Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRussian interference in the UK general election will likely “ramp up dramatically” over the next fortnight, the chair of the United States senate intelligence committee has warned.Washington has witnessed “egregious efforts” by Moscow to interfere in the democratic process across the globe, similar to those alleged in the 2016 US presidential election, said Mark Warner.The senior senator, who is regularly briefed on secret US intelligence, said he had been closely monitoring the situation in the UK, adding: “I think the next big test of the state of play will be the British elections in a few weeks.”Mark Warner chairs the US senate intelligence committee More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRachel Reeves has clarified Sir Keir Starmer’s definition of “working people” days after the party pledged not to raise taxes on workers if it got into power.The shadow chancellor backed up the promise in the party’s manifesto in a video message where she said she would not put up income tax, National Insurance or VAT.But after Sir Keir appeared to omit pensioners and savers when asked for his definition of “working people”, senior Tories claimed it indicated the party actually intended to raise taxes. Asked what he meant by “working people” in a radio interview on LBC on Tuesday, Sir Keir said: “People who earn their living, rely on our [public] services and don’t really have the ability to write a cheque when they get into trouble” he said.“So the sort of people I’m meeting pretty well every day now. It’s quite a big group because these days there are many people obviously not so well off.”Rachel Reeves told Kay Burley that ‘working people’ didn’t mean people without savings More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has endured a brutal hour-long radio phone in which he was accused of “lying through his teeth” and dubbed a “pound-shop Nigel Farage” over his record on LGBT rights.The prime minister faced a grilling from callers furious at the Conservatives’ 14-year record on the state of the NHS and housing – as well as the party’s decision to accept millions from controversial donor Frank Hester.In a sign of the electoral challenge facing Mr Sunak, he was given a markedly frostier reception than Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who faced LBC listeners 24 hours earlier.Rishi Sunak was accused of ‘lying through his teeth’ in the phone-in More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBoris Johnson is no longer set to join the Tory election campaign trail amid fears he will alienate Conservative voters in seats the party desperately needs to hold. Instead, the former prime minister is expected to take a second summer holiday – having just returned from Sardinia. Mr Johnson has been pulled into the fight to stave off an electoral wipeout and letters signed by the ex-PM exhorting thousands of voters to back the Conservatives are due to land on doorsteps within days. But he is not now thought to be joining his party’s ground war, as its tries to save ‘blue wall’ seats in the south of England. Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Labour Party has suspended a candidate following reports he shared “pro-Russian” material online. Andy Brown, who is standing in Aberdeen North and Moray East, reportedly shared an article from Russian state media outlet RT following the Salisbury poisonings, which claimed the Novichok nerve agent used in the attack was “never produced in Russia”.The article, shared by Mr Brown in April 2018, also claimed the toxin “was in service in the US, UK, and other Nato states”. Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, which had been left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.Andy Brown is standing in Aberdeen North and Moray East More