General election campaign as it happened

News has just come in that Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, which would have prevented young people from ever being able to smoke, will not make it through wash up, and so will not be passed. Yet bizarrely, the Prime Minister has claimed this is an example of his “bold action”. I’m not sure that will wash with the public.

He told reporters in Northern Ireland that he was “of course disappointed not to be able to get that through at the end of the session given the time available”.

“But what I’d say is that’s evidence of the bold action that I’m prepared to take. That’s the type of Prime Minister I am. That’s the type of leadership that I bring. I stepped up to do something that is bold, that will make an enormous difference in the future of our country.”

Some people might argue that if you were so passionate about passing this legislation, why not call the election after it had actually become law. A similar case is being made about Rwanda, after the PM admitted that no flights will take off.

News has just come in that Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, which would have prevented young people from ever being able to smoke, will not make it through wash up, and so will not be passed. Yet bizarrely, the Prime Minister has claimed this is an example of his “bold action”. I’m not sure that will wash with the public.

He told reporters in Northern Ireland that he was “of course disappointed not to be able to get that through at the end of the session given the time available”.

“But what I’d say is that’s evidence of the bold action that I’m prepared to take. That’s the type of Prime Minister I am. That’s the type of leadership that I bring. I stepped up to do something that is bold, that will make an enormous difference in the future of our country.”

Some people might argue that if you were so passionate about passing this legislation, why not call the election after it had actually become law. A similar case is being made about Rwanda, after the PM admitted that no flights will take off.

News has just come in that Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, which would have prevented young people from ever being able to smoke, will not make it through wash up, and so will not be passed. Yet bizarrely, the Prime Minister has claimed this is an example of his “bold action”. I’m not sure that will wash with the public.

He told reporters in Northern Ireland that he was “of course disappointed not to be able to get that through at the end of the session given the time available”.

“But what I’d say is that’s evidence of the bold action that I’m prepared to take. That’s the type of Prime Minister I am. That’s the type of leadership that I bring. I stepped up to do something that is bold, that will make an enormous difference in the future of our country.”

Some people might argue that if you were so passionate about passing this legislation, why not call the election after it had actually become law. A similar case is being made about Rwanda, after the PM admitted that no flights will take off.

The former Labour MP Claudia Webbe has announced that she, like Jeremy Corbyn, will be standing against Keir Starmer’s party as an independent at the general election.

Webbe was kicked out of Labour after being found guilty of harassment against a woman in 2021. She threatened to share naked photos of the woman and told her she should be “acid”. We reported on the story at the time here.

This could cause issues for Labour in her seat of Leicester East, as she is likely to attract supporters who are angry at the party’s stance over Gaza.

Another piece of legislation that looks likely to fall by the wayside due to the general election is Martyn’s law. This would require venues and local authorities in the UK to have training requirements and preventative plans against terror attacks.

It’s named after Martyn Hett, who was one of the 22 people killed in the Manchester bombing in 2017. Martyn’s mother, Figen Murray, has been campaigning for this, and on Wednesday finished a 200-mile walk from Manchester to London to deliver a letter to Rishi Sunak.

That was the seventh anniversary of Martyn’s death. She met Rishi Sunak, who promised her the law would get passed before the summer recess. Then he called a general election ...

Figen said: “These last few days have been hard – I was exhausted after walking 200 miles from Manchester to London, I was upset by the anniversary and then I felt misled by the Prime Minister.

“It’s great that the PM is now saying he will support Martyn’s Law if elected – and I thank him for that. But Martyn’s Law was a commitment for the last Parliament, not the next one, and I feel let down by all the promises that were made and broken.”

Sunak claimed he had not deceived Ms Murray and that he is committed to bringing in the law. “I said by summer recess and that will still be possible,” he told journalists accompanying him on the campaign trail.

“The election is in the first week of July. Parliament will reconvene immediately after that, so there will still be time to bring that law in before summer recess, and that’s what I remain committed to doing.

“We’ve done all the prep work and I had a very constructive conversation with Figen and actually I start by paying tribute, as I said to her at the time, to her bravery in the face of tragedy that happened to her family, to have then campaigned for positive change.”

My colleague David Thompson, the Belfast News Letter’s political editor, spoke to Rishi Sunak today on his visit to Northern Ireland. He asked whether the reality is that – despite the government’s claims about how much it values the Union – what it has delivered is Northern Ireland's detachment from the union through the Windsor Framework.

Sunak rejected that assessment, saying: “No, I don't I don't agree with that characterization. I care very deeply about the people of Northern Ireland and when I got this job, Chris and I sat down, and we wanted to do everything we could to ensure that people in Northern Ireland had their devolved government up and running, which hadn't been in place for years.”

Read David’s full piece below.

Housing Secretary General Michael Gove has announced he will not stand at the General Election, as the number of Tory MPs standing down continues to rise.

After nearly 20 years as the Conservative MP for Surrey Heath and serving in multiple cabinets over the course of 14 years, said not it is time for “a new generation” to lead.

Tory veteran MP Dame Andrea Leadsom has become the latest leader to stand down from parliament at this election. The one-time Tory leadership contender said in a letter to the prime minister that it has been “the greatest honour to serve the people of South Northamptonshire as their MP for the last 14 years.”

Dame Andrea has served the government since 2014. She became a cabinet member in 2016 when Theresa May - who defeated her to win the premier - appointed her environment secretary.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended his party’s plans to introduce a national service for 18-year-olds if the Conservatives win at the general election.

The plans, which would see 18-year-olds in the UK either take part in a 12-month military placement or take part in community volunteering work, has been hailed as a “bold” by the PM.

He said: “This modern form of national service will mean that young people get the skills and the opportunities that they need which is going to serve them very well in life.

“It’s going to foster a culture of service which is going to be incredibly powerful for making our society more cohesive and in a more uncertain and dangerous world it’s going to strengthen our country’s security and resilience. For all these reasons I think this is absolutely the right thing to do. Yes, it is bold, but that’s the kind of leadership I offer.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has ridiculed the policy, calling the prospect of national service a “teenage Dad’s Army” and said there was “desperation” from the Tories in announcing the plans.

The Tories’ national service plans has come under fire by not only from opposition politicians but Sunak’s own cabinet.

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker said that the national service policy had been “sprung” on Tory candidates.

Baker added that the hastily-announced plans would have benefited from being a government policy rather than a party policy in regards to sensitivities around military service, particularly in Northern Ireland.

He said: “History has proven time and time again that liberty under law – not compulsion and planning – is the surest road to peace and prosperity.”

Tory MP Lucy Allan has been suspended from the party after endorsing the Reform UK candidate who is running is the seat her is vacating that the upcoming election.

Allan previously announced her intention not to defend her seat. She said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said: “I am supporting Alan Adams to be Telford’s next MP.”

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party confirmed she had been suspended for the post, saying: “Lucy Allan has been suspended from the Party with immediate effect.

“The people of Telford now have the chance to vote for a dedicated and hardworking new candidate who will put Telford first. A vote for Reform is a vote for Keir Starmer.”

Reform UK welcomed the endorsement, with a part spokesman saying: “Of course we are absolutely delighted that she is backing our candidate in Telford.

“She, like many Conservatives, feels that the Reform party represents traditional centre-right values and priorities in a way that the Conservative Party has long forgotten.”

Rishi Sunak is arrowing in on the Tories’ core vote - pensioners. Just days after announcing national service for 18-year-olds, he’s said the Conservatives would give pensioners a tax break so they would never pay income tax. This is effectively cancelling out a previous Tory policy?

What is the ‘triple-lock plus’?

At the moment pensioners do not pay income tax, however as the Conservatives have frozen tax thresholds - inflation is pushing millions of people every year into paying more tax or a higher tax bracket. And this includes pensioners. So by 2027, state pensions could rise above income tax allowance (the amount of money you can earn which you don’t have to pay tax on).

Currently, pensions rise each year, either by inflation, average wages or 2.5% - whichever is highest. That has seen double-digit increases in pensions in recent years, as inflation has outstripped real wages. Now Sunak has said an age-related income tax allowance rise in line with the increase to the state pension, effectively meaning people would never pay income tax on it.

How is this being funded?

The policy will cost £2.4 billion a year by 2029/30 and will be funded through the clamping down on tax dodgers – the same pot of money which will help pay for Sunak’s plan for new mandatory national service for 18-year-olds.

You may be wondering why the Conservatives did not clamp down on billions of pounds of tax avoidance each year for the previous 14 years in power, which saw swathes of cuts to public services? For that, I do not have an answer.

What has Rishi Sunak said?

He said: “Thanks to the Conservatives’ triple lock, pensions have risen by £900 this year and now we will cut their taxes by around £100 next year. This bold action demonstrates we are on the side of pensioners. The alternative is Labour dragging everyone in receipt of the full state pension into income tax for the first time in history.” Remember the tax burden is currently at its highest level since 1949 ...

The opposition have hit out at the Tories’ pension tax plans. Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney has said: "The sheer hypocrisy of the Conservatives to claim they are on the side of pensioners is laughable at best and dishonest at worst.

"Our nation's pensioners have been clobbered by stealth taxes, and failed on social care - these promises are empty.

"This is a once-in-a-generation election and we're seeing more and more pensioners back the fair deal being put forward by the Liberal Democrats, especially where it's a two-horse race between us and the Conservatives."

While Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General Jon Ashworth added: “Why would anyone believe the Tories and Rishi Sunak on tax after they left the country with the highest tax burden in 70 years?

“This is just another desperate move from a chaotic Tory party torching any remaining facade of its claims to economic credibility.

“Not only have they promised to spend tens of billions of pounds since this campaign began, they also have a completely unfunded £46 billion policy to scrap national insurance that threatens the very basis of the state pension.

“Labour will protect the triple lock. But Rishi Sunak is planning to reward Britain’s pensioners for their loyalty by stabbing them in the back, just like he did to Boris Johnson and just like he has done to his own MPs.”

I wrote about how the Tories’ so-called stealth tax rises will hit millions of people after the Autumn Statement last year.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has just given a speech in the East Midlands on British business. Yesterday, the party announced it had the backing of 120 business leaders, with the executives writing into the Times to say the economy has been “beset by instability, stagnation and a lack of long-term focus”.

In her speech, Reeves said: “Today I want to put forward a simple proposition: that this changed Labour Party is today the natural party of British business.

 “And I want to set out the central economic fault line in this election, the choice before the British people on the fourth of July: 

 Five more years of chaos with the Conservative Party, leaving working people worse off; or stability with a changed Labour Party.”

Some bad news for Rishi Sunak and the Tories. Nigel Green, founder of deVere, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory, asset management and fintech organisations, predicts there won’t be an interest rate cut in June by the Bank of England.

Remember, the Prime Minister called this election after inflation almost got down to the BoE’s 2% target. Since then it’s been reported that the Tories are hoping to the central bank will cut the base interest rate next month, which would have a big impact on mortgage rates.

However Green says this is unlikely. He said: “Sunak announced the election on same day that the inflation data was confirmed to be 2.3%, which was higher than the 2.1% economists had expected.

“By itself this would mean that the likelihood of a rate cut would be diminished. But with elections inherently bringing a degree of uncertainty, officials will not want to trigger volatility with a rate cut during the campaign.

​“The BoE will also be keen to uphold its image as an apolitical institution. Cutting interest rates close to a general election could be construed as an attempt to influence the economic narrative, potentially favouring the incumbent government.”

He added: “Therefore, we expect the rate to be held steady at the 16-year high until after the next government is announced.

“Even then, it’s not a given that the Bank will immediately move to begin to ease monetary policy.”

As well as following NationalWorld’s fantastic coverage from across the country, you may want to keep up to watch the BBC. Hosting that coverage will be Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie, the corporation has just announced.

CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness, said: “In this election, we have one thing on our minds above all else – the voters. Throughout the campaign we’ll be giving them the facts and information they need to make up their own minds. We know the way people are consuming news is changing; we’ll have the most comprehensive ever offer across every platform, so we can be where people are.”

“And once the ballots are cast, a truly fantastic line-up of journalistic talent, headed by Laura and Clive, will bring voters the results and help make sense of them. We’ve assembled a fresh, dynamic team to bring insight, experience - and perhaps a little wit – to audiences for the whole election night and beyond. It’s incredible to have such breadth and depth of expertise to call upon, up and down the country, when it matters most.”

I was off over the weekend when the Tories announced their National Service policy, but I jotted down a few thoughts on X (Twitter) about how it is ill-thought through and really penalises working 18-year-olds, or students who need to work at weekends to stay afloat.

Nigel Farage has said funding is an issue for the Reform Party, as he appeared at the launch event for the party’s candidate for Dover earlier today.

“Funding is an issue. Funding has been an issue. There’s no question about that. We’re not very well funded at the moment,” Farage said.

“But we do have quite a considerable database. I’ll be reaching out to them tomorrow to say come and help us.

“Are we going to have the 20, 30 million that Labour and the Conservatives have? No, but we do have a message. And that message is distinct and it’s clear, and it’s different. And often, political parties spend huge amounts of money that they simply waste on billboards and messages that no one sees and no one hears.

He said the party had “handicaps” in terms of structure, money and size, but that this was “just the start” and part of a six-year plan.