General election live: Reform UK rejects claim its candidates are racist, misogynistic and bigoted | General election 2024

The Electoral Commission has long complained that the laws in place designed to stop political parties accepting donations from abroad are not strict enough. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has published a report today showing why these concerns are justified. In their story Eleanor Rose, Simon Lock and Lucy Nash say:

TBIJ arranged a series of multiple small payments to each of the six major parties. The payments were individually less than £500 – the lower limit of the legal definition of a political donation – but passed that threshold once added together.

Labour was the only party to correctly identify and block the money. The Conservatives, Reform UK, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Scottish National Party (SNP) all failed to bar or return the payments.

When approached with TBIJ’s findings, parties disagreed about whether they were required to spot the donations or report them to the Electoral Commission, highlighting the confusion around the rules.

Experts said the findings show “deeply concerning” flaws in party donations processes as well as the “Swiss cheese” nature of rules intended to ensure fair elections and prevent foreign influence.

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has called for a review into the timetable for UK general elections in the light of ongoing concerns about people not getting postal votes on time.

The issue is causing particular problems in Scotland, where the school holidays start earlier than in England and where many families have already left for a foreign holiday abroad. Some of them left before their postal votes arrived.

In an open letter to the prime minister, Swinney said he was concerned by reports that No 10 told journalists at the lobby briefing yesterday that Rishi Sunak was not concerned about problems with postal votes. Swinney said:

When so many people have confirmed that they did not receive their packs before leaving their home in the holiday season in Scotland, and with hundreds of voters applying to their local councils for emergency replacement postal votes, this is major cause for concern for many, including your postal affairs minister who is “urgently investigating” the delays across the UK.

This has led to people in Scotland who did everything they were meant to do in order to secure their right to vote in this general election not being able to exercise that right. These include people who had already-arranged holidays that they had to leave for before the delayed postal votes arrived, and people for whom the alternatives, including organising a replacement postal pack from their local authority, were unsuitable or unavailable.

Swinney told Sunak the problem was caused “by a combination of your selection of an unsuitable date for the general election, and the timetable for UK parliament elections, which has little room in it to address issues arising, such as the reported delays at the printers”.

Calling for an inquiry into when elections take place, and how much notice is given, he said:

As well as establishing the facts about what happened during this election, a review into both the timetable for UK parliament elections and how decisions are made about their timing needs to be held urgently after the general election. I expect the Electoral Management Board for Scotland to be involved in this review, as the body with the greatest expertise and experience in the conduct of elections in Scotland.

There may be little that can be done now for some voters to secure their ability to vote in this election, but it would give them some confidence in the UK electoral system and our democracy to know in advance of the election that such a review was planned.

Conscious that Sunak may not be PM for much longer, Swinney also said he was copying his letter to other opposition party leaders, including Keir Starmer.

Keir Starmer has responded to Tory warnings about Labour getting a large majority by saying that is what he needs so that he has a “strong mandate” for change.

Speaking to reporters today, and asked why voters should not fear a “supermajority”, Starmer said:

Given that the country is pretty broken at the moment, a lot of things aren’t working, there’s a big job for us to do if we come in to serve and we need a strong mandate for that.

We need to know the country genuinely wants this change and that we’re all prepared to say this is the change that we want, and it gives a real strong mandate to a government to say ‘we’ve asked you to change things, you need to get on with it’.

The mandate is important to us, if I’m honest, because I want to know that people do want change. Our job then is to get on and do it.

There is no precise definition of a “supermajority”, but some MRP polls have suggested that Labour would win a majority of more than 200, or even more than 300. Calling that a supermajority would be reasonable.

In some countries, a supermajority (such as two-thirds) is required for some types of constitutional change. That is not the case in the UK, where bills can be passed with a majority of one. (But, as James Ball from the New European explains here, if Labour wanted to change the royal charter for press regulation, passed under the coalition but ignored by most big newspapers, it would need a two-thirds majority in the Commons.)

Richard Tice, the former Reform UK leader who became its chair when Nigel Farage replaced him, has claimed that the Tories infiltrated his party with “Trojan horse” candidates ahead of the election with the intention of discrediting Reform UK.

Responding to Georgie David’s defection (see 10.35am), he posted these on X.

More desperate corruption by Tories

What jobs & safe seats have toxic Tories offered this candidate? As they have with many others.

Note same press release language… coordinated by dirty tricks central, CCHQ

Voters delighted to oust these Tories

Just some of our wonderful Reform candidates

Desperate toxic Tories sent us some Trojan horse candidates by offering jobs, safe council seats etc to spread lies.

Their corruption will rightly be punished by voters on July 4

Many millions will vote Reform for change

David says she can no longer support Reform UK because of its failure to tackle its racism problem.

Workers Party of Britain candidate suspends campaign after attack leaves son in hospital

Jessica Murray

The Workers Party of Britain candidate for Sutton Coldfield has suspended campaigning saying he “fears for his life” after his son was attacked while out canvassing for him.

Wajad Burkey, who is standing for election in the West Midlands town, said his son and two others were handing out leaflets at about 7.20pm Sunday when a “gang of eight men turned up with baseball bats and machetes” and attacked them.

His son suffered a head injury and was taken to Heartlands hospital for treatment.

“I have suspended my campaign as I am fearful, frankly, for my life,” Burkey said.

West Midlands police confirmed it is investigating after a man was attacked by a group of people armed with weapons in Sutton Coldfield on Sunday. The force said:

Around eight people arrived on motorbikes and cars before attacking the man with a baseball bat. A knife was also produced during the attack.

The victim was left with an injury to the back of his head and went to hospital for treatment. We are examining CCTV and carrying out other enquiries.

George Galloway, leader of the WPB, posted on X to say:

I’m stunned to report that our candidate in Sutton Coldfield has had to suspend his campaigning after his canvassers were attacked by men with baseball bats and machetes leaving some, including his son, in hospital.

Andrew Mitchell, the incumbent Conservative standing for re-election in Sutton Coldfield, responded to say the incident was “truly shocking”.

Violence and intimidation has no place in our democratic process,” he said. “I contacted George Galloway last night to express my concerns. If anyone has any information please contact Sutton Coldfield police immediately.

The Electoral Commission has said it does not think there are major problems with people not being able to get postal votes before Thursday.

In an interview with Radio 4’s the World at One, Vijay Rangarajan, chief executive at the commission, said:

There’s an increased number of postal votes, and there are some local issues around the country but we’re not seeing major, systemic problems at the moment.

It’s always the case that votes are delivered over the period of the election and clearly is disappointing for some people if they haven’t received one in good time.

But at the moment the printers have been working flat out, Royal Mail has been working really flat out, as have electoral administrators, to try to get postal votes out so everyone can vote.

We think about 6.7m postal votes have already been sent and people have voted and have been returned back to electoral administrators. That’s better than previous elections. And we think, the AEA [the Association of Electoral Administrators] have estimated, that we’re having a record number of postal votes this time.

So there was a bit of the system creaking under both the volume of votes and the timescale for doing a snap election so soon after May.

Rangarajan said the AEA thought 10 million people may vote by post this year, which would be a 20% increase on 2019.

He said the Royal Mail claim the last batches of postal voters should have been delivered yesterday or today. People should return them immediately, he said. But he said the Royal Mail would be doing a sweep to ensure any postal votes in the system get returned to returning officers in time for the close of poll on Thursday.

Rangarajan accepted that if people went away on holiday before their postal vote arrived, there was nothing that could be done to help them. But people waiting for a postal vote who have not received one can ask for a replacement pack, he said.

Royal Mail has hit back at criticism from a government minister over reports of delays to postal vote delivery, insisting there is “no backlog” ahead of the election.

Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, is said to be “urgently” investigating a failure to get ballot packs to people in some constituencies in time for polling day on Thursday. (See 7.54am.)

But in a statement issued this morning, a Royal Mail spokesperson said:

We have no backlog of postal votes and, whilst we are not complacent, we remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time will be delivered prior to polling day.

Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network.

We would welcome a review into the timetable for future elections with all stakeholders to ensure that the system for printing and administering postal votes before they are handed to Royal Mail works as smoothly as possible.

Reform UK has said that it strongly disagrees with the claim from its candidate, Georgie David, about most of its candidates being “racist, misogynistic, and bigoted”. (See 10.35am.)

Responding to her statement saying she is endorsing the Tories, a Reform UK spokesperson said:

We are very disappointed with Ms David’s course of action.

We strongly disagree with her sweeping comments about the ‘vast majority’ of our 600-plus candidates, the vast majority of whom she can never even have met.

And we find it sad and strange that she chose not to bring up any of her concerns with the party leadership before publicly trashing so many of her blameless colleagues who are giving their all to get Reform UK elected.

Ms David was a last minute addition to our candidate list and we apologise to the voters of West Ham and Beckton for any inconvenience.

David says she has suspended her campaign. But it is too late for her to withdraw as a candidate, and she will be on the ballot paper in West Ham and Beckton as the Reform UK candidate.

The Brexit party, Reform UK’s predecessor party, would have had 2.8% of the vote in West Ham and Beckton in 2019 if the new boundaries had been in place then, the Guardian’s constituency guide says.

Sunak refuses to disown Tory attacks on Starmer’s work ethic

Rowena Mason

Rishi Sunak was repeatedly pressed today on whether it was right to the Tories to criticise Keir Starmer’s work ethic. (See 9.29am.)

Speaking to reporters on a tour of a warehouse in Banbury in Oxfordshire, he stood by his ministers’ attacks on Starmer – but without repeating their criticism in such strong terms. He said:

Everyone is going to approach this job in a different way. In my experience, there is always work to do.

There’s always decisions that need to be made. And, you know, that’s what the job requires.

And that is what the prime minister’s job means. That’s what public service is about and the sacrifice that entails.

Asked whether it was right for Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, to claim that Starmer might clock off when pressing military decisions needed to taken, Sunak said:

I do worry about our country’s security, as there are deep concerns about it. This is the most dangerous time that our country has lived in it for decades.

He declined to comment further on John Mann, the government’s antisemitism adviser, saying it was “dangerous” to undermine Starmer’s decision to spend time with his family for the Jewish tradition of Friday night dinner.