UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA number of top Tory ministers are set to lose their seats in the upcoming general election as the Conservative’s faltering campaign grinds on, according to a new shock poll.In devastating news for prime minister Rishi Sunak, YouGov’s poll has predicted 14 Tory big beasts are set to lose their seats to Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and Plaid Cymru.The Conservatives would drop to just 108 seats, losing 257 of the seats they won in 2019, according to YouGov’s most recent projection. Labour would win a huge majority of 425 seats, up by 223.Follow live updates hereAmong those set to be outsted are Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Mel Stride, Alex Chalk, Mark Harper, Grant Shapps and Gillian Keegan.Here, The Independent takes a closer look at the Tory candidates set to lose their seats.Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is set to lose his seat under a new prediction by polling company YouGov More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Conservatives are facing a historic defeat at the election after a bombshell new poll suggested the party could be left with just 53 MPs – and Rishi Sunak would not be among them. Adding further misery to a raft of dire poll results for Mr Sunak, it also shows him on course to become the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat. And the Tories could be left battling the Lib Dems to avoid third place, with Sir Ed Davey’s party set to gain 50 MPs. The Savanta and Electoral Calculus polling analysis puts Labour on track to take 516 seats, with an estimated majority of 382 – twice the size of Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide – suggesting that recent Tory warnings of a Labour “supermajority” are correct.Rishi Sunak has had a disastrous election campaign so far More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailGeorge Galloway has vowed to withdraw the UK from Nato and pledged to offer workers the option of retiring at 60 in a giveaway spree announced for voters as he launched his party’s vision for the UK.Mr Galloway, leader of the Workers Party of Great Britain, presented his 34-page manifesto supported by a smattering of supporters and some of the 154 candidates standing for Westminster representing his party.He committed to “all workers having the option of retiring at 60”, raising the tax-free allowance from £12,570 to £21,200 for two million low-paid workers, and boosting social housing in his voter giveaways.Then, he warned the world is edging closer to nuclear “Armageddon”, but went on to pledge to scrap the UK’s nuclear weapons, and withdraw the country from Nato.Leader of the Workers Party of Britain George Galloway holds a copy of the manifesto during his party’s manifesto launch on Wednesday More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Tories have confirmed that “have spoken to” one of of their celebrity candidates after she liked what critics describe as antisemitic material online.Rose Hulse, a former figure skater who married aristocrat Richard Hulse, liked posts on social media referring to a Jewish candidate as a “fiend of Israel” [sic], and another that said Starmer was “tap dancing to #AntiSemitismIsAllThatMatters”.Ms Hulse, who is now a social media streaming entrepreneur orginally from the US, has apologised for liking the tweets but Mike Katz, chair of Jewish Labour Movement, has called for her to be investigated.In May this year, the parliamentary candidate for Bristol North East liked a tweet that described Keir Starmer as a “double crossing political prostitute who went from bending the knee at #BlackLivesMatter to tap dancing to #AntisemitismIsAllThatMatters”.Rose Hulse (centre) was selected by the Tories to fight Bristol North East More

Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent’s Race Correspondent Nadine WhiteSign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race ReportLabour attempted to gag a prominent Black barrister who authored a report that exposed a “hierarchy of racism” within the party, The Independent can reveal.In a letter sent by lawyers representing Labour, Martin Forde KC was warned that he was “acting against the party’s interest” after he gave an interview highlighting Labour’s failures in relation to the report.Mr Forde said the exchange had left him “irritated”, telling The Independent that the party “can’t silence me”.The Forde report, an independent inquiry into Labour’s culture that was published in July 2022, found that the party was an “unwelcoming place for people of colour” and had a “toxic” culture of factional disputes between the party’s right and left.In March 2023, Mr Forde gave an interview to Al Jazeera in which he said that no one from Labour had been willing to discuss the recommendations further and highlighted concerns raised by ethnic minority politicians within Labour about racism in the party.In response, it has now emerged that the Labour Party sent Mr Forde a robust legal letter, seen by The Independent, accusing him of acting against the party’s interests and advising him that it was “considering all of its options”.Lawyers accused Mr Forde of having made “extensive negative and highly prejudicial comments” and questioned his professional conduct.The Forde report, released in 2022, made 165 recommendations for change within the Labour Party More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Conservatives are on course for their worst defeat in more than a century with high-profile names including Jeremy Hunt set to lose their seats, according to a new poll.Adding further misery to a raft of gloomy polls for the government, the party will also be completely wiped out in Wales on July 4, the survey predicts.Luke Tryl, executive director of More In Common UK, which carried out the research, said the findings showed that the Tories were in a “deep hole” and the problem was getting worse.The poll, of more than 10,000 people, suggests they would hold on to just 155 seats, their worst total since 1906.Labour would be on 406 and have a majority of 162, just shy of its 1997 and 2001 landslides.As well as Mr Hunt, Tory casualties would also include defence secretary Grant Shapps, who would lose Welwyn Hatfield to Labour.Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt would lose his seat according to the mega-poll (James Manning/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailOn display inside Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg’s untidy office are three large portraits: Sir Winston Churchill, Boris Johnson and himself.They hang from cream-coloured wallpaper behind a cluttered wooden desk at the centre of the HQ for Sir Jacob’s uphill campaign to win the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency – his fifth straight term in the area.“Boris went up when he became leader… we always had the leader up,” says Sir Jacob, looking up at the pictures. “Then Covid came and we’ve hardly used the office since.”No Liz Truss then. But what about Rishi Sunak, will he get his place next to Churchill?‘Um… well, we will eventually,” Sir Jacob says, with a wry smile. “We’ll see how much we need it after the election, when he’s returned comfortably as PM. Yes, absolutely.”It’s 17 days to polling day on 4 July and I’m in Keynsham, on the edge of Bristol, following Sir Jacob’s general election campaign.The HQ for Sir Jacob’s campaign is hive of activity ahead of morning canvassing More

Sunak branded ‘pound shop Nigel Farage’ during live radio interviewSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has played down the record number of small boats this year. The Home Office revealed that 882 people the Channel this year, which is the highest figure in two years. reacting to the results, the prime minister said there would always be some days “worse than others”.Nigel Farage is set to win the Clacton constituency in Essex, according to a poll. Survation pollsters said he could win 42 per cent of the votes granting him the “biggest swing in modern electoral history”. It comes as Sir 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”.With only two weeks to go until the general election, the SNP has vowed to deliver Scottish independence and reverse Brexit as the party launched its manifesto in Edinburgh today. John Swinney said a vote for SNP is a vote for Scotland’s values as the party leader also promised to fight the two-child benefit cap, nuclear weapons and to push for the abolition of the House of Lords. Show latest update 1718808956Pictured: George Galloway launches Workers Party of Britain manifesto in ManchesterLeader of the Workers Party of Britain George Galloway holds a copy of the manifesto during his party’s manifesto launch at the Voco hotel in Manchester More