Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Electoral Commission will publish advice on its website to warn voters about disinformation online amid fears of foreign interference during the election campaign, The Independent can reveal.The body, which oversees elections in the UK, is working with partner agencies such as Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office to pull together resources to help people navigate digital campaign material during the election.A new hub will be created on the Commission’s website and include information urging voters to think critically about information they may see or hear online, particularly on social media. It comes after The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, warned about the potential threats of artificial intelligence (AI) during the election campaign.A new study from the institute said there was little evidence that AI had directly impacted election results. There have, however, been early signs of the damage the technology had caused to democratic systems more broadly through a “polarised information space”.This included confusion over whether AI-generated content is real, damaging trust in online sources; deepfakes inciting online hate against political figures, threatening their personal safety; and politicians exploiting AI disinformation for potential electoral gain.File photo: The Alan Turing Institute says there is little evidence that AI is directly impacting election results but that it is being used to create a ‘polarised information space’ More

Related: Starmer responds to Jeremy Corbyn standing as an independent candidateSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour deputy leader Angela Rayner says she backs Diane Abbott to stand as a Labour candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington at the general election.Defying her own party, Sir Keir Starmer’s right hand said: “I don’t see any reason why Diane Abbott can’t stand as a Labour MP going forward. I am saying that as the deputy leader of the Labour Party.”Ms Rayner has praised Abbott and said she has been a trailblazer and that she is “not happy” about negative briefings to the papers about the veteran MP.Her support comes as Sir Keir is being accused of carrying a wider purge of the left – something even Tony Blair did not do – with candidate Faiza Shaheen finding out last night she was barred.According to reports, she was suspended by the party after she allegedly liked a series of posts on X that downplayed antisemitism accusations.In a new headache for Starmer, the MP for the Chingford and Woodford Green said she will challenge the decision and accused the party of unleashing a “campaign of prejudice” against her to satisfy a “factional agenda”.Show latest update 1717072384Breaking: Angela Rayner defies party and defends Diane AbbottThe Labour deputy leader says she is backing Ms Abbott as a candidate for Hackney North at the election.She said: “I don’t see any reason why Diane Abbott can’t stand as a Labour MP going forward… I am saying that as the deputy leader of the Labour Party”.Ms Rayner added that Abbott has been a trailblazer and she is “not happy” about negative briefings to the papers about her. “I don’t think that is how we should conduct ourselves.”She previously said she wanted to see the veteran MP back to the Labour Party after she was suspended fro 11 months.Ms Rayner said she was frustrated over the length of the party investigation over her letter on The Observer.( More

Sir Keir Starmer has denied Labour is blocking left-wing candidates from standing in the general election.It came after Faiza Shaheen spoken out following the party’s decision not to endorse her for the Chingford and Woodford Green seat in London.According to reports, she was suspended by the party after allegedly liking a series of posts on X that downplayed antisemitism accusations.Meanwhile, Diane Abbott’s future remains uncertain after she said she wants to fight to retain her seat “as long as it is possible” after the party whip was restored following an investigation into her comments about racism. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailAngela Rayner has given Diane Abbott her full backing to run for Parliament in the general election in a dramatic intervention.It comes as Sir Keir Starmer was forced to deny that he is trying to “purge” the left of the party as the row over Ms Abbott and candidate selections threaten to derail his campaign.The row appears to have left Labour on the brink of open civil war and handed Rishi Sunak and the Tories an unexpected lifeline as the struggle to close the gap of around 20 points in the polls. In a blunt response to the last 72 hours of chaos around whether Ms Abbott can stand in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Ms Rayner appeared to take aim at Sir Keir and his inner circle.Ms Abbott told supporters she intended to remain as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour and the Conservatives have been accused of misleading voters over their tax and spending plans and ignoring a £20bn hole in the public finances after the election.Amid a war of words over whether Sir Keir Starmer or Rishi Sunak would rule out a VAT hike, a top economist told The Independent both parties are being dishonest with voters about the country’s finances.Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said both parties have committed to reducing Britain’s debt in the next five years. “For better or worse, that is going to require some combination of tax rises or spending cuts,” he told The Independent.Mr Emmerson also hit out at the row over which taxes each party has committed to freezing, saying noting that both Sir Keir and Mr Sunak have committed to frozen tax thresholds, which will mean higher taxes for millions of workers.After Labour and the Conservatives vowed not to raise the headline rates of national insurance, income tax, VAT, Mr Emmerson said they had chosen “an easier sell”.But he said frozen income tax and national insurance thresholds would cost taxpayers an additional £11bn a year by the end of the next parliament. By contrast a 1p income tax hike would cost taxpayers just £9bn.Tax thresholds were linked to inflation until then chancellor Mr Sunak froze them in 2022. The effect is that, as inflation rises, millions are dragged into paying tax for the first time, while others are dragged into higher tax bands. Others, who would have seen their taxable income decrease thanks to higher thresholds, now longer feel the benefits.Rachel Reeves and Jeremy Hunt have ruled out raising income tax, national insurance and VAT 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 insightThe next UK government must urgently focus on a better trading relationship with the EU as Brexit has increased costs and made it tougher to export, one of the country’s most influential business networks has said.The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) published its election manifesto on Tuesday, citing improved relations with the trading bloc as part of its five demands for whoever wins the general election on July 4.The manifesto says leaving the EU made it “more expensive and bureaucratic to sell our goods and services across the Channel” – but that better terms are possible to help firms trade.Shevaun Haviland, director general of the BCC, said: “The EU is the UK’s biggest market, so we urgently need to get a better trading relationship with our closest neighbour.“It’s not about rewriting the referendum result, it’s about cutting red tape and promoting trade.” Both Labour and the Conservatives have drawn criticism for avoiding discussion of Brexit and the country’s future relationship with Europe.Writing in The Independent, Tory grandee Michael Heseltine, a prominent figure in Margaret Thatcher’s government, said this general election will be “the most dishonest in modern times” because of the refusal of the main parties to debate the consequences of Brexit.He said: “The state of our economy, defence and environment, the need to level up our society, control immigration and restore Britain’s standing in the world. None of these issues can be honestly addressed in isolation from our relationship with Europe. Yet Europe is the no-go area.”Lord Michael Heseltine warns election campaign will be ‘dishonest’ (Aaron Chown/PA) More

Nigel Farage defended his comments claiming young Muslims “do not subscribe to British values” in a heated clash during a live interview with Robert Peston.The former Ukip leader, who claimed there are British Muslims who “loathe” much of what the country stands for, was accused of alienating them by the ITV political journalist on Wednesday (29 May).Mr Peston suggested during the clash: “What we should be doing is building bridges between communities, not alienating them.”“So ignoring it – brush it under the carpet,” Mr Farage replied. More

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekdayYour briefing on the latest headlines from across the USThe US late-night satirist Jon Stewart has responded after Britain’s Labour Party blocked left-wing academic Faiza Shaheen from standing as a candidate in the upcoming general election for liking a number of potentially offensive social media posts, one of which featured a clip from The Daily Show.“This is the dumbest thing The UK has done since electing Boris Johnson… what the actual f****…,” the comedian wrote on X when he was notified of the controversy.The clip in question, dating from July 2014, sees Stewart introducing a segment about an Israeli ground offensive – during the 2014 Gaza War – at which point he is immediately swarmed and rebuked by four of the Comedy Central show’s correspondents, barracking him as a “self-hating Jew” for daring to question the country’s actions.“Look, obviously there are many strong opinions on this issue but just merely mentioning Israel or questioning in any way the effectiveness or humanity of Israel’s policy is not the same thing as being pro-Hamas,” Stewart says, before being shouted down again, at which point he abandons the subject and pivots to talking about Ukraine, a matter about which the correspondents concede they have no strong feelings. Ukraine was also in the news in 2014 after Russia seized the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.The account that posted the tweet liked by Ms Shaheen, which featured the clip, also included a commentary attacking the “Israel lobby” that read: “You can’t easily ignore them, because those are not just random people, they tend to be friends or people who move in the same circles as you. Those people are mobilized by professional organizations, but to a large extent, that is organic.”Ms Shaheen is understood to have been called to a meeting with a panel of Labour’s National Executive Committee on Tuesday in which they highlighted posts on her X account that they said raised questions about her suitability to stand as its candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green in north London.According to Ms Shaheen, she then received an email on Wednesday evening in which she was told she would be barred from standing for the party – despite having previously contested the same seat in the 2019 election – in which she was told that her running would “frustrate Labour’s purpose”.The Independent has reached out to the Labour Party for comment.Faiza Shaheen, pictured on the campaign trail with former leader Jeremy Corbyn More