UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe boss of a childcare firm backed by Rishi Sunak’s wife and hosted at a Downing St reception has said she is backing Labour after she saw at first hand how Tory infighting and the toppling of prime ministers prevented the introduction of key policies that would benefit parents.Supporting Sir Keir Starmer in the general election, Rachel Carrell, the CEO and founder of Koru Kids, said the Conservatives “are not serious people” but Labour’s top team would give the UK the stability that is “absolutely essential to business growth and … getting necessary reforms through”. She also said that she looked forward to “living in a country with competent leadership” after it had lurched from “crisis to crisis, embarrassment to embarrassment” under the Conservatives.Her verdict will come as a blow to Mr Sunak, who was at the centre of a conflict-of-interest row over his wife’s shareholding in the company last year. Rishi Sunak was at the centre of a row over the shares his wife Akshata Murty had in childcare agency Koru Kids More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe UK will go to the polls in July after Rishi Sunak announced the date for the next general election – but scores of high-profile MPs will not be facing the electorate after deciding to stand down. Housing secretary Michael Gove and former business secretary Andrea Leadsom became the latest Tory MPs to announce they would not contest the next election, as the number of Conservative MPs deciding to stand aside hit a new post-war record. In his letter to constituents, Mr Gove cited the “toll” of public office as he said it was time to let “a new generation lead” following a political career spanning nearly 20 years.As of 25 May, more than 120 MPs have said publicly they were either standing down from parliament or not contesting their seat at the general election. Some 78 out of those were Conservative – a record number for the party. Veteran Tory MP John Redwood – notorious for once mumbling his way through the Welsh national anthem – also joined the list on Friday. Michael Gove has announced he will not be standing at the General Election (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailHe is soaked in Downing Street on his launch, drowned out by triumphant Blair’s anthem, his MPs are fleeing the battlefield and he visits a Titanic museum. When you think things cannot get worse for Rishi Sunak, they do. Is this the worst start to an election campaign in history?Those with a distant memory can recall Michael Foot’s 1983 election campaign for Labour with the manifesto dubbed by he late Gerald Kaufman as “the longest suicide note in history”. But what went down in folklore as the worst ever election campaign – one which nearly saw the destruction of Labour – may have found its match in catastrophic miscalculations and farce.There are a number of people apparently giving Mr Sunak advice – but whoever was responsible for getting the prime minister to visit the Titanic Museum should be sacked already. If the image of an unsinkable ship holed by an iceberg and sinking inexhorably to the bottom of a deep blue ocean is not a metaphor for what is happening to the Tories before our eyes, then nothing is.Sunak jets off to campaign More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMichael Gove has announced he is not standing for re-election as an MP ahead of the general election on July 4.The secretary of state for Levelling Up is one of the longest-serving Conservative ministers and the last remaining high-profile MP from the David Cameron government elected in 2010.The shock announcement is another blow to the Tory Party already scrambling to find candidates for almost a third of constituencies after Rishi Sunak announced the election on Wednesday.And it comes just hours after the prime minister visited the Titanic Quarter in Belfast – where he was asked by reporters if he was “captaining a sinking ship going into the election”.The secretary of state for Levelling Up, posted on X: “After nearly 20 years serving the wonderful people of Surrey Heath and over a decade in Cabinet across five government departments, I have today taken the decision to step down as a Member of Parliament.”Follow our politics live blog for all the latest general election updatesMr Gove said it was time for a “new generation” to lead and highlighted his time in various government roles, including as education secretary, Cabinet office minister and housing secretary.Mr Gove will not stand at the upcoming general election More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailParliament is expected to wind up on Friday after Rishi Sunak stunned Westminster by calling a snap general election for 4 July.The Commons is dissolved after an election is called and the official closure date for this election will be 30 May.After this date, MPs lose their jobs and either decide to leave politics, campaign for re-election in their constituency or run for a different seat.What is parliamentary ‘wash-up’Parliament shuts down on 30 May More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Tories are scrambling to find candidates for almost a third of constituencies after Rishi Sunak’s decision to keep many of his party’s senior figures in the dark about his decision to call a snap election.It is understood that when Mr Sunak made his rain-sodden announcement on the steps of Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon, candidates for 191 of the 650 seats still needed to be selected. Since then more vacancies have occurred with a number of Tory MPs announcing they will retire, bringing the total to at least 78, breaking the 1997 record of 75. This dramatically included levelling-up secretary Michael Gove and former leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom on Friday evening.Party chiefs are desperately appealing to prospective candidates to put themselves forward for seats – many of which they are projected to lose heavily – with the Conservatives expected to still be putting up batches of adverts for constituencies into the weekend.Rishi Sunak told journalists he was ‘pumped up’ during his whirlwind tour of the UK More

Starmer responds to Jeremy Corbyn standing as independent candidate in general electionSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has confirmed he would welcome former prime minister Boris Johnson to join the Tory campaign and could make an appearance ahead of the general election on July 4.But the Conservatives have decided to ban Boris Johnson ally David Frost from standing as a candidate and from applying to stand in any of the constituencies left to nominate. The former Brexit secretary spent months criticising Rishi Sunak’s leadership of the party and country, even calling for him to be replaced.Meanwhile, the Commons has been hit by a wave of more than 100 resignations, with 76 Tories announcing they’re standing down so far. Craig Mackinlay, who lost his arms and legs from sepsis, has also joined the list and revealed that Sunak’s surprise announcement of a July election had him quit as an MP.Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn has announced he is standing as an independent candidate at the general election to fight Labour for Islington North, vowing to be “an independent voice for equality, democracy and peace”.Show latest update 1716562166General Election Contdown: Key dates May 24: Parliament prorogued which means the end of the Parliamentary session, bringing most business to an end.May 30: Parliament dissolved. By law, this has to take place no later than 25 working days before polling day.June 7: Deadline for candidates to be nominated. June 18: Deadline to register to vote. This can be done online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.June 19: Deadline to apply for a postal vote.June 26: Deadline to apply for a proxy vote – in other words, for someone to vote on your behalf – and to apply for a Voter ID certificate, if you do not already have a valid form of photo identification.July 4: Election day. Polls will open from 7am to 10pm.July 9: The new Parliament will be summoned to meet.July 17: State opening of Parliament.Labour will hope to hang on to its strong lead in the polls until election day More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailChancellor Jeremy Hunt and cabinet veteran Michael Gove appear at the head of a Lib Dem hit list of top Tory targets they believe they can unseat in the general election.The list is part of a wider strategy by the Lib Dems to “break the Tory blue wall” of traditionally safe seats across the south of England with previously unwinnable constituencies in counties such as Surrey now in their targets.Since winning the Chesham and Amersham by-election in 2021, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has made no secret of his hopes to repaint the blue wall yellow on the electoral map.But the plan to pour extra resources into seats held by five current cabinet ministers and five more being vacated by former Tory grandees including Theresa May and Sir John Redwood has echoes of the party’s disastrous decapitation strategy in 2005 which backfired spectacularly.Michael Gove’s seat is vulnerable More