Political figures to debate immigration, law and order on Channel 4 News special
The Channel 4 News special The UK Decides: Immigration, Law and Order, will kickoff at 6:30pm presented by Krishnan Guru-Murphy.
Chris Philp, the Home Office Minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, a shadow Cabinet Minister, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper, Carla Denyer the Green co-party leader, Reform UK chairman Richard Tice, SNP deputy leader Keith Brown and Rhun ap Iorwerth, lead of PLAID CYMRU will be grilled by a live studio audience.
The event in Colchester will last 90 minutes.
Key events
A summary of today’s developments
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Former Conservative Party donor and voter John Caudwell has announced he is voting for the Labour Party. Caudwell, who founded Phones4U, was one of the biggest donors to the Tories ahead of the 2019 general election, donating £500,000 to Boris Johnson’s campaign.
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Labour would “reset devolution” in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader said. Speaking at the launch of Scottish Labour’s election manifesto, he said Labour would take devolution back to its founding principles with a “turbo-charged Scotland Office”. Sarwar also pledged not to raise income tax if he becomes first minister.
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Labour is heading for a landslide win in the election, according to a new projection, but more than 100 Conservative-held seats appear to be on a knife-edge with the results in the hands of millions of undecided or swing voters, according to the MRP poll by Ipsos.
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Keir Starmer said he is “concerned” about the impact of the law introduced by the Conservatives requiring people to produce photo ID to be allowed to vote in general elections. Labour has not committed to repeal the law, but Starmer confirmed that his party will review how it operates if it wins the election.
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The BBC will allow Reform UK to take part in an extra Question Time leaders’ special on Thursday after Nigel Farage complained about being excluded from the programme.
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Rishi Sunak said that interventions by Boris Johnson in the election campaign could “make a difference” for the Tories. Asked about reports that the Conservatives plan to distribute tens of thousands of letters signed by the former PM, Sunak said: “It’s great that Boris is supporting the Conservative party, I very much welcome that.”
Former Conservative party donor and voter John Caudwell has announced he is voting for the Labour Party.
Caudwell, who founded Phones4U, was one of the biggest donors to the Conservative party ahead of the 2019 general election, donating £500,000 to Boris Johnson’s campaign.
He said: “For many years now I have been rather despairing about the performance of the party that I have supported for the last 51 years: the Tories.
“Only five years ago, I donated half a million to the Conservatives to help avert the disaster that would have been Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.
“But I’ve been increasingly critical of Tory failures since then, particularly over Rishi’s mismanagement of the economy during Covid, Boris’ lowering of ethical standards – and, of course, associated with that the accusation that Tory cronies benefited improperly regarding Covid PPE – and then the Liz Truss debacle.
“Over the last two years especially, I have been amazed by how Keir Starmer has transformed the Labour party and brought it back from that Corbyn brink.”
The Economist has conducted a constituency poll in Gillingham and Rainham ahead of the general election.
The constituency poll by WeThink puts Labour on 55%, the Conservative Party on 23% and Reform UK on 15%.
And that concludes the Channel 4 debate.
Thomas-Symonds said the UK needs to set an example of following international law and using the international aid budget to help people return to their country of origin.
On mass migration, Philp said the key is peace and prosperity such as promoting free trade.
Iorwerth said the climate crsis is the main driver of migration. Tice responds it is about creating economic growth in developing nations to reduce pressure on migration.
Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth has spoken about being attacked as a teenager.
Tice said the Green Party’s policies would entice more asylum seeker applications. And the UK should return people trying to cross the Channel.
Denyer said the Greens would create safe and legal routes, allow asymlum sekers to work while waiting for a decision on their application, end indefinite detention, and scrap the Rwanda scheme.
Philp says the Rwanda scheme acts as a deterrent to tackling the small boats issue. Tice responds saying 800 people crossed the English Channel today.
Thomas-Symonds says Labour would redirect the Rwanda scheme money to a Border Security Command, bringing together all the agencies and security services.
Cooper says the Lib Dems would scrap the Rwanda migration scheme and the money instead spent on 6,000 Home Office immigration case workers.
Official figures show a much smaller rise in recorded knife crime offences overall since 2011.
Reform’s Richard Tice suggested in the #c4debate that since the Conservatives took office “knife crime has almost tripled”. It’s not clear exactly what he has in mind. But official stats show a much smaller rise in recorded knife crime offences overall since 2011. pic.twitter.com/sd1WVF6VJo
— C4 News FactCheck (@FactCheck) June 18, 2024
On processing asylum applications, Tice says 15 years ago it took a fortnight to be assessed and had the right to an appeal inside a week, and that the number accepted has gone up by 20% to 75%.
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