Rishi Sunak will have to answer for his D-day absence, says Starmer after PM’s apology – UK general election live | Politics

Here are a few more words from Keir Starmer about his attendance at D-day commemoration events in France yesterday, in which he appeared to question Rishi Sunak’s character and understanding of duty as prime minister. He said there was “not a discussion” about whether he would attend.

Starmer said:

And this election is about character, who you have in your mind’s eye when you make decisions.

And for me there was only one place I was going to be, which is there to pay my respects to the veterans.

And to say thank you to them on behalf of all of us, including my young children who, as I said to many of the veterans, were pretty carefree yesterday going to school. But that was down to their sacrifice, and the sacrifice particularly of those colleagues of theirs who didn’t make it back.

I made a choice yesterday about what I would do as leader of the Labour party and as a candidate to be prime minister and I knew I should be there. This was not a discussion.

It was my duty to be there, it was my privilege to be there.

Privilege is a word that is probably overused in politics but I felt privileged to be able to be with veterans who had fought on D-day against the odds to liberate Europe and to allow me to grow up in peace and freedom and democracy.

ONS figures suggest cost of living crisis and NHS are the most pressing issues for voters

Phillip Inman

Phillip Inman is economics editor of the Observer and an economics writer for the Guardian

Somewhat contrary to claims earlier in the week by the former Reform UK leader Richard Tice that 2024 was going to be “the immigration election”, polling by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) between 22 May to 2 June shows that adults in England, Wales and Scotland are less concerned about immigration than they were last year.

The ONS said the most commonly reported issue was the cost of living (87%) and the NHS (85%), followed by the economy (68%), crime (60%), housing (57%), and climate change and the environment (56%).

In a blow to the Reform UK party, the subject was a concern for 52% of people polled, which compares with a 54% level in the polling conducted just over six months ago, between 15 and 22 of November last year.

The ONS said lower order issues facing Britain acccording to the poll were international conflict (48%) and education (46%).

More than half of those polled said their cost of living had increased over the last month. The ONS said people reported being hit by higher food shopping bills (91%), fuel (58%) or their gas and electricity bills (50%).

Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has urged Scotland to vote for “a future made in Scotland, for Scotland”, saying that the campaign is “all over” for the Conservatives, but cautioning that Labour in Westminster would deliver “Tory spending cuts” for his country.

Swinney told supporters in Glasgow:

It is becoming ever more clear that it’s over for the Conservative Party. And if it wasn’t all over before the prime minister’s foolish decision to turn his back on the D-day commemorations and return home to perpetuate the baseless claim he made on Tuesday in the television debate, it certainly is over now.

So in this election, people in Scotland have got to think long and hard about whether they want to vote for a Labour party that will deliver Tory spending cuts, or do they want to vote for the Scottish National party that will invest in the future of Scotland and put Scotland’s interests first?

That is the appeal I make to people in Scotland today. This is our chance. To vote SNP to put Scotland’s interests and Scotland’s national health service first. This is an opportunity for people to vote SNP for a future made in Scotland, for Scotland.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has told broadcasters “there was nowhere else I was going to be” other than at D-day commemoration events, and that the prime minister will have to “answer for his own actions.”

During a visit in Greater London on Friday, the Labour leader said:

Rishi Sunak will have to answer for his choice. For me there was only one choice, which was to be there, to pay my respects, to say thank you and to have the opportunity to speak to those veterans.

Asked whether the prime minister’s apology draws a line under the row, Starmer said: “He has to answer for his own actions, for me there was nowhere else I was going to be.”

Sunak has apologised for leaving D-day anniversary events early to take part in a TV interview, admitting it was “a mistake not to stay in France longer”. Foreign secretary David Cameron to take his place in the late afternoon ceremony at Omaha beach on Thursday.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said Sunak brought “shame” on the office of prime minister.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey has written to defence secretary Grant Shapps with a specific set of questions including “Did the prime minister himself suggest that this was not the best use of his time? If not the prime minister, who did?” and also pointed out that “Given that the prime minister has been campaigning on the idea young people should complete a year’s national service, what does it say that he appears to have been unable to complete a single afternoon of it?”

Sunak’s party appear to being squeezed from the right by Reform UK in polling, and the recently installed Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said “Patriotic people who love their country should not vote for [Sunak].”

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer, however, has said he has found “faux outrage” from people he claimed were preventing veterans’ affairs from being improved “nauseating”.

Hannah Al-Othman is a North of England correspondent for the Guardian

It is a family affair in Hyndburn in Lancashire, where the Tory incumbent Sara Britcliffe is being challenged by her own first cousin.

Matthew Britcliffe is standing for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain on 4 July. He had joined the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn, campaigned for them in the last general election, and cites the late radical Labour MP Tony Benn as his most inspirational political figure.

Sara Britcliffe was elected in 2019; then just 24-years-old, she became the youngest Conservative MP. Labour had previously held the seat since 1992.

Matthew Britcliffe has criticised his cousin for voting in favour of dumping raw sewage in rivers, and voting against a ceasefire in Gaza, and said “the last five years have been horrific, and we simply cannot afford another five years like that.”

“My desire to do the right thing is what has caused me to now stand to represent the constituency of my father’s family,” he said in a statement. “My family has been part of East Lancashire’s history through the age of industrialisation, and I well understand how most of us came to be here in the first place.”

“Days after the [2019] election, my father told me I had a cousin, who I’d never heard of, and that she had been elected to parliament as a Tory MP,” he continued. “It was disappointing news, and didn’t get any better. A vote for dumping more sewage in our rivers, and a vote against a ceasefire in Gaza: two votes of Sara’s which stood out to me.”

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, Sara Britcliffe has said that “Matthew is an estranged family member with whom I have no contact due to personal reasons.”

She said she does not believe that her cousin lives in the constituency, adding: “it is important to note that we do share the same last name and that I will be the second name down on the ballot paper.”

Senior members of the Labour team are expected to spend much of the day holed up to iron out the party’s draft manifesto ahead of publication expected next week, but for public consumption today they have been promoting their “freedom to buy” housing policy.

As my colleague Jane Croft has written:

Labour has said that, if it wins the general election, it will make permanent a mortgage guarantee scheme aimed at helping low-deposit mortgages become available for first-time buyers.

The temporary scheme, which involves the government acting as a guarantor for part of a home loan, was introduced by the Conservatives in 2021 and was extended until July next year by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. It is aimed at encouraging lenders to offer low-deposit deals to first-time buyers.

Labour believes its plan, which will be rebranded “Freedom to buy”, will help 80,000 young people buy their own homes over the next five years.

Jim Waterson

Jim Waterson is the Guardian’s political media editor

Sunak’s decision to head home early from D-day could have been explained away by a claim to be working on official business. Unfortunately, his cover was blown after it was revealed he had spent some of the afternoon recording an interview with ITV political journalist Paul Brand.

Extraordinarily, that interview will not be shown in full until next Wednesday night. It was part of a series of pre-recorded ITV interviews with political party leaders that will be broadcast throughout the election campaign – meaning Sunak could have recorded it at any point in the next four days.

On Thursday evening ITV decided to release a short taster clip from the longer interview, in which Sunak was challenged about his tax claims, hoping to attract some coverage ahead of Friday night’s televised debate between party representatives. Instead, the clip mainly served to highlight what Sunak had been up to when he headed back early from Normandy.

Brand, whose reporting helped bring down Boris Johnson during the partygate scandal, told viewers on ITV News: “Today was the slot we were offered … we don’t know why.”

Libby Brooks

Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent

The row over Douglas Ross apparently elbowing out another candidate who is recovering from serious illness in hospital shows no sign of abating this morning.

As we reported yesterday, the Scottish Tory leader made the surprise announcement that he would be standing for another Westminster seat – having insisted he was focusing on his Holyrood duties as an MSP – and none was more surprised than David Duguid, the anticipated candidate, who had been adopted by the local branch but was then blocked by the party’s management board for health reasons.

Overnight, Duguid’s local supporters have been out in force, condemning his treatment, while opposition voices have variously described Ross’s behaviour as “tawdry”, “shamefull” and “a betrayal”.

This morning Ross gave a lengthy interview to BBC Radio Scotland in which he insisted the management board was concerned “about the rigours of the election campaign and indeed the next five years as a member of parliament”.

Ross denied this was “an insurance option” for his career, and when it was put to him that colleagues at Holyrood were unhappy about his U-turn, Ross said these were “very unique circumstances” and repeated that he “wanted to lead from the front” in a key SNP target seat.

Jessica Murray

Jessica Murray is the Guardian’s Midlands correspondent

The disgraced former Labour MP Keith Vaz has announced he is standing for election in his old seat, Leicester East, for a new local party.

Vaz will be taking on Labour, as well as his successor Claudia Webbe, who is standing as an independent candidate after being expelled from Labour over a conviction for harassment in 2021.

Vaz was the MP for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987-2019, before he stepped down as a candidate after being caught in a tabloid sting offering to acquire cocaine for sex workers.

In a leaflet distributed to voters in the seat this week, Vaz said: “It was the greatest privilege of my life to serve as MP for Leicester East for over three decades. I absolutely love Leicester.

“Today, I am shocked with what I see. Despite so many opportunities, Leicester is unrecognisable, and on the edge of bankruptcy.

“Many people have urged me to stand again. I have decided to do so and accept the nomination of Leicester’s newest party, One Leicester, to be their candidate for one more term. Although I have always held Labour values, I promise to put Leicester first and party politics second.”

Vaz told the Guardian last year that he would not stand as an MP again, saying: “That ship has sailed.”