Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailCandidates can turn up just about anywhere on the campaign trail, but several families were shocked when Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg walked into their children’s first holy communion. Sir Jacob had permission to appear with his family and a film crew for a mass at St Joseph and St Teresa Church in Somerset earlier this month, but while a sign had been put up, the families of some dozen children said they did not know he would be in attendance.Parents, including Gideon Davey, whose 10-year-old daughter Ottilie received her first holy communion, initially believed the film crew was there on behalf of the church.“This spiritual and deeply personal occasion will forever be stained by a selfish and self-promoting stunt,” he said.The reason for the film crew accompanying the Conservative candidate for North East Somerset and Hanham has been kept under wraps. Earlier this month it emerged Mr Rees-Mogg was in talks with Discovery+ over a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Gideon Davey with his daughter after she received her First Holy Communion during a church service attended by Jacob Rees-Mogg and his film crew More

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insightRishi Sunak has said he is “proud” of his disastrous election campaign and claims he will win Thursday’s general election. The prime minister has come under fire in recent weeks for a series of calamities that included a rain-soaked announcement of polling day, leaving D-Day commemorations early and a gambling scandal.But in a crunch interview with just days to go before the vote, Mr Sunak told the BBC‘s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg “this campaign is something I am very proud of” as he sought to disparage Labour’s plans.He also said he believes he will win the election. Asked whether he thought he would still be prime minister on Friday, he said: “Yes. I’m fighting very hard and I think people are waking up to the real danger of what a Labour government means.”Rishi Sunak, soaked in rain, pauses as he delivers a speech to announce the election date More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRussian dissidents living in the UK have hit back at “deeply offensive” words of admiration for Vladimir Putin by Nigel Farage and another Reform UK candidate.It comes as a former British defence attache posted in Moscow described Mr Farage and his party, now third in the polls, as “deeply maligned actors … working against the security interest of our country”.When asked about both accusations, a Reform UK spokesperson burst into laughter, before suggesting Julian Malins, a party candidate who last weekend bragged about meeting Putin and that he “seemed very good”, was merely a highly-intelligent “eccentric sort of character”.Mr Malins later sought to clarify his comments, saying Putin was a “popular” president and therefore a “good Russian president”, but said he was not a good man “in the Christian sense”.Three dissidents, as well as newly-knighted Sir Bill Browder, formerly Russia’s largest foreign investor before being exiled by Putin, told The Independent that comments from Mr Farage and Mr Malins were an affront not only to them but to the British passport holder Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in a Siberian solitary confinement cell for speaking out against the invasion of Ukraine. After the death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian penal colony, Mr Kara-Murza’s family now fear he will Putin’s next target. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailIt has been seven long years since the White Stripes song “Seven Nation Army” became an anthem for a new generation of Labour voters. In 2017 the chant “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” rang out at music festivals and political rallies as young people got behind the socialist firebrand. But fast forward to 2024 and not only is Mr Corbyn not Labour leader, he is no longer a member of the party he championed for 40 years, and is instead running as an independent. Unfortunately for the man who has served Islington North since 1983, not all of his supporters appear to know that, and that could at least partly explain why the veteran campaigner appears to have a real fight on his hands despite winning a majority of 26,000 in 2019. Then Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn with shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer at a press conference in London in 2019 More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailVoters in the blue wall have seen an average of eight Liberal Democrat adverts as the party steps up its bid to oust high-profile names like Jeremy Hunt, according to sources.The Lib Dems are climbing in the opinion polls, with some even suggesting they could be fighting for second place in the event of a Tory meltdown. Forecasts indicate the party could take more than 50 seats on Thursday, after a campaign noted for leader Ed Davey’s stunts.Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has spent £100,000 of his own money to try to save his seat (Aaron Chown/PA) More

Nigel Farage claimed a Reform UK canvasser who called for English Channel migrants to be used as “target practice” was an actor.When challenged that “all sorts of people are actors”, on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme (29 June), the Reform UK leader said of the canvasser who was filmed by an undercover reporter: “He’s an actor – a rather well-spoken actor – but he has an alter ego. He does what he calls ‘rough speaking’.“I was there working in the office in Essex when he turned up and he was, from the moment he walked through the room, like a version of Alf Garnett (a character from the 1960s sitcom Till Death Us Do Part who used racist slurs).” More

Rishi Sunak was involved in a fiery clash with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg over Brexit on Sunday (30 June) as the prime minister told her “You’re completely wrong”.Mr Sunak was pressed about claims that the UK’s departure from the EU has hit the economy since the 2016 referendum.Ms Kuenssberg asked: “Some people believe, including the Independent Climate Change Committee, that the UK has lost its status as a leader. Was it a mistake?”Mr Sunak replied: “No, I fundamentally disagree. You said we lost our standing in the world. That is completely and utterly wrong.”“That is not what I said,” Ms Kuenssberg interrupted. More

This is the moment political activists disrupted Nigel Farage’s Reform election speech as they lowered a banner showing Vladimir Putin and the words ‘I heart Nigel’.Mr Farage was giving a speech at The Columbine Centre in Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex on Saturday (29 June), when Led by Donkeys carried out the prank.The Reform leader can be heard asking “Who put that up there?” before joking: “Someone at The Columbine Centre needs to get the sack”. Two staff members attempted to get rid of the banner, while audience members cheered and chanted “Rip it down”. More