Markus Andrews

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inboxSign up to our free IndyTech newsletterThe Conservative Party has paused its digital advertising on major platforms, having spent tens of thousands of pounds a day in the early period of the election.The party has halted all its campaigns on Google and Meta platforms – which include YouTube, Facebook and Instagram – in a move that may suggest the party is changing its political strategy ahead of the general election on 4 July.As of 7 June, the Conservatives are not spending to promote adverts, according to the tech companies’ transparency platforms. At the end of May, spending peaked, with the party paying out £100,000 in just one day, according to Who Tracks Me, a group that monitors online political advertising.The Conservative Party has not responded to a request for comment on the advertising pause. It comes as Mr Sunak faces considerable criticism for his decision to return to the campaign trail before the end of the D-Day commemoration events in France, which were attended by other world leaders. Rishi Sunak spoke in Portsmouth for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, before facing criticism for missing some events in France. (Neil Hall/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has been urged to give £5 million from a Tory donor at the centre of a race row to a veterans’ charity. The Liberal Democrats said it was the “least that our veterans and service personnel deserve” after the prime minister made the decision to leave the D-Day commemoration events early on Thursday. Earlier this week it emerged Rishi Sunak accepted an additional £5m from Tory donor Frank Hester, who has been accused of saying Diane Abbott “should be shot”.The money was a major boost to the Tories’ campaign war chest, after Mr Hester donated £10m to the Conservative Party last year, Electoral Commission figures show.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking during the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy. He later returned early to the UK. (Jane Barlow/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA Tory MP deselected at the eleventh hour to make way for Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has hit back at his own party’s claims he is too sick to stand. Mr Ross is on the party’s management board, which ruled former minister David Duguid not well enough to contest the seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East. But Mr Duguid, who has been in hospital since April, said the claims are “simply incorrect” and a “factual inaccuracy”.He said the board decided to stand him down “although none of them had visited me”.David Duguid has not been selected to stand in the General Election (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak is facing backlash after he admitted to skipping out early on a poignant D-Day 70th Anniversary memorial to fly back to the UK for an interview with ITV.The prime minister has made a string of gaffes since he announced the general election in the pouring rain without an umbrella last month and his latest setback has attracted even more mockery from the internet.After being widely criticised for cutting short his visit to France, Mr Sunak admitted on Friday he had blundered.He said: “It was a mistake and I apologise.”But it didn’t appear to be enough for the internet. Here are some of the best reactions:The Alan Partridge/ Rishi Sunak comparisons don’t appear to be going anywhere soon.Others pointed out the irony in Rishi Sunak wanting 18-year-olds to undertake national service as one of his key election pledges.Some X users weren’t impressed with Mr Sunak’s attempt at an apology.One parody account is trying to keep up with the latest gaffes by Mr Sunak.Others wondered what is next in the pipeline for the man trying to run the country for the next five years.Some commentators are already looking to the next Conservative leader.And finally, you don’t want to be getting the Paddington treatment this close to polling day.It came as Mr Sunak was told that he had “misjudged the mood of the nation” by deciding to return early.Asked whether it was a mistake for the prime minister to miss the event, Colonel Stuart Crawford who served for 20 years in the Royal Tank Regiment, said: “It’s a solemn occasion and sadly the last major anniversary of the landings which will feature many of the surviving veterans.“Campaigning for an election which everyone knows he’s going to lose anyway is a poor excuse.“He should be there with the others, and his absence and Starmer’s presence makes it look as if he’s passed the premiership to Sir Keir already.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe children’s minister has admitted he does not know how much child benefit payments are in the latest gaffe to rock the Tory campaign.David Jonhston was put up by the Conservatives on Friday morning to discuss the party’s latest election pledge, to let high earners keep more of their child benefit if Rishi Sunak is re-elected.But Mr Johnston, a parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Education, said he did not know what the child allowance was.Click here for our live coverage of the general election campaign.In an excruciating exchange with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, the veteran broadcaster asked him: “Just for my listeners who are not familiar, so they can get full details, how much is child allowance?”David Johnston, minister for children, families and wellbeing, said the Government cannot ‘compel’ nurseries and childminders to offer children ‘free’ hours in April when the first phase of its childcare expansion begins (UK Parliament/PA) More

Rishi Sunak leaving D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations early on Thursday was an “embarrassing dereliction of duty,” Labour’s shadow housing minister has said.The prime minister apologised after skipping the major international ceremony remembering the 1944 landings in order to carry out a general election TV interview, prompting intense criticism.Mr Sunak described his decision as a “mistake.”Speaking to Sky News, Matthew Pennycook called Mr Sunak’s decision to leave France “embarrassing.””I’m glad he’s apologised, because it was absolutely a mistake,” he added. More

An NHS nurse clashed with a Tory minister during a heated Question Time debate on Thursday (6 June) as she told him “You talk absolute rubbish”.The nurse, who had worked in the NHS for 37 years, addressed Mark Harper, telling him social care had been “decimated”. She said: “Patients are dying in corridors. If you sorted out social care and put your money where your mouth is, then all these issues would be sorted.“You are talking absolute rubbish because you are trying to decimate the NHS and we all know that. You don’t want it and you never have wanted it.”“Are you going to let me come back on it?”, Mr Harper asked. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBritain’s economy will see faster-than-expected growth this year and next as the outlook brightens after a tough 2023, according to the CBI.The business group has upped its forecasts for UK growth to 1% in 2024 and 1.9% in 2025 thanks to an expected pick-up in consumer spending as inflation falls back and wages remain robust.It marks a upgrade on the CBI’s December predictions for expansion of 0.8% in 2024 and 1.6% in 2025 and comes after the UK eked out growth of a paltry 0.1% in 2023, having slipped into a technical recession at the end of last year.The forecast also sees the CBI giving a much rosier outlook than the Bank of England, which predicted growth of 0.5% for this year in its last set of quarterly forecasts in May.The CBI said: “Encouragingly, economic activity began to recover at the start of 2024.“Robust growth over the first quarter completely reversed the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) seen over the second half of last year, and business surveys report that underlying economic momentum has been improving into the second quarter.”The report also follows hot on the heels of an upgrade this week from fellow business group, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which is now predicting growth of 0.8% in 2024 and 1% in 2025.The CBI said the main driver of the improving picture is consumer spending, More