UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailReform UK has dropped three more candidates and said it has reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission, after the broadcaster released footage of an activist campaigning for Nigel Farage using a racial slur to describe Rishi Sunak.Edward Oakenfull, Robert Lomas, and Leslie Lilley, will still appear on the ballot paper as Reform candidates as it is too late for them to be removed, but they are no longer being backed by the party.Mr Oakenfull posted offensive comments about the IQ of sub-Saharan Africans on social media last year. He told the BBC the remarks were “taken out of context”.Mr Lilley reportedly posted on social media that people arriving on small boats were “scum”. Meanwhile, Mr Lomas allegedly said black people should “get off [their] lazy arses” and stop acting “like savages”.The party dropping its candidates comes after an undercover report on activists involved in Nigel Farage’s bid to win a parliamentary seat in Clacton, Essex.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking during a BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special (Peter Byrne/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak’s Labour opponent in his Richmond and Northallerton seat in Yorkshire has accused him of “panicking” as the prime minister campaigned to save his own seat in the last weekend before polling day.Tom Wilson, the 29-year-old NHS worker and musician who spoke to The Independent last weekend, has questioned why the prime minister’s team apparently tried to arrange a hustings in the seat with farmers and then pulled out.Mr Sunak, who was campaigning in the North East yesterday to be close to his seat for the weekend, is potentially facing the prospect of being the first prime minister to lose his constituency in an election in British history.Some recent polls have suggested the result in the rural seat, which covers part of the Yorkshire Dales but recently elected a Labour regional mayor, is “too close to call”.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with his wife Akshata Murty More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPensioners whizz around on mobility scooters, pirate-themed boats sail by, couples clutch each other’s hands. Welcome to Whitby: the seaside town in North Yorkshire that has lent its name to a target voter in the general election race.The so-called “Whitby woman”, a term coined by polling think-tank More in Common, is a Tory voter who remains undecided about who will get her vote on 4 July. With an average age of around 61, she is a homeowner who lives in a suburb or a small town like Whitby, who voted in favour of Brexit and is less likely to have gone to university.And her actions are expected by some to have an impact on whether the Tories suffer a landslide defeat, fall to a narrow defeat, or cling onto power.Bar her age, Sadie Myers, who has an antique shop in Whitby called Den of Antiquity, perfectly fits the profile of the “Whitby woman”.“It’s like opening a box of chocolates that look different but all taste the same,” the 49-year-old says of the political leaders. “You get bored.”Ms Myers is not a fan of Rishi Sunak or Sir Keir Starmer so is thinking of leaning towards Nigel Farage’s Reform.”I take pride in the fact that I always vote,” she says. “I think it’s very important, especially for women. We earned the right to vote and we need to hold onto that, you know. When you are not given people that you can warm to, it makes it very difficult.”Surrounded by figurines of Betty Boop and the Buddha, it is clear Ms Myers, who was born into the antiques and jewellery industry, has an encyclopaediac knowledge of the many miscellaneous items she peddles.Meanwhile, as a 61-year-old lifelong Tory who voted for Brexit, Liz Richards closely aligns with the Whitby woman. Despite voting for the Tories her whole life, she is adamant they will not be getting her vote this time.“The main reason, to be honest, is Covid,” Ms Richards tells The Independent from behind the counter of her gift shop. Whitby night sky More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email“On the doorsteps I’ve noticed a real shift,” Johnny Mercer tells his assembled troops on the grass verge at a post-war council housing estate on the northwestern fringe of Plymouth.Poring over a road map, the 42-year-old former Commando, wearing a polo shirt, combat trousers and rough-terrain shoes, says people are not liking Sir Keir Starmer, but that many are “pi**ed off” and don’t want to vote.“I get that,” he says, before pushing the message to the small group that a local vote for Reform UK means Labour dominance across the city, with a second constituency likely already in their hands and a party-run city council.“We can do this is. Don’t be downhearted – it has been difficult here,” he rounds off before thanking the mostly volunteer “heroes” for their support.It’s more Duke of Edinburgh than a tour in Afghanistan but for Mr Mercer, this is a tough election assignment.Mr Mercer told The Independent he will serve just one more term if he is re-elected due to the scale of abuse aimed at himself and his family.Yet the campaign is one he appears to be relishing, marching down the street with his wife and “greatest asset”, Felicity Cornelius-Mercer, to knock on doors as passing motorists wave and sound their horns.The day kicks off with Mr Mercer directing his team on door knocking duties More