With three days to go until the general election, party leaders jump on the final week campaign trail.
Sir Keir Starmer has said only the progressives can beat the far-right and blamed the surge on “disaffection among voters” amid popularity of Marine Le Pen’s nationalist party in France.
The Labour leader said people feel the country is “too broken to be mended” and “can’t trust politicians” after 14 years of “Tory chaos”, but added: “Only progressives have the answers of the challenges that are facing us.”
It comes as Labour holds a strong 24-point lead in latest polls on voter intentions, with the Tories struggling to close the gap.
But candidates insist they will fight for every vote until the last whistle.
Labour’s shadow environment secretary Steve Reed warned the Conservatives could still “sneak through at the end” to win as Thursday’s vote was still all to play for despite the successful polling results.
Exclusive: Next prime minister urged to dump Sunak’s post-Brexit wine tax
Sir Keir Starmer is being urged to dump Rishi Sunak’s ‘sneaky’ post-Brexit wine tax if he wins the keys to Downing Street this week, Kate Devlin reports.
Britain’s wine drinkers face a little-known ‘sauvignon surcharge’ from February, as part of changes brought in after the UK left the European Union.
As the prime minister uses the election campaign to repeatedly accuse Labour of planning secret tax rises if they get into power, experts and industry leaders today call for his booze levy to be dropped.
Corbyn tells Keir to be more like Blair
Jeremy Corbyn has told Sir Keir Starmer to be more like Tony Blair and appoint “socialist figures” in his Cabinet if he gets into Downing Street.
Speaking to i, the former Labour leader labelled Sir Keir’s leadership “authoritarian” and a “straitjacket of conformity”.
He said his shadow cabinet contrasts with Sir Tony’s close allies including Left-wingers Frank Dobson and Robin Cook.
The independent candidate said: “I don’t see any appetite for political diversity by the Labour leadership at all.”
He added: “You’ve got to keep the trust of people. If they crush dissent in the Labour Party, which they’ve been very good at doing then they actually give themselves a fool’s paradise of agreement and they have driven the other people out, who are actually very constructive.”
The criticism comes after the once-party colleagues fell out after Mr Corbyn was kicked out of the party.
Sir Keir previously claimed he was “certain” his predecessor was going to lose the 2019 election.
Tory MP who used Nigel Farage on campaign leaflet falls out spectacularly with Reform
Andrea Jenkyns claimed she was wooed by a pro-Brexit businessman acting on behalf of Reform who she says offered her jobs to defect.
The MP has described a number of meetings with Arron Banks – including going to Nigel Farage’s birthday party as his plus 1 – as Reform under Richard Tice’s leadership tried to pressure her to switch parties ahead of the election.
But the meetings prompted fevered speculation before the election that Ms Jenkyns might defect to Reform and led to revelations of her efforts to strike a deal between them and the Tories.
Ms Jenkyn’s allegations have been denied by Reform and Mr Banks, but the row has echoes of claims made by Lee Anderson, denied by Tice and Reform, that he was offered £80,000 a year to defect before he was suspended by the Tories. Another Tory MP has made the same allegation but does not want to be named.
Starmer: I will work with Marine Le Pen on small boats
Sir Keir Starmer has admitted he would work with right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen to deal with the small boats crossing the Channel.
Speaking in Buckinghamshire, the Labour leader said: “I will work with any government in Europe and across the world if we are elected in to serve the country.
“For me, that’s what serious government is about. So yes, we will work with whoever.
“I do think it is important that we make the progressive case to meet the challenges that we face across Europe and across the world.”
The comments come after Sir Keir claimed the only capable of beating the far right in Europe is the Left.
Ms Le Pen’s National Rally party won the first round of France’s parliamentary election on Sunday.
Tories accused of ‘hollowing out’ defence as historic regiments culled
Rory Stewart warns Tories ‘not to try Le Pen’ at home
Rory Stewart has warned the Conservatives not to replicate Marine Le Pen’s “populism”.
The former One Nation MP and cabinet minister said the Tories cannot resurface from the defeating opinion polls by “appealing to the populist right”.
Instead, he urged the party to “retake the centre”.
Declaring that he would not vote for Labour, he told Times Radio: “The fantasy seems to be that if they bring in nice, good-willed people from difficult backgrounds, everything’s going to be fine.
“I don’t feel that they have yet taken on board just how difficult government is. So I’m very, very worried that this is going to be a very stale, inactive government that’s going to be using class warfare as a cover for inaction.”
Starmer dismisses questions about working with Putin if elected
Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed questions on whether he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if he were to become prime minister.
Speaking during a campaign visit to Buckingham and Bletchley, the Labour leader told reporters: “Look at the moment that is simply not an issue. He is the aggressor in Ukraine, and the most important thing is to be absolutely clear that our support for Ukraine is on a united front in this country.
“And the current Government and us as the Opposition have spoken with one voice since the outbreak of this conflict. That was a deliberate decision that I took.
“I’ve been to see President Zelensky in Kyiv myself personally to say, should there be a change of government, there won’t be any change in our support for Ukraine.”
He continued: “Without getting ahead of ourselves, obviously, an important event next week is the Nato summit in Washington, where one of the big issues will be the continued support for Ukraine.”
Farage: Marine Le Pen’s win in France would be a ‘disaster’
With Marine Le Pen’s party at the gates of power in the polls, UK politicians have reacted to the possibility of having a right-wing French government as the new neighbours.
Sir Keir Starmer said this morning that only the Left can beat rising far right parties across Europe, and Rishi Sunak dodged questions about a potential victory.
But Nigel Farage didn’t hold back. The Reform UK leader said a victory for the National Rally would be “a disaster” for France, UnHeard reports.
He added the party would be “even worse for the economy than the current lot”.
It comes as Mr Farage previously expressed support for Le Pen claiming she is a “sincere Eurosceptic”.
Join today’s Q&A with Reform UK candidate Howard Cox
The Independent is giving readers the chance to chat directly with candidates from some of the major political parties in a special general election series of Ask Me Anything events.
Two of Reform’s core five pledges are to do with migration. The party says it would freeze non-essential immigration, but concedes there would be exceptions with work in healthcare considered essential.
Elsewhere, the party pledges big tax cuts for small businesses, an overhaul of the adult social care system, scrapping the net zero target, banning ‘transgender ideology’ in schools, and axing the rest of the HS2 rail link.
Politics Explained | Why does talk of a Labour landslide worry Keir Starmer?
“Yet the event had an air of deliberate caution, tempered by fears of comparisons with 1992 and that the feeling a Labour government is already guaranteed will see the party leak votes to the Lib Dems and the Greens.”
