General election 2024: Key moments from day eight
On day eight of the election campaign, Labour was unable to shake the furore over the political future of Diane Abbott as it faced fresh attacks from inside the party.
Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, said Ms Abbott should be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in a direct challenge to Sir Keir Starmer.
It has piled pressure on Sir Keir, the Labour leader, who has been accused of a “cull” of the party’s Left.
Amid the backlash on Thursday, Sir Keir visited Wales where he publicly backed Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething despite a string of recent controversies.
Rishi Sunak was in Milton Keynes speaking to factory workers, but faced a political blow as another one of his MPs defected to Labour.
Mark Logan, the Tory MP for Bolton North East for the last five years, announced his public support for Labour at the general election.
Rayner backs Diane Abbott in Labour split
Angela Rayner said Diane Abbott should be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in a direct challenge to Sir Keir Starmer.
Ms Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said she could “not see any reason” why the veteran Left-wing backbencher should not stand for the party on July 4.
In an interview with ITV, she also said she was “not happy” about anonymous briefings that Ms Abbott, 70, had been barred from standing.
Ms Rayner, widely seen as the Left’s standard-bearer in the shadow cabinet, told ITV: “I don’t see any reason why Diane Abbott can’t stand as a Labour MP going forward.
“Diane Abbott has given 37 years of service to the Labour party and also to the country. She is the first female black MP to come into Parliament, and she has been a trailblazer.”
Ms Abbott was suspended last year for sending a letter to the Observer in which she suggested Jewish people did not experience racism “all their lives”.
Ms Abbott immediately apologised but was subject to a year-long investigation. The whip was restored to her this week after she completed an anti-Semitism awareness course.
Left-wing Labour candidate blocked from standing
A Left-wing Labour candidate blocked from standing at the general election by the party has suggested that she may run as an independent.
Faiza Shaheen, an economist and academic, was selected to be Labour’s candidate in the north-east London constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green.
On Wednesday night, she found out that she will not be endorsed by the party. She had allegedly liked a series of social media posts that downplayed anti-Semitism accusations.
Responding to the news that Ms Shaheen would be barred from standing for Labour, Dianne Abbott tweeted: “Appalling. Whose clever idea has it been to have a cull of Left-wingers?”
Tory MP defects to Labour
Mark Logan, the Tory MP for Bolton North East for the last five years, has defected to Labour by joining the party and publicly supporting them at the general election.
Mr Logan said the Conservative Party was “unrecognisable” from the one he joined a decade ago and revealed he was applying to become a Labour member on Thursday.
He said: “When I look back to my teenage years, in 1997 when Labour came to the fore at that time and we obviously heard the song Things Can Only Get Better, I feel that we’re at that point again in British politics and British history.”
“For my constituents and for the country, it’s right that we get some stability back into the UK, we get optimism, we get new and fresh ideas,” he added.
Mr Logan made the announcement in an interview with the BBC on Thursday. He is now a former MP, given he is not seeking re-election and Parliament has now officially dissolved for the campaign.
Farage: Reform will win seats at this election
Nigel Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, told a press conference: “The election’s over, we know that, we understand that, it doesn’t fill us particularly with joy, but that’s where we are. So that begs the question, who’s going to be the opposition?
“When people realise that the Conservatives can’t win, and they actually agree with a lot of what we’re saying, I believe we are going to win seats.
“Maybe not a huge number, but we are going to win seats and we intend to be the voice of opposition to a Labour government over the next five years. That’s the aim, that’s the ambition.”
Richard Tice, leader of Reform, said the idea his party was a wasted vote is “offensive to democracy”, adding: “If you vote Labour or Tory it’s socialism, there’s no difference.”
‘I won’t make you change car prematurely for net zero’, Sunak vows
Rishi Sunak has said he won’t force people to change their cars as part of premature net zero schemes.
Speaking to workers at a factory in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, on Thursday, he said: “Of course I believe in climate change, I want to get to net zero.
“The question is how do we get there. We need to be more serious. I want to prioritise our country’s energy security…we are better off getting it here at home.
“I also want to prioritise your bills. What I don’t want to do is force you prematurely to rip out your boiler, change your car. We don’t need to do them right now.”
Mr Sunak held a short speech and Q&A at the factory Niftylift, a cherry picker manufacturer, while on the campaign trail.
Green Party says it will push ‘timid’ Labour
The Green Party said it will push Labour “beyond the timid change they are offering” if Sir Keir Starmer wins the general election.
Launching the party’s election campaign from Bristol, co-leader Carla Denyer said: “It’s so important that when Labour forms the next government, they are pushed beyond the timid change they are offering.
“Pushed to be more ambitious, braver, not to skirt around the edges of the massive crises facing our country, but to actually make real change that benefits people’s lives every day, that’s what Green MPs can do.”
The party said it hopes to elect four MPs on July 4, targeting Brighton Pavilion, Bristol Central, Waveney Valley, and North Herefordshire.
Starmer backs Gething in Wales visit
Sir Keir Starmer stood by embattled Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething as Labour’s election campaign arrived in Wales.
At a campaign rally in Abergavenny, Sir Keir thanked Mr Gething for his “leadership” and said he was “looking forward to a new partnership” with the First Minister if Labour took over in Westminster.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Sir Keir said he was “proud” of Labour’s record in Wales, where the party has been in power since devolution in 1999, and said Mr Gething was doing “a very good job”.
“What Vaughan Gething is absolutely focused on is delivering for Wales,” he said.
Questions have been raised about a £200,000 donation to Mr Gething’s leadership campaign from a company owned by a man convicted of environmental crimes.
He has also been criticised over his decision to sack cabinet member Hannah Blythyn for allegedly leaking to the press.