Labour says early general election leaves many government commitments ‘in the bin’ – UK politics live | General election 2024
Labour says early election leaves many government commitments and bills ‘in the bin’
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, did not mention the tobacco and vapes bill when she made a business statement in the Commons covering bills that are expected to be passed in the “wash-up”. (See 12.53pm.)
She said that MPs were due to pass the finance bill, the digital markets, competition and consumers bill., and the Post Office (Horizon system) offences bill today. And she said tomorrow the victims and prisoners bill is due to get rushed through.
Lucy Powell, the shadow leader of the Commons, said that Mordaunt seemed to be suggesting that the government would not be passing Martyn’s law, the legislation to tighten venue security named in honour of one of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. But she suggested that, if Labour won the election, they would introduced Martyn’s law “as soon as possible”.
Powell said other government promises were being left “in the bin” too. She said:
[Rishi Sunak’s] abrupt dissolution of parliament means that he’ll start the campaign leaving many government commitments and bills up in the air or in the bin: his pledge on a smoke-free generation, plans for a football regulator [see 11.51am], promises to renters and leaseholders, and protections for our broadcasters now all at risk.
I’m pleased that very important commitments to the victims of the Post Office and infected blood scandals will be honoured in our final business this week.
Key events
Questioners at Sunak warehouse speech turn out to be Tory councillors
Rishi Sunak has taken questions from two men dressed in hi-vis clothing at a warehouse in Derbyshire who turned out to be Conservative councillors, Rowena Mason reports.
Here is the clip of Rishi Sunak asking a group of voters in Wales if they are looking forward to the Euros, which Wales aren’t in. (See 1pm.)
“Change” is Labour’s election slogan, but it is also the message adopted by most or all of the other opposition parties. At an event in Cheltenham today, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said the election was “our chance to win the change our country desperately needs”. He went on:
These Conservatives have got to go. And in so many parts of the country, we have shown that it is the Liberal Democrats who can get them out.
But this election is about more than a change of government.
We must transform the very nature of British politics itself, so that we can…
Fix the health and care crisis.
Get our economy back on track.
End the sewage scandal.
And give people the fair deal they deserve.
The Tory MP for Cheltenham is Alex Chalk, the justice secretary. But he had a majority of just 981 over the Lib Dems in 2019 and the Lib Dems are now expected to win the seat easily.
John Swinney urges Scots to vote SNP to protect NHS, saying he’s ‘alarmed’ by Tory and Labour health rhetoric
John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, has said that he is relishing the prospect of fighting the election campaign.
Speaking at a news conference, he said:
I’m relishing the opportunity to campaign across this modern, diverse and beautiful country.
I can’t, of course, make any promises about the outcome, that’s for the voters to decide, but I can promise you this – the SNP will be fighting an energetic, optimistic campaign full of enthusiasm, a campaign infused with hope for a better future.
I’ll be leading that campaign from the front – I’ll travel the length and breadth of Scotland bringing that campaign of hope and unity.
I can’t wait to get started – let’s get out there and put Scotland first.
Swinney said that “never has a government deserved to lose more than Rishi Sunak’s.”
And he said he would be urging people to vote SNP to protect the NHS. He explained:
On the NHS, I don’t know about you, but I’m alarmed by the language that is coming not just from the Tories, but from Labour at Westminster, very alarmed indeed.
So, I’m asking you to vote SNP to send a very clear message – let’s unite Scotland to protect the National Health Service.
When talking about Labour, Swinney was referring to comments from Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, who has backed using private healthcare providers to treat NHS patients and who has said the NHS needs reform more than extra money.
The Conseratives want Rishi Sunak to debate Keir Starmer every week from now until election day, Ben Riley-Smith from the Telegraph reports.
Exclusive
The Tories are challenging Keir Starmer to debate Rishi Sunak **every week** in the campaign.
That would be six TV debates, a record.
Source close to Sunak tells me: “We will do as many as we can get. We will do one every week if he wants.”https://t.co/t0hv2OlcA7
— Ben Riley-Smith (@benrileysmith) May 23, 2024
Exclusive
The Tories are challenging Keir Starmer to debate Rishi Sunak **every week** in the campaign.
That would be six TV debates, a record.
Source close to Sunak tells me: “We will do as many as we can get. We will do one every week if he wants
Weekly debates will almost certainly not take place. Keir Starmer has said he is willing to debate Rishi Sunak “any time”, but candidates who are ahead in election campaigns have little or no incentive to take part in debates, and it has been reported that Labour wants to keep the number of debates to a minimum.
In practice, debates rarely make much difference to campaign outcomes anyway.
Sunak decided on summer poll after local elections because he thought Tory prospects wouldn’t improve, Osborne claims
George Osborne, the Conservative former chancellor, has claimed that Rishi Sunak decided to call a summer election after the local elections at the start of this month. Discussing the announcement on his Political Currency podcast, which he co-hosts with Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor, Osborne said:
I am told by the people I’ve been speaking to that there was a wide circle of up to 40 people involved in the planning of this, ever since the local elections.
The prime minister made a decision after the local elections that he was going to go for an early poll. It was a pretty brilliantly-held secret. And a secret held from most of the cabinet and from a lot of the broader Tory family …
This is what Downing Street is thinking. Things are basically not going to get any better for the prime minister. Nothing is shifting the polls. They’ve tried a series of announcements from defence spending to national insurance, tax cuts – things haven’t shifted.
He’s often accused of dithering, of overanalysing things and not taking bold decisions. He’s taken a bold decision to shift the dial, to get the campaign underway to force the choice to make people focus on the argument.
The alternative of waiting through the summer was only going to make things worse because the mood in the country about ‘a time for a change’ would only have grown.
In the same episode, Balls said that he thought Labour would get a majority, but that it would be “very, very hard” for the party to get “a big majority of something over 60”.
Here is Rishi Sunak inspecting a bottling machine on his visit to the Vale of Glamorgan brewery in south Wales. The Tory MP for Vale of Glamorgan, Alun Cairns, is with him. Cairns had a majority over Labour of 3,562 at the last election. According to the YouGov MRP poll from April, Labour is on course to win easily, with 48% over the Conservatives’ 29%.
Labour says early election leaves many government commitments and bills ‘in the bin’
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, did not mention the tobacco and vapes bill when she made a business statement in the Commons covering bills that are expected to be passed in the “wash-up”. (See 12.53pm.)
She said that MPs were due to pass the finance bill, the digital markets, competition and consumers bill., and the Post Office (Horizon system) offences bill today. And she said tomorrow the victims and prisoners bill is due to get rushed through.
Lucy Powell, the shadow leader of the Commons, said that Mordaunt seemed to be suggesting that the government would not be passing Martyn’s law, the legislation to tighten venue security named in honour of one of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. But she suggested that, if Labour won the election, they would introduced Martyn’s law “as soon as possible”.
Powell said other government promises were being left “in the bin” too. She said:
[Rishi Sunak’s] abrupt dissolution of parliament means that he’ll start the campaign leaving many government commitments and bills up in the air or in the bin: his pledge on a smoke-free generation, plans for a football regulator [see 11.51am], promises to renters and leaseholders, and protections for our broadcasters now all at risk.
I’m pleased that very important commitments to the victims of the Post Office and infected blood scandals will be honoured in our final business this week.
Rishi Sunak called the election now because he was scared of the threat from Reform UK, Richard Tice claimed this morning.
Speaking at a campaign launch, the Reform UK leader claimed Sunak had “bottled it” by calling a summer election instead of holding on for the autumn.
He said Sunak was “absolutely terrified” by his party’s upward progress in the polls at a time when the Tories have slumped. “He was terrified as to where this may end up,” Tice claimed.
Reform is averaging around 11% in the polls, ahead of the Liberal Democrats.
The party will stand in 630 seats across England, Scotland and Wales “no ifs, no buts”, Tice said.
Tom Larkin from Sky says that Rishi Sunak made a bit of a gaffe on his visit to Wales when he asked workers at a brewery if they were looking forward to the Euros. Wales did not qualify, Larkin points out.
Rishi Sunak taking a brave approach to small talk at a brewery in Wales.
He asked workers if they’re looking forward to ‘all the football’. One quickly pointed out that Wales haven’t qualified for the Euros 😬 pic.twitter.com/kiHRxNVipe
— Tom Larkin (@TomLarkinSky) May 23, 2024
