UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA Tory advert suggesting dictators are looking forward to a Labour government has been branded “shameful and demeaning” by the former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.Crossbench peer Lord Carlile said the Conservatives “should be ashamed of themselves” for publishing a photoshopped image of Sir Keir Starmer being cheered on by North Korean despot Kim Jong Un.The party’s official X account shared the image, in which the North Korean leader is flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.The Tory attack ad was posted on Twitter with the caption ‘they’re watching’ More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNearly 3 million people have applied to register to vote since the general election was called on 22 May — down by a quarter from the same period before the 2019 general election. In 2019, the general election was called on 29 October and the deadline to register was 26 November. In that period 3.85m people applied to register in this period cmpared to 2.90m this time.Over 630,000 people applied to register to vote yesterday alone (18 June), as the deadline approached at midnight. This is the second-highest number on record, broken only on the 26 November 2019, when 660,000 people registered in one day.The latest figure of people on the parliamentary electoral register in the UK is 46,652,520, but it has not been updated since December 2023. Gen-Z not showing up? There has been much discussion over young voters not being democratically involved — with an exclusive Independent poll showing that a third of young people do not plan to vote.In fact, registration application among the youngest group of voters (18-25) is at just half of the 2019 equivalent period; with just 746,000 Gen-Z voters registering to vote since the election was called this year, compared to 1.4 million in the lead-up to the 2019 general election.It is also worth noting that a large chunk of the current under-25s group were not of voting age at the last general election. Therefore, a substantial portion of Gen-Z voters will not be registered to vote in this election, compared to other age groups. Nonetheless, people aged 35 and under were flocking to register to vote at the final hour, more than any other age group. Over half (55 per cent) of all registrations yesterday were in the 18-34 age group, and 164,000 of these were people aged 25 and under.People aged 25-34 have been the most keen to register overall, with 896,825 registrations since 22 May alone.Though the registration deadline has passed, applications for postal vote are still open until today (19 June) at 5pm. Voters in the July 4 general election will also need a valid form of photo ID, including a passport, driving licence, or blue badge. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Jacob Rees-Mogg said Reform UK’s manifesto is a “whole load of nice-sounding pledges” that don’t add up – then joked the right-wing party had taken his “best policies”.The Brexiteer is facing a battle for his political future in North East Somerset and Hanham where regional mayor Dan Norris is projected to win the seat for Labour, according to the latest polls.Canvassing on Tuesday, Mr Rees-Mogg, who has held the seat since 2010, came across voters in the constituency who said they’d be voting for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. It comes after the party released its so-called “contract for the people” with policies set to appeal to right-wing voters, including pulling Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping net zero targets.Speaking to The Independent, Mr Rees-Mogg, who is a well-known admirer of Mr Farage, dismissed the party’s manifesto and described some of its representatives as “nutty candidates who like Hitler”.But when discussing some of the policies, including increased spending on defence and scrapping 20mph speed zones, he joked: “They are cribbing from me – they have stolen all my best policies.”He later added: “The broad Tory family shares a lot of things positions in common, and that’s why I’m keen the Tory family should be reunited. It’s obviously not going to happen before the election but try and do it after the election would be a good thing.”Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke of his admiration for Nigel Farage from within the North East Somerset and Hanham Conservative Association office More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRussian interference in the UK general election will likely “ramp up dramatically” over the next fortnight, the chair of the United States senate intelligence committee has warned.Washington has witnessed “egregious efforts” by Moscow to interfere in the democratic process across the globe, similar to those alleged in the 2016 US presidential election, said Mark Warner.The senior senator, who is regularly briefed on secret US intelligence, said he had been closely monitoring the situation in the UK, adding: “I think the next big test of the state of play will be the British elections in a few weeks.”Mark Warner chairs the US senate intelligence committee More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRachel Reeves has clarified Sir Keir Starmer’s definition of “working people” days after the party pledged not to raise taxes on workers if it got into power.The shadow chancellor backed up the promise in the party’s manifesto in a video message where she said she would not put up income tax, National Insurance or VAT.But after Sir Keir appeared to omit pensioners and savers when asked for his definition of “working people”, senior Tories claimed it indicated the party actually intended to raise taxes. Asked what he meant by “working people” in a radio interview on LBC on Tuesday, Sir Keir said: “People who earn their living, rely on our [public] services and don’t really have the ability to write a cheque when they get into trouble” he said.“So the sort of people I’m meeting pretty well every day now. It’s quite a big group because these days there are many people obviously not so well off.”Rachel Reeves told Kay Burley that ‘working people’ didn’t mean people without savings More