UK Politics

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 insightRishi Sunak has said he is “proud” of his disastrous election campaign and claims he will win Thursday’s general election. The prime minister has come under fire in recent weeks for a series of calamities that included a rain-soaked announcement of polling day, leaving D-Day commemorations early and a gambling scandal.But in a crunch interview with just days to go before the vote, Mr Sunak told the BBC‘s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg “this campaign is something I am very proud of” as he sought to disparage Labour’s plans.He also said he believes he will win the election. Asked whether he thought he would still be prime minister on Friday, he said: “Yes. I’m fighting very hard and I think people are waking up to the real danger of what a Labour government means.”Rishi Sunak, soaked in rain, pauses as he delivers a speech to announce the election date More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRussian dissidents living in the UK have hit back at “deeply offensive” words of admiration for Vladimir Putin by Nigel Farage and another Reform UK candidate.It comes as a former British defence attache posted in Moscow described Mr Farage and his party, now third in the polls, as “deeply maligned actors … working against the security interest of our country”.When asked about both accusations, a Reform UK spokesperson burst into laughter, before suggesting Julian Malins, a party candidate who last weekend bragged about meeting Putin and that he “seemed very good”, was merely a highly-intelligent “eccentric sort of character”.Mr Malins later sought to clarify his comments, saying Putin was a “popular” president and therefore a “good Russian president”, but said he was not a good man “in the Christian sense”.Three dissidents, as well as newly-knighted Sir Bill Browder, formerly Russia’s largest foreign investor before being exiled by Putin, told The Independent that comments from Mr Farage and Mr Malins were an affront not only to them but to the British passport holder Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in a Siberian solitary confinement cell for speaking out against the invasion of Ukraine. After the death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian penal colony, Mr Kara-Murza’s family now fear he will Putin’s next target. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailIt has been seven long years since the White Stripes song “Seven Nation Army” became an anthem for a new generation of Labour voters. In 2017 the chant “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” rang out at music festivals and political rallies as young people got behind the socialist firebrand. But fast forward to 2024 and not only is Mr Corbyn not Labour leader, he is no longer a member of the party he championed for 40 years, and is instead running as an independent. Unfortunately for the man who has served Islington North since 1983, not all of his supporters appear to know that, and that could at least partly explain why the veteran campaigner appears to have a real fight on his hands despite winning a majority of 26,000 in 2019. Then Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn with shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer at a press conference in London in 2019 More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailVoters in the blue wall have seen an average of eight Liberal Democrat adverts as the party steps up its bid to oust high-profile names like Jeremy Hunt, according to sources.The Lib Dems are climbing in the opinion polls, with some even suggesting they could be fighting for second place in the event of a Tory meltdown. Forecasts indicate the party could take more than 50 seats on Thursday, after a campaign noted for leader Ed Davey’s stunts.Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has spent £100,000 of his own money to try to save his seat (Aaron Chown/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailKeir Starmer has warned Labour activists the “hardest mile” is still ahead as he attempted to rally his troops for a final push towards polling day.The Labour leader told an event in central London: “This is the final furlong. This is the last push. The last mile, the hardest mile.”He asked them to imagine waking up to a Tory government on 5 July, saying that the millions of undecided voters mean “it could happen”.At the same event his deputy, Angela Rayner, had an equally tough message for the invited audience, telling them: “Right now we have won nothing.”Even as it unveiled star-studded endorsements from the likes of Sir Elton John, Labour is desperate to convince voters, as well as its own activists, the election is by no means in the bag.Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner (left) with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNigel Farage’s latest rally was disrupted after political activists lowered a remote-controlled banner showing Vladimir Putin behind him while he spoke. While talking at The Columbine Centre in Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, the Reform UK leader was initially unaware that the Russian president was on the poster, with the words ‘I heart Nigel’ written below. He can be heard asking “Who put that up there?” before joking: “Someone at The Columbine Centre needs to get the sack”. Two staff members attempted to get rid of the banner, while audience members cheered and chanted “Rip it down”. On their social media page, the group Led By Donkeys, who have previously targeted Mr Farage, wrote: “We just dropped in on Farage’s election rally with a beaming picture of Putin. Nigel was not pleased.”Mr Farage has previously come under scrutiny for his comments on Putin, who has been president or prime minister of Russia since 1999.When previously asked about him, Mr Farage told the BBC’s Nick Robinson: “I said I disliked him as a person, but I admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control of running Russia.”He recently became embroiled in a war of words with former prime minister Boris Johnson, after he said that the West provoked Russia’s to invade Ukraine.Writing in the Telegraph last Saturday, he urged readers not to “blame” him for “telling the truth about Putin’s war”.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would ‘never, ever defend’ Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he ramped up his row with former prime minister Boris Johnson (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Conservatives’ “project fear” tactic deployed to scare voters with the threat of a Labour “supermajority” has spectacularly backfired, new polling has revealed.According to findings from Techne UK for The Independent, twice as many people are “more likely” to vote Labour (26 per cent) than more likely to vote Conservative (13 per cent) as a result of the warning used by Rishi Sunak and senior Conservatives about handing Sir Keir Starmer too much power.The tactic was also used to try to prevent Tory voters defecting to Reform, but almost one in 10 (9 per cent) said the warning had in fact made them “more likely” to vote for Nigel Farage’s party.The survey’s findings appear to confirm warnings by former chancellor George Osborne – whose own project fear tactics were blamed for defeat in the EU Brexit referendum – that Mr Sunak and the Tories were “fighting the wrong campaign”.He had warned they were too focused on Reform and letting Labour “run rampant” in so-called blue wall safe seats.But the polling by Techne has offered the Tories a slither of hope with postal voting.While just under a quarter of those voting have said they will vote by post, the results break much more favourably for the Conservatives and Reform UK.Considering only the vote by post, the Conservatives would get 30 per cent, Labour 33 per cent, Reform UK 26 per cent and the Lib Dems 6 per cent.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives in Redcar, North Yorkshire, while on the campaign trail More

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