Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox
Get our free View from Westminster email
Conservative MPs were left stunned by Rishi Sunak’s shock decision to fire the starting gun for a 4 July general election.
Tory members have branded the move a “kamikaze election” and think the party is not ready to go to the polls. A former minister told The Independent: “We are not sure who will come out of this with their seats.”
After the astonishing announcement on Wednesday, political parties have wasted no time in launching their campaigns.
Mr Sunak kicked things off touring broadcast studios this morning before visiting all four nations in the UK in two days. He said the economy is “going gangbusters” in his first major election interview today.
The prime minister gave his upbeat verdict after being challenged over his claim that the British economy is now growing faster than the US. He also confirmed Rwanda flights won’t take off before the general election.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has announced he will not be standing for Reform UK after he was reportedly expected to make an appearance at the party’s campaign launch later today.
Breaking: Nigel Farage will not stand in the general election
Nigel Farage is not standing as a candidate in the general election, he has announced.
The former UKIP leader said he thought “long and hard” about contesting the general election, but has decided to help with Donald Trump’s re-election bid in the US instead, Archie Mitchell reports.
“Important though the general election is, the contest in the United States of America on 5 November has huge global significance,” Mr Farage said.
Despite not standing as a candidate, Mr Farage, who is Reform’s honorary president, said he will “do my bit to help in the campaign”.
“But it is not the right time for me to go any further than that,” Mr Farage said.
He offered his full support to Reform and its current leader Richard Tice, adding that the choice between Labour and the Tories is “uninspiring”.
“Only Reform have the radical agenda that is needed to end decline in this country,” he said.
Starmer says PM called early election to avoid Rwanda scheme failure
Sir Keir Starmer says the prime minister has never believed in the Rwanda plan and has used the election announcement to avoid implementing it.
He said: “Rishi Sunak clearly does not believe in his Rwanda plan. I think that’s been clear from this morning, because he’s not going to get any flights off.
“I think that tells its own story. I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election.
“We have to deal with the terrible loss of control of the border under this government, we have to tackle the small boats that are coming across – nobody but nobody should be making that journey.
“But the serious response to that, rather than the gimmick from the government is to smash the gangs with a new border command that will work across countries to take those gangs down and stop this vile trade.”
Calls for migrants detained for Rwanda flights to be released
Following comments by Rishi Sunak this morning that flights to Rwanda will go ahead after the election, migration experts have been raising concerns about the people who are already in immigration detention, Holly Bancroft reports.
Jon Featonby, policy advisor at the charity Refugee Council, has said: “There are still an untold number of people who are in detention, and more potentially will continue to be detained, under the Rwanda plan. Given the even greater uncertainty now that any flights will take off, they should all be released.”
SNP MP Alison Thewliss, who is on the Home Affairs select committee, said she was relieved to see that flights would not happen before the election. But she added:
“Those who have been detained under threat of removal to Rwanda must now be released and their cases properly considered here.”
Deputy leader Ben Habib speaks first.
The Reform UK member says calling for a July election was the right decision.
He also slams Rishi Sunak for not being able to implement his migration policies and says “the Rwanda scheme is completely flawed”.
Attacking the Conservatives are “an absolutely hopeless lot” for “not getting Brexit done”.
Mr Habib says the PM is “scared” and has failed the UK.
The deputy leader confirms he is standing as a Wellingbrough candidate.
Reform UK is holding a press conference
The right-wing party are setting out their pledges ahead of what they call “The Immigration Election”
Reform UK party leader has previously vowed to curve net migration and “take back control” of UK borders.
Richard Tice will be speaking from London shortly.
Polls: Conservatives up by a point
YouGov has revealed the latest Westminster voting intention from May 21.
Figures show support for the Conservatives has goneby a point while Labour leads the race with 46 per cent of the votes.
Former Scottish health secretary suspended
Michael Matheson has been suspended from Holyrood for 27 days and will lose his salary.
Matheson was found to have breached the MSP code of conduct after pocketing £11,000 in expenses for streaming football matches on a work tablet.
After announcing he would cover the costs himself, he revealed his children had used the device as a wifi hotspot to watch football during a holiday in Morocco.
Tory MP stands down at the next general election
Jo Churchill has quit ahead of the general election in July.
The MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket joins more than 100 members not facing the electorate in the upcoming contest.
The Conservative member had a majority of 24,000, but her constituency is now becoming a new seat under the boundary changes.
Shadow home secretary: Rwanda plan ‘a con from start to finish’
Labour MP Yvette Cooper has slammed Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme after he announced flights won’t take off before the general election.
The shadow home secretary said: “The prime minister’s own words this morning show this whole Rwanda scheme has been a con from start to finish.
“With all the hundreds of millions they have spent, it would be extraordinary if ‘symbolic flights’ didn’t take off in early July, as the Tories planned.
“But Rishi Sunak’s words confirm what we’ve known all along: he doesn’t believe this plan will work and that’s why he called the election now in the desperate hope that he won’t be found out.
Watch: Protesters who blasted New Labour’s 1997 anthem unmasked
Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray posted footage of himself and a group of people gathered round a speaker outside Downing Street as it played the D:Ream track while the prime minister spoke.
Mr Sunak was drenched in the rain as he spoke over the music, confirming he had spoken with King Charles III to request the dissolution of parliament for the general election to be held on 4 July 2024.
Source: independent.co.uk
