UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Conservatives appear to have u-turned on Rishi Sunak’s flagship national service policy just a day after he announced it in his general election manifesto.Defence secretary Grant Shapps said the military aspect of the plan will see 18-year-olds take placements in the armed forces for just 25 days per year, despite the manifesto promising a “year-long full-time placement in the armed forces or cyber defence”.Labour said the policy had been “plunged into disarray” and confirmed the eye-catching plan had not been properly thought through.Click here for our live coverage of the general election campaign.Setting out the party’s plans in Silverstone on Tuesday, Mr Sunak promised to “invest in a new form of national service to give our young people the chance to enjoy new experiences, learn new skills and feel a sense of community, belonging and national purpose”.Grant Shapps plunged Rishi Sunak’s flagship policy into chaos More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe UK economy recorded no growth in April in a blow to Rishi Sunak’s hopes of turning around the Tory Party’s faltering election campaign.According to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday, gross domestic product (GDP) was flat during the month, following growth of 0.4 per cent in March.This follows an estimated 0.6 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2024, which pulled the UK out of a small recession at the end of last year.It also comes just over a week before the next figures on inflation are released and a decision is made by the Bank of England on interest rates.The latest monthly figure will make grim reading for the prime minister who has made economic growth one of the central pillars of his general election campaign.In March he said this year will be “prove to be the year that the economy bounces back” after the downturn in 2023. Responding to the figures, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “There is more to do, but the economy is turning a corner and inflation is back down to normal.”Prime minister Rishi Sunak has pegged much of his general election campaign on a recent record of economic improvement More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email The British economy failed to grow in April, official figures showed Wednesday, in a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who has made the return of growth and a generally calmer economic backdrop a central pillar of the Conservative Party’s election campaign. The Office for National Statistics said wet weather dampened consumer spending and construction during the month. The flat monthly reading came after a 0.6% increase during the first quarter of the year, which Sunak has made much of on the campaign trail following a period of muted growth.Though monthly figures are vulnerable to short-term factors, the flat reading is likely to be used by opponents of the Conservatives in the run-up to the election on July 4. While Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt insisted the “economy is turning a corner,” his opposite number in the Labour Party Rachel Reeves said the “economy has stalled.”The latest growth figures come a week before the next round of inflation data and the Bank of England makes its next interest rate decision.Hopes within the Conservative Party that the bank would lower its main interest rate from the 16-year high of 5.25% have diminished after inflation failed to fall as much as hoped in April. Though inflation is down at an annual rate of 2.3%, it remains slightly above the bank’s target and is expected to tick up slightly in coming months. High interest rates — which cool the economy by making it more expensive to borrow — have helped ease inflation, but they’ve also weighed on the British economy.“A June interest rate cut looks improbable, with the Bank of England likely to be a little wary of shifting policy in the middle of a general election campaign,” said Suren Thiru, economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.On Tuesday, Sunak pledged to cut taxes and reduce immigration in the Conservative Party’s manifesto for government if reelected. Labour, which is ahead in opinion polls, is due to publish its manifesto on Thursday. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailChancellor Jeremy Hunt has admitted his Surrey seat could be won or lost by 1,500 votes or less as he faces a battle to political survival. The Godalming and Ash parliamentary seat is a key target for the Liberal Democrats who are aiming to demolish the Conservative “blue wall” in southern England. If they are successful, a defeat for Mr Hunt could surpass the infamous “Portillo Moment” when the former defence secretary Michael Portillo was beaten in Enfield Southgate during New Labour’s landslide victory in 1997.A YouGov poll has suggested that the Liberal Democrats are set to win this new seat from Mr Hunt at the general election. Mr Hunt’s majority in the 2019 general election was 8,817, but he thinks this could now be a much closer race this time around.He told Bloomberg: “There’s all to play for. This seat is probably going to be won or lost by the Conservatives by 1,500 votes or fewer.”No chancellor has ever lost their seat at a general election, making the battle for the seat one of the more compelling storylines at the general election.Mr Hunt would be the first chancellor to lose his seat at a general election More

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 insightBrexit and culture war issues are driving a firmer wedge between Labour and Tory voters, analysis by leading pollster Professor John Curtice has found. Immediately after the Brexit referendum, Leave voters were more than twice as likely than Remain voters to say they were Conservative. But this has now grown to three times as likely, according to a new report from the National Centre of Social Research.Opinions on the rights of trans people are also a growing indicator of voting preference. Participants of the British Social Attitudes survey were asked whether they agree or disagree with the statement: “A person who is transgender should be able to have the sex recorded on their birth certificate changed if they want”. People’s responses differed little by the party they supported when the question was first asked in 2016. However, a large political gap has now emerged between those who disagree that transgender people should be able to change their birth certificate and those who don’t. Professor John Curtice has said that identity and morality issues are becoming more important to voters More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Greens will pledge to raise taxes on the richest in society to fix “broken Britain” when the party sets out its general election manifesto.Millionaires and billionaires will pay more to improve improvements to health, housing, transport and the green economy, the party said ahead of its manifesto launch in Brighton later on Wednesday.Ahead of the manifesto launch in Brighton and Hove, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said the party intends to change the “conspiracy of silence” on taxes by creating a fairer system and asking those “with the broadest shoulders to pay more”.A programme called the Green Economic Transition has been put forward to upgrade homes across the UK to increase their energy efficiency.The party has previously promised to spend £50bn per year on health and social care by 2030 and has said it will protect the climate for future generations and “bring nature back to life”.For this election, Caroline Lucas has stepped down after being the Greens’ sole MP, in Brighton Pavilion. The party’s new candidate, Sian Berry, said “the time for half measures and empty promises is over”.Mr Ramsay said: “There is a conspiracy of silence between the main Westminster parties at this election.“Labour and the Conservatives would rather hide their plans for cuts to public services than confront the need for a fairer tax system that asks those with the broadest shoulders to pay more – including the very wealthiest in society, who have grown even wealthier over the last 14 years.“If people are to have access to an NHS dentist or a GP appointment, if we are to create warm, secure homes for all and fund the green transition to tackle the climate crisis and create the jobs of tomorrow, we must be honest today.”File photo: Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay speaking during the Green Party general election campaign launch at St George’s Bristol More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWith three weeks to go until the general election, it looks increasingly likely that Sir Keir Starmer will be the UK’s next prime minister.Opinion poll after opinion poll has shown Labour commanding a huge lead over the Conservatives, suggesting Sir Keir will have the keys to No 10 come 5 July.Moving into Downing Street with Sir Keir will be his wife, Victoria, a former lawyer who now works in occupational health for the NHS.While the public has got to know Sir Keir better in recent months through a series of emotive TV and newspaper interviews, much less is known about Ms Starmer, who prefers to keep a low profile.Ms Starmer, known affectionately by friends as Lady Victoria, is the daughter of a Polish-Jewish father and a mother who converted to the faith.Sir Keir told The Jewish Chronicle in an interview in March last 2021, the family continues to observe the tradition of Friday night dinner at home. They also attend London’s Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood, despite his own atheism.A born and raised Londoner, Ms Starmer grew up in Gospel Oak in the north of the capital, just a stone’s throw away from where the couple now lives with their two children.Ms Starmer, working as a solicitor at the time, met her future husband while he was working as a barrister at Doughty Street chambers in the early 2000s, prior to his appointment as director of public prosecutions.Recalling their first meeting during his appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories in 2020, Sir Keir said: “I was doing a case in court and it all depended on whether the documents were accurate.“I[asked my colleagues] who actually drew up these documents, they said a woman called Victoria, so I said let’s get her on the line.”Sir Keir is joined on stage by his wife after delivering his keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on Tuesday More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNigel Farage’s Reform UK party is just a point behind the Tories, a new poll released after Rishi Sunak’s manifesto launch shows. The survey, by YouGov, puts Labour on 38 per cent, with the Tories on 18 per cent, Reform on 17, Lib Dems on 15 and the Greens on 8.It was swiftly followed by a Refield and Wilton survey which asked who would be the better leader of the opposition to a Labour government. Respondents backed Nigel Farage as top with 28 percent slighlty ahead of Mr Sunak on 27 percent in a further blow to the prime minister.Earlier, Rishi Sunak unveiled pledges on tax cuts as he sought to turn the tide of his disastrous election campaign.The prime minister promised to cut national insurance by 2p, and scrap it entirely within five years for the self-employed. Rishi Sunak at his party’s election launch More