Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has sought to attack Sir Keir Starmer on national security over his past work as a defence lawyer on behalf of radical cleric Abu Qatada.In a fiery general election debate on ITV, the two leaders clashed over the issue of immigration and national security – with both seeking to criticise each other’s past work before entering parliament.While Sir Keir accused the Tory leader of profiting from betting against Britain while working at a hedge fund during the financial crisis, the Labour leader sought to highlight his own credentials in “dealing with terrorist plots” while director of public prosecutions.Abu Qatada fought plans to deport him from the UK More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailJust moments after the debate had ended, a flood of Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer’s most loyal lieutenants came flooding into the media’s so-called spin room.A herd of Westminster journalists had migrated from London to Salford’s Media City for the contest and were braced for bold claims from both sides about how their guy had won.The post-debate rush by Labour and the Conservatives to get their message across was the highlight of the night for hacks who had waited hours in a seminar-style room above the set of Coronation Street.The debate itself, not so much.Jonathan Ashworth stormed into the spin room with a dossier of so-called unfunded Tory spending commitments More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer slugged it out in a tetchy first leader’s debate of the general election, with snap pollsters giving a narrow edge to the embattled prime minister.While Mr Sunak appeared to land more verbal blows on the Labour leader, he was also mocked more by an audience concerned about the state of the NHS, schools, and the cost of living.In a shouty confrontation, ITV’s Julie Etchingham struggled at times to keep the debate civil, and had to issue a half-time warning to the two men to stop interrupting one another.In the second half of the debate, during a particularly loud exchange, she said: “Please, gentlemen, we will lower our voices.”Starmer struggled to deny tax claim More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email“A teenage Dad’s Army” Keir Starmer scored a laugh when he told a student who asked about policies for young people: “What I won’t be doing is sending you off to some kind of teenage Dad’s Army”, a reference to the prime minister’s National Service plan. “Not transformational but desperate”The audience appeared unimpressed when Rishi Sunak described his National Service scheme as “transformational”. He also attacked the Labour leader saying “all you can do is sneer at it”. But Mr Starmer hit back at the idea, dubbing it “not transformational but desperate”.Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer More

Rishi Sunak was laughed at for saying national service would be a “great opportunity” for young people as he faced Sir Keir Starmer in during their first televised debate of the 2024 general election on Tuesday, 4 June.The Conservative Party would make it compulsory for 18-year-olds to give up the equivalent of a weekend a month for a year to do voluntary work or sign up for 12 months in the armed forces.When asked by an audience member what he would do to help young people, the prime minister described the proposals as “transformational.”The Labour leader said his party “won’t be sending you to do national service some kind of teenage Dad’s army.” More

Sunak and Starmer share opening statements for first General Election debateSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has beaten Sir Keir Starmer in a snap poll asking viewers who performed better in tonight’s debate.The YouGov poll delivered narrow results with Sunak gaining 51 per cent of favourable opinion while Starmer garnered 49 per cent of votes.The party leaders were scolded as they repeatedly clashed in Tuesday night’s debate over key issues including taxes, immigration and NHS waiting times.Debate mediator Julie Etchingham told the Labour and Conservative leaders to stop shouting over each other as they went head-to-head.The prime minister will welcome the snap survey results as he was striving to turn his party’s fortunes around in opinion polls.With just four weeks to go until the general election, the debate on ITV represented a last chance for the Tories after a series of polls suggested Sir Keir was on course to win more seats than Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide victory.The Conservatives have been predicted to get less than 100 seats – a historic low – in four of the last five polls. The countdown is now on for Keir Starmer and Sunak to put up their case in front of millions of voters.Show latest update 1717552800Pictures: Briton’s watch first head-to-head( More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPrime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer went head-to-head on Tuesday evening in the first debate of the 2024 general election.Mr Sunak went into the ITV debate as the clear underdog, after a YouGov poll pointed to a Labour landslide bigger than Tony Blair’s in 1997 on July 4.His challenge was to erode Sir Keir’s dominance, while the Labour leader needed to consolidate his lead, project reassurance and advertise his message of “change” after 14 years of Tory “chaos”.Given the polling gulf between the parties, Mr Sunak sought to cut through with pointed attacks on Sir Keir’s record as a barrister including his defence of Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and his work on European human rights cases.We want to know what you made of the ITV debate. Can debates change the course of an election? Will the conversation help change your mind about either party? Who came out on top for you?Share your thoughts by adding them in the comments — we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.All you have to do is sign up and register your details — then you can take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here.Join the conversation with other Independent readers below. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNigel Farage has announced he will become the new leader of Reform UK and that he will stand for election in Clacton, Essex.But there was one burning question: who had appointed him? The answer was no one, really – or possibly former leader Richard Tice.As an “entrepreneurial political start-up” with Mr Farage as the company’s director and majority shareholder, there was no internal leadership election, like Labour or the Conservative Party.Mr Farage claimed Reform UK would “democratise over time” after he was accused of running a “one-man dictatorship” by broadcasters.With the party set to contest constituencies up and down the country on 4 July, The Independent takes a look at the company’s unusual structure and how it differs to other parties.Nigel Farage during a press conference to announce he will become the new leader of Reform UK and that he will stand as the parliamentary candidate for Clacton, Essex More