers at the club, who said that particular boat didn’t need much cleaning, as it hadn’t been in the Thames recently, otherwise it would have been “covered in poo”.
The Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on water quality today, and managed to send a campaign boat behind the prime minister while he was speaking to people at the club. A Liberal Democrat source said it was “just another small boat Rishi Sunak can’t deal with”.
A Liberal Democrats boat manages to photobomb the prime minister. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
Deputy leader Daisy Cooper was on the boat, and in a statement said:
Rishi Sunak is running scared of the Liberal Democrats in blue wall seats like Henley, after our stunning gains at the local elections. We are hearing from lifelong former Conservative voters who are appalled by seeing their local rivers polluted by filthy sewage.
Right across former Conservative heartlands, people are rallying behind the Liberal Democrats and our plan to fix the NHS and care and tackle the sewage crisis. In seats like these right across the country, it’s clear the best way to beat the Conservatives and get rid of this government is to vote for the Liberal Democrats.
Daisy Cooper and other Liberal Democrats wave at the prime minister from across the River Thames. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Rishi Sunak has said he is not worried about any prospect of Nigel Farage standing to be an MP, saying “At the end of the day on 5 July, one of two people will be prime minister, either Keir Starmer or me.”
Speaking to broadcasters while out campaigning, Sunak made a pitch to potential Reform UK voters, saying:
A vote for anyone who’s is not a Conservative candidate is just a vote for Keir Starmer in Number 10. So if you’re someone who cares about tackling migration, both the boats and legal migration, if you’re someone who wants a more proportionate pragmatic approach to net zero that saves people money, and if you’re someone who wants to lower taxes, it’s only the Conservatives who are going to offer all those things, and that’s the choice at this election.
Isabel Oakeshott, the partner of Reform UK leader Richard Tice, has posted to social media to indicate that “Reform UK will not be standing down any candidates” despite, she says, “increasingly desperate phone calls from Tory MPs”.
ShareBen Quinn
Keir Starmer has said that he would dispute the suggestion that there is widespread support across the armed forces for the government’s controversial Northern Ireland ‘Legacy’ act, which offers immunity from prosecution for Troubles-era crimes.
The Labour leader reiterated his commitment to scrapping the legislation and drew on his experience working in Northern Ireland as a human rights advisor when it came to the establishment of a new police force in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.
Referencing his experience, he told an event in Bury that it was “a mistake” for a government in Westminster to go forward with the legacy act when it did not have the support of a single political party in Northern Ireland.
He added:
I would dispute that across the armed services that they are all against repealing the legislation, because it provide an amnesty for all sides including the terrorists and I know many people feel extremely uncomfortable about it.
I don’t doubt the issue has t be resolved but resolving it without the consent of the political parties involved is not the way to do it.
Both Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, and Chris Heaton Harris, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, attacked Starmer on X:
Labour going on Veterans today.
Look the Northern Ireland Veterans in the eye and tell them you will restart their prosecutions. Because that is what you are promising to do. https://t.co/apZEm5Js31
— Rt Hon Johnny Mercer (@JohnnyMercerUK) June 3, 2024
In April, an international panel of human rights experts calling for the government to scrap moves to grant conditional amnesties for Troubles-era crimes and warned Britain’s reputation will be severely damaged by the Northern Ireland “legacy” act.
Families of those killed by paramilitaries and British soliders have been campaigning against the legacy law, which sets up an independent commission for reconciliation and information recovery.
Its central purpose is to enable the families of the more than 3,500 dead from the Troubles era – which lasted from 1966 to 1998 – to find out how their relatives were killed.
The law allows the commission to give conditional immunity from prosecution to those who reveal details of the killings, while closing down future alternatives such as inquests and civil actions.
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Activists have this morning dropped a banner from Westminster bridge in London calling on the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, to say he will end arms sales to Israel if he becomes Prime Minister.
Speaking at a Labour event earlier, Starmer suggested that legal advice on UK arms sales to Israel would be reviewed under a Labour government.
Banner urging Labour to end arms sales to Israel unfurled near Westminster – videoShare
Updated at 12.53 BST
Jedidajah Otte
Hundreds of parents have been sharing their thoughts with the Guardian on how Labour’s plan to impose the standard rate of 20% VAT on private school fees might affect them and their children, and whether the issue could change their vote.
Labour hopes to raise about £1.5bn a year to increase funding for state education through tax changes such as adding VAT to private school fees. Critics have warned that the policy pledge could alienate swathes of middle-class voters, and that it could be difficult for the state school sector’s overcrowded classroms to accommodate children whose parents will no longer be able to afford independent schools.
Parents who spoke to the Guardian included Jonathan, a father and top earner from Surrey, who was among many thousands of UK parents for whom a Labour win at the general election would probably mean an immediate financial disadvantage. Nut he does not mind, saying: “My daughter goes to private school, and I’m OK with VAT being added to school fees. Is it fair? No. Is it morally right? Yes.”
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Legal advice on UK arms sales to Israel would be reviewed under a Labour government, Keir Starmer also suggested at the Labour event earlier.
The UK Government has resisted pressure to halt UK export licences to Israel in recent months, amid concerns that Israel could be in breach of international humanitarian law over the conflict in Gaza.
Answering questions, Starmer said:
It is for the Government obviously to review the licences. They do it one by one. They have got legal advice. We’ve been pressing them to disclose that legal advice. And I still press them to disclose that legal advice.
Obviously, if we’re privileged to come in to power, we’ll be able to see that advice or commission our own. But look, I will just add this, that the Rafah offensive should not go ahead. And that I think our Government should follow the US lead on this in relation to arms sales and review the licences to see whether any of them would be or are being used in the Rafah offensive.
Starmer said his “number one priority is to ensure we get a ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war. In answer to another question, he insisted human rights, international law and accountability “matters in Gaza”, adding:
You wouldn’t be human if you were not affected by the images that we’ve seen, the reports coming out of Gaza, the sheer number of people who have been killed – many of them women and children – and also the knowledge that hostages are still being held.
Pressure on Labour over its stance has continued, both inside and outside of the party. More than 100 artists and celebrities including Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes and Juliet Stevenson called at the weekend on the Labour leader to revoke UK export licences to Israel if his party wins the election.
For more on this, you might find this interesting from Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, on how Labour has walked a tightrope in recent months on Gaza.
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Updated at 12.28 BST
Ben Quinn
Keir Starmer used a question and answer session at a Labour event earlier to accuse Rishi Sunak of “making money betting against the country in the financial crisis”
Answering a question from the Guardian’s Aletha Adu at a campaign event at the Fusilier Museum in Bury, the Labour leader said:
On the question of the hedge funds, we have raised this before. I think it is relevant at this election for the voters to know what did the two candidates for prime minister do before they came into politics.
I was working for the Crown Prosecution Service … trying to protect those who live in the United Kingdom from crime, Rishi Sunak was making money betting against the country in the financial crisis.
I think that’s for him to answer as to what he was doing before he came into politics.
The Guardian reported this morning that Labour is aiming to turn the spotlight on Sunak’s time before politics in the days before the first TV debate between the two leaders, after a week dominated by rows over Diane Abbott’s candidacy.
Key to Labour’s attempt to get back on the front foot will be to scrutinise Sunak’s time as a partner at TCI, the hedge fund which launched an activist campaign against Dutch bank ABN Amro which resulted in its sale to RBS in 2007.
The takeover was later described as “an extremely risky deal” by the independent financial regulator which said it was a key factor leading to RBS’s failure.
It’s Ben Quinn picking up the blog now while Martin takes a break.
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Updated at 12.20 BST
Out on the campaign trail this morning deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has been visiting Doncaster in England.
Angela Rayner campaigns with the party’s battlebus in Doncaster. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who will take part in the STV debate tonight alongside the leaders of the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in Scotland, has visited a community food pantry at the Pearce Institute in Glasgow alongside Scottish Labour candidate Dr Zubir Ahmed, an NHS surgeon who is standing for the party in Glasgow South West.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar meets member of staff Steph McFadden as he visits a community food pantry in the Pearce Institute with Scottish Labour candidate Zubir Ahmed. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesShare
Defence secretary Grant Shapps has responded to Labour’s defence announcements this morning by asking on social media “How can anyone trust [Keir] Starmer on defence when he tried to make [Jeremy] Corbyn prime minister twice?”
Starmer was shadow secretary of state for Exiting the European Union in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet during the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
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Nigel Farage has posted to social media that he is making “an emergency general election announcement at 4pm today”.
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Updated at 11.23 BST
Read the full story on www.theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jun/03/conservatives-equality-act-labour-general-election-campaign-uk-politics-live-3-june