Keir Starmer criticized Nigel Farage for not showing enough leadership after a Reform UK campaigner used a racial slur to describe the prime minister. Starmer emphasized that as a leader, Farage should set the tone, culture, and standards of his party, and he believes Farage has not done enough in terms of leadership. Starmer expressed sympathy for Rishi Sunak after the racial slur incident, stating that he shares Sunak’s disgust at the comments made. Starmer also condemned Conservative attempts to portray Labour as a risk to national security as “desperate” and “ridiculous,” highlighting Labour’s history of support for national security measures.
General election live: racism row shows failure of Farage leadership, says Starmer as he sympathises with Sunak | General election 2024
Nigel Farage hasn’t ‘done enough in terms of leadership’ during racism row, says Starmer
Keir Starmer said he shared Rishi Sunak’s disgust after a Reform UK campaigner used a racial slur to describe the prime minister.
The Labour leader accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of not doing enough after the incident, and added that it is the leader who sets the “tone, the culture and the standards” of a political party.
Speaking to reporters in the south-east of England, he said:
I don’t think [Nigel Farage] has shown the leadership he should’ve shown. There’s no good condemning remarks after the event.
If you lead a party you set the tone, and the culture, and the standards of your party, and I don’t think he’s done enough in terms of leadership.”
Asked if he sympathises with Sunak after the racial slur, Starmer said: “I do, and I thought what he said about his daughters in particular was very powerful. And I’m glad he said it and I share his disgust at the comments that were made.”
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Updated at 11.00 BST
Key events
Reform UK has dropped three of its candidates after offensive comments, spokesperson confirms to BBC
Reform UK has dropped three of its candidates after reports they had made offensive comments a spokesperson has confirmed to the BBC.
The broadcaster reports that Edward Oakenfull, who is standing in Derbyshire Dales; Robert Lomas, a candidate in Barnsley North, and Leslie Lilley, standing in Southend East and Rochford, will still appear on the ballot paper as Reform UK candidates as it is too late for them to be removed.
The remarks of Oakenfull, Lomas and Lilley were put to Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, on Question Time last night. He responded by saying: “I want nothing to do with them.”
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Updated at 13.39 BST
The archbishop of Canterbury has urged people to avoid “personalised abuse” in the closing stages of the election campaign as he encouraged voters to go to the ballot box.
According to the PA news agency, Justin Welby said:
In these last few days before the election, let us pray for all candidates taking part in this most essential act of democracy.
Let us encourage courteous and kind debate and not use personalised abuse. Let us carefully consider issues and the common good, and above all vote.”
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Updated at 13.14 BST
David Dimbleby has described presenting the coverage of a general election night as “the Everest of broadcasting”.
The former Question Time host, 85, told the Telegraph that the “entire broadcast is made up of hitches – you can’t get through to the constituency, or you do get through and the new MP is so grand that he didn’t want to wait and has gone off to ITV”.
Dimbleby said he “never got tired” and “never prepared” for covering the election, but did acknowledge that when “you stop walking along a tightrope, you miss it”.
On Thursday, the BBC’s general election night will be presented by Mastermind host and BBC News At Ten newsreader Clive Myrie alongside Sunday morning political show host Laura Kuenssberg.
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Updated at 13.09 BST
Is this the end for Rees-Mogg?
Tom Wall
His mother still backs him, but do his constituents? The Observer headed to Somerset to find out.
There is little enthusiasm for Jacob Rees-Mogg among the crowd of parents gathering at the sun-dappled primary school close to his family’s 17th-century manor house in the rolling hills of north-east Somerset.
“We have learned the hard way that politicians who we feel are just a little bit of a joke can be dangerous,” says Nikki Joseph, 36, who is picking up her son. “I’m not voting for Jacob Rees-Mogg. I don’t know anyone who is voting for him … in my age group. It is either Lib Dem or Labour.”
A succession of polls, which match national polling data to local demographics, suggest the 14-year Rees-Mogg era may be nearing its end. They indicate the instantly recognisable but divisive Conservative MP – known for his flapping double-breasted suits and striped shirts – is currently likely to receive between 25% and 35% of the vote in the new North East Somerset and Hanham constituency, while his Labour challenger, Dan Norris, who is the West of England metro mayor, could get between 40% and 45%.
Nikki Joseph, a voter and Rees-Mogg constituent. Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer
While some see Rees-Mogg as a harmless English eccentric, who is courteous to a fault and always takes the time to reply to his constituents’ messages, others in the tightly knit Mendip villages the Rees-Mogg family call home are disturbed by his rightwing views. Joseph singles out Rees-Mogg’s proud claim to have never changed a nappy and his suggestion in 2019 that the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire did not use their common sense and ignored the “stay put” advice issued by the fire service. He later apologised but Joseph thinks it reveals something about his character.
“Jacob Rees-Mogg has shown quite consistently that he doesn’t have a huge amount of respect for humanity,” explains Joseph, who works for the NHS. “He blamed the victims for dying … that it was their fault that they weren’t smart enough to get out of the building and I feel that sums up his attitude.”
Read on here:
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Updated at 12.47 BST
The day so far
If you’re just joining us, here is a round-up for the day’s main developments so far:
Keir Starmer said he shared Rishi Sunak’s disgust after a Reform UK campaigner used a racial slur to describe the prime minister. The Labour leader accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of not doing enough after the incident, and added that it is the leader who sets the “tone, the culture and the standards” of a political party.
A Conservative candidate has said that she was flashed while out canvassing with her seven-year-old son on Friday evening. Andrea Jenkyns, who is standing in Leeds South West and Morley, told the Telegraph that “a man dropped his trousers after she approached his home”. Jenkyns said she had reported the incident to police.
Keir Starmer has hit out at “desperate” and “ridiculous” Conservative attempts to portray Labour as a risk to national security. Speaking on a campaign visit in Hampshire he told reporters he had been granted access to sensitive intelligence by the government so it was wrong for ministers to now claim he would be a danger.
The Conservative party deputy chair Angela Richardson called the sewage crisis a “political football” and claimed opposition parties and activists had put Tory MPs in physical danger by campaigning on the issue.
Rishi Sunak abandoned his “legacy” policy to ban smoking for future generations amid a backlash from the tobacco industry in the form of legal threats, lobbying and a charm offensive aimed at Conservative MPs, an investigation reveals.
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Prime minister Rishi Sunak told former soldiers of his plans for a veterans’ bill, if the Tories are re-elected, during a campaign visit in his North Yorkshire constituency.
The PA news agency reports that Sunak drank tea and ate cake at the Ellerton Lakeside cafe, near Northallerton, as he chatted with about a dozen veterans who had gathered for Armed Forces Day, joking that: “You need a lot of sugar to get through my day.”
Rishi Sunak speaks to Mark Hill, a local community champion for veterans, with other former members of the armed forces, at a cafe on Armed Forces Day in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency. Photograph: Scott Heppell/Reuters
Listening to the men, he said: “That’s why we now have, like they do in the US, we have a dedicated office for veteran’s affairs, a minister in the Cabinet, funding. So, we’re at the start of that journey.”
He said:
If we’re re-elected, we’re actually going to have a veteran’s bill, we’re going to pass our first ever veteran’s bill in parliament. That will bring together all the things that we need to do – put some things in law that will improve the service that we’ve providing.
That hasn’t happened before – a flagship veteran’s bill that [veterans’ minister] Johnny Mercer’s been working on which will just continue to improve the support.”
Sunak listened as he was told about initiatives to tackle veterans’ homelessness, mental health problems and issues facing service families at the nearby Catterick Garrison.
He said: “We want to make sure all of you get the support you are entitled to.”
According to the PA news agency, Sunak did not take questions from reporters during the 20 minute-long visit.
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Conservative candidate Andrea Jenkyns says she was flashed while out canvassing with her son
A Conservative candidate has said that she was flashed while out canvassing with her seven-year-old son on Friday evening.
Andrea Jenkyns, who is standing in Leeds South West and Morley, told the Telegraph that “a man dropped his trousers after she approached his home”. Jenkyns said she had reported the incident to police.
I was disgusted on the doorstep this evening, I had my 7 year old son with me delivering leaflets, and a guy came to the window and pulled down his pants in front of my son! I don’t care what people think of me, but you do not do this in front of a young child.
— Andrea Jenkyns 🇬🇧 For Leeds South West & Morley (@andreajenkyns) June 28, 2024
Jenkyns told the Telegraph that after her babysitter had cancelled, she took her son out leafleting. Of the man she said had flashed her, Jenkyns said: “He literally came to the window and pulled down his trousers, and I was really upset by this.”
The Tory candidate who was with party activists at the time of the incident, said her son turned away from the man and did not see his genitalia.
Jenkyns described going back to the house later that evening to confront the man, but a woman opened the door. Jenkyns told the Telegraph:
She was so apologetic. And then I saw him through the windows and I said, ‘Come on you coward, come to the door, this is disgusting doing this in front of a young child’.
And he said, ‘Fuck off, this is private property’. But he would not come. He was just mouthing off from the safety of his living room.”
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Updated at 11.44 BST
Keir Starmer has been at a veterans’ coffee morning today in the south-east of England to mark Armed Forces Day.
The Labour leader and shadow defence secretary John Healey shook hands with the veterans who were adorned with war medals, before sitting down to chat over a cup of coffee, reports the PA news agency.
Keir Starmer with Labour candidate Alex Baker during a visit to a veterans’ coffee morning at Aldershot Town football club to mark Armed Forces Day. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Speaking to veterans including 93-year-old Purna Bahadur Gurung, Starmer urged them to let him know what they want to see change locally and nationally. He added that he is committed to being a “government of service”.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, the Starmer refused to say whether David Lammy would be his foreign secretary under a Labour government.
He said he will “work hard until 10 o’clock on Thursday” to get votes, adding: “I’m not going to announce anybody who may be in a cabinet after Thursday if we win.”
Asked if he was concerned about the prospect of a supermajority, the Labour leader said that “the numbers are really tight, it’ll go down to a few hundred in many constituencies”.
He added: “We have to win every vote, earn the trust across the country.”
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Weekend papers before the polling day
bAs we roll into the final weekend before polling day, here’s what the front pages of today’s newspapers look like:
The Guardian leads with “Biden’s shaky TV debate sparks calls to quit race”, but away from US politics there is also the Guardian’s view on the general election 2024. It reads: “Keir Starmer must win. Only his government can shape the future we want to see.”
Rishi Sunak’s “hurt and anger over his daughters having to hear Reform activist’s racist slur” is also mentioned, plus the paper’s complete guide to election night.
Photograph: The Guardian
The Times focus is on the Conservative’s Kemi Badenoch’s condemnation of Nigel Farage over the Reform UK racism row: “Badenoch: Voters must see through Farage’s act.”
Joe Biden’s “disasterous debate performance against Donald Trump” has got the Democrats discussing whether to ditch the current US president, says the Times.
The Telegraph has also gone big on Biden and whether the US politician should step down. On UK politics, the Telegraph has an interview with David Dimbleby, in which he says “our politicians are not up to scratch”. The paper has also highlighted how “postal vote chaos may bring count challenges”.
The Daily Mail have gone with Boris Johnson claiming that “Britiain can still swerve Starmergeddon”. It even goes as far as to include an “eight-page tactical voting guide to avoid a Starmer supermajority”.
For the FT Weekend, the focus is firmly on Biden, who they say has defied “calls to bow out”. On the UK election, the FT has concentrated on an Edwardian toilet in Whitehall, and a history of British elections via it’s life and arts section. The toilet is an unexpected angle, I’ll admit.
The Independent says a “furious Rishi Sunak” has condmened the Reform UK canvasser caught on camera using a racial slur against him. It goes with the headline: “PM ‘hurt and angry’ at P-word race slur by Farage activist.”
The Express also leads with Sunak’s “hurt and anger at daughters hearing racist slur”.
The Mirror has focused on the missing teenager Jay Slater. It says Slater’s “best friend reveals he saw teenager leave road in video call from Tenerife”. It describes the friend’s comments on Slater “slipping on rocks” as a “new clue”. On the UK election, the Mirror sets its sights on Farage and describes the Reform UK racism row as a “new low” for the party leader.
Like many of the other papers, the Star has also gone with Biden v Trump, but in a more characteristic style for the tabloid: “Manbaby beats up doddery old bloke on live TV”. No mention of the UK general election on that front page as far as I can see.
For the iWeekend, it says the UK public are sending a “clear message to Labour and Tories” to “save Britian’s rivers”.
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Updated at 11.22 BST
Nigel Farage hasn’t ‘done enough in terms of leadership’ during racism row, says Starmer
Keir Starmer said he shared Rishi Sunak’s disgust after a Reform UK campaigner used a racial slur to describe the prime minister.
The Labour leader accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of not doing enough after the incident, and added that it is the leader who sets the “tone, the culture and the standards” of a political party.
Speaking to reporters in the south-east of England, he said:
I don’t think [Nigel Farage] has shown the leadership he should’ve shown. There’s no good condemning remarks after the event.
If you lead a party you set the tone, and the culture, and the standards of your party, and I don’t think he’s done enough in terms of leadership.”
Asked if he sympathises with Sunak after the racial slur, Starmer said: “I do, and I thought what he said about his daughters in particular was very powerful. And I’m glad he said it and I share his disgust at the comments that were made.”
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Updated at 11.00 BST
Keir Starmer says Tory attempts to portray Labour as risk to national security are ‘desperate’ and ‘ridiculous’
Keir Starmer has hit out at “desperate” and “ridiculous” Conservative attempts to portray Labour as a risk to national security, reports the PA news agency.
Speaking on a campaign visit in Hampshire he told reporters he had been granted access to sensitive intelligence by the government so it was wrong for ministers to now claim he would be a danger.
He said:
I think this is desperate stuff from the Tories. We are the party that were the founder member of Nato. If you go to Brussels and see the treaty there for Nato, it’s a Labour secretary of state that signed that and our support for Nato has been unshakeable since then.
On the nuclear deterrent, we’re clear about the triple lock that we’ve put in place, not only the current deterrent but the future upgrades of that deterrent and the jobs that go with it.
We have also – and this is why it is really desperate from the Tories – united with this Government, the Tory Government, on really important issues of national security. As a result of that, they have given me high-level sensitive briefings, so much do they trust us on national security. I’m very glad that they have and I do thank the defence secretary for facilitating that, particularly during Ukraine when they gave us very regular, very sensitive briefings.
To now turn around and make this ridiculous claim just shows how desperate they have become going into this election. It does them no good.”
ShareAlex Lawson
Will rising debt cause Thames Water to sink under a Labour government? The Observer’s Alex Lawson has written this analysis piece to try and answer that question.
If Labour triumphs in this week’s election, as polls suggest, then top of the incoming business secretary Jonathan Reynolds’s in-tray will be the possible collapse of Thames Water. The Thames timebomb is ticking – and could explode before new MPs have even become fully acquainted with the corridors of Westminster.
To recap, Britain’s biggest water company has been labouring under an £18bn debt mountain and has become the chief target of mounting anger from the public and politicians towards the industry over sewage spills, executive pay and shareholder payouts.
In March, Thames investors refused to stump up a pledged £500m of emergency funding amid a standoff with the industry regulator, Ofwat. So acute are concerns that the government has tasked officials with making contingency plans for a temporary renationalisation, codenamed Project Timber.
Its finances were back in the spotlight this week, when the Guardian revealed that a £150m dividend paid out from the regulated company on 27 March – hours before investors pulled the plug – was being examined by Ofwat. An internal party dossier by Labour’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, seen by the Financial Times, put the company’s potential collapse high on the party’s “risk register” after taking power, alongside prison overcrowding, bankrupt councils and an NHS funding shortfall.
One of the first tests will be the postponed publication of Ofwat’s proposals for the water industry on 11 July. The regulator had been due to release its draft “price review 24” – the process by which it determines how much each company can charge customers over the following five years – on 12 June, but the pivotal moment was delayed by Rishi Sunak’s soggy early election announcement.
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Read the full story on www.theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jun/29/general-election-2024-conservatives-labour-reform-uk-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-nigel-farage