Rishi Sunak facing election exodus of Tory MPs — as it happened (2024)

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer held a series of events across the UK on the first full day of the general election campaign.

Sunak has begun a two-day tour of the four nations as he seeks to pull off the biggest political comeback in history at the general election on July 4. Starmer, meanwhile, hosted an event with Angela Rayner as he seeks to kickstart his own campaign after the prime minister’s surprise announcement yesterday.

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Hear the Labour leader make his case to be prime minister from 7.15am on Friday on Times Radio, or listen back on catch-up.

Sir Michael Ellis, the Conservative MP for Northampton North, has become the fifth Conservative on Thursday to announce they are standing down at the election.

Ellis, who has served in several ministerial positions including as attorney general, said it was an “extremely difficult decision” not to stand again.

Among his “lasting legacy” achievements, he counted the “Diamond and Platinum Jubilee gifts I arranged for the late queen” on the parliamentary estate, and a plaque to commemorate the former prime minister Spencer Perceval, a Northampton MP, and the only premier to have ever been assassinated.

The total number of Tory MPs standing down has now reached 72. The record number of Conservatives to stand down at an election is 75 in 1997.

Rishi Sunak has ruled out a deal with Reform UK to try and keep him in power.

He said he was “not really focused on personalities elsewhere” when asked about Nigel Farage’s decision not to stand at the general election. Asked about the prospect of a pact, he said: “Of course I can rule that out.”

Sunak argued that he was securing the UK’s borders and that voting for Reform only increased the chances of Sir Keir Starmer becoming prime minister.

Rishi Sunak has suggested that Sir Keir Starmer is scared to take part in televised debates in the run up to the general election.

The prime minister said he wants to go “head to head as many times as possible over the next few weeks” with the Labour leader in a sign that he believes Starmer may struggle to connect with voters under the spotlight.

Asked during a visit to Nigg Energy Park in the Scottish Highlands whether that mean he thought Starmer was fearful of debates, Sunak said: “Well people can read into that all they want. But he’s had however many years to think about what he wants to do for the country and as I said the other day, he doesn’t seem to be able to tell people what he wants to do, doesn’t have a plan, doesn’t have the courage of his convictions.

“But that’s why we need to have these debates, so we can actually debate these issues and people can make a decision on who they think it’s going to provide a secure future for our country.”

A shadow minister would not be drawn on whether or not Labour is open to forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow minister without portfolio, told LBC: “There is obviously a party where we do not share values, they wish to break up the country we’re seeking the govern, that’s the Scottish national party. No deals before, during or after the election with the Scottish National Party.”
Asked if there could be a coalition with Sir Ed Davey’s party, he did not rule it out.

He said: “With this we are not anticipating what the British public is going to do. We are not taking anything for granted. But there are some parties whose views are so far remote from ours, you could never envisage working with them.”

Thomas-Symonds added that Labour would release its manifesto within a fortnight.

The Conservative party is “panicking” about the threat posed by Reform UK, Lee Anderson has claimed .

The MP, who defected from the Tories to Reform UK in March, told Times Radio: “If I could show you the WhatsApp messages that have come through on my phone over the past 24 hours, they are not that relieved at all, because I’ve got loads and loads of Tory MPs asking me if we’re [Reform UK] standing in their seats.

“They’re still panicking a little bit. It’s going to be sad, because some of my [former] colleagues are going to lose their seats in the election in July.

“They might have breathed a slight sigh of relief with the news about Nigel but they’re not happy that Reform are standing in, I think it’s 630 seats up and down the country.”

Anderson said he had been “booted out” of the Conservative party and had a “big point to prove” at the election.

He said: “I want to be proven right. I’ve made comments about [Sadiq] Khan, I’ve made comments about legal migration, illegal migration. People say over the past four, four and a half years, I’ve been controversial in my views.”

Anderson added: “I think I’m saying what a lot of people are thinking.”

Ministers have announced a modest package of proposals to crack down on the abuse of graduate visas, but have stopped short of calls to scrap the route altogether.

Universities would have to meet tougher compliance standards on the recruitment of international students under the new measures, announced by James Cleverly, the home secretary, and Gillian Keegan, the education secretary.

They will face losing their ability to take foreign students if they accept people who fail to pass Home Office visa checks, enrol onto their course or fail to complete it.

There would also be a crackdown on rogue recruitment agents who make huge profits encouraging people to apply to British universities by selling misleading information.

The measures would only come into effect if the Tories won the election but Labour have not opposed them.

The announcement coincided with new statistics that showed net migration stood at 685,000 last year, a 10 per cent decline on the previous year, which was partly driven by fewer foreign students coming to the UK.

Laura Trott, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has said the Rwanda plan is a “dividing line” between Labour and the Conservatives.

She told the BBC: “This is a really important dividing line between the two parties. Between the Conservative party, who have taken action last year to bring down the number of people coming over here illegally.

“It was down by a third last year but we know it has to come down further but that is why we put the Rwanda plan in place in the face of opposition from the Labour Party every step of the way.”

She added: “This is an example of the choice that the British people are facing at this election.”

Trott sought to frame Rishi Sunak’s elevation to prime minister as the antidote for the “mistakes” that were made during Liz Truss’s brief premiership.

She said: “I would point to the decisive action that Rishi Sunak has taken since 18 months ago when he became prime minister.

“Inflation was at 11 per cent, this was a worldwide phenomenon, this was not just something that happened here, and he has taken decisive steps to bring inflation down so it’s now down to normal levels and that is absolutely crucial for so many people sitting at home.”

Piers Morgan, the broadcaster, has said Rishi Sunak owes the British Red Cross £1,000 following “your admission today that no flights will take off to Rwanda before the election”.

Morgan interviewed Sunak in February and bet him that he would not be able to get Rwanda flights off the ground before the general election. Sunak appeared to accept the bet.

On Thursday afternoon, Morgan wrote on Twitter/X: “Dear prime minister … following your admission today that no flights will take off to Rwanda before the election, please send £1000 to British Red Cross.”

The prime minister conceded on earlier on Thursday that flights would not leave before polling day.

In an interview with LBC, Sunak said: “If I’m elected, we will get the flights off … after the election.” Asked to confirm that meant no flights before the election, Sunak confirmed that was correct.

Kevan Jones, the Labour MP for North Durham, has become the 113th MP, and the 22nd from Labour, to announce they will not stand in the election.

Jones, 60, was defence minister under Gordon Brown, and has been an MP since 2001. He said he is receiving surgery and treatment in June which would prevent him from campaigning.

Huw Merriman, the rail minister, has said he will not be standing for re-election on July 4.

He becomes the latest Conservative MP to announce he will not be running in the general election. The Bexhill and Battle MP did not specify a reason for his departure.

In a letter posted on Twitter/X, he wrote: “To both the next MP for Bexhill and Battle and to a future rail minister: if these roles bring even half the amount of happiness as they have brought me, then it will make you very proud.”

In a transport-themed sign-off, he added: “I will miss everything but, as I sit in the political departure lounge, I am looking forward to a new journey (whatever that might be).”

A total of 70 Tories are among the 113 who have confirmed they will not stand for re-election following Merriman’s announcement.

Conservative Campaign Headquarters is rushing to appoint the remaining candidates in seats across the country ahead of the general election.

It is thought that almost 200 constituencies are still missing a named Conservative candidate. Scores of MPs from the party are sitting down, while in other less winnable seats the process has not been seen as urgent.

Budding candidates have now been sent a list of 93 seats — those they currently hold and are likely to hold — for which they can apply by 1pm on Saturday, according to the journalist Michael Crick.

The Conservatives enter the general election as the “underdog”, Penny Mordaunt has said, as she warned voters against backing “ruthless socialists”.

As she sought to frame Labour as the favourites, the Commons leader said the public’s perception of the government had been clouded by a “red mist”.

The question facing voters, Mordaunt said, is whether decisions made by the government in “tough times” will “blind them to what is on offer under the red flag” of Labour.

Speaking in the final business questions session before parliament stops for the election, Mordaunt told the Commons: “The UK has been through tough times but the choices we have made collectively have given ourselves the freedom to be ambitious, both at home and abroad.”

Mordaunt said Sir Keir Starmer was “weak and unformed”. And she added: “The Labour leader has been distancing himself from his own MPs and candidates: the anti-business, anti-Israel, anti-opportunity, anti-responsibility, Britain-bashing brigade that sit on the benches opposite.”

Big tech companies face being forced to pay for the news content which appears on their platforms under a bill that has rushed through parliament on Thursday afternoon.

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill was rushed through the remaining stages of parliamentary process during the so-called “wash-up” process to clean the slate of legislation in time for dissolution.

The News Media Association, which represents UK national and local newspaper publishers, said the moment “marks a very important milestone in addressing market failure in the digital economy, and ultimately delivering a level playing field between publishers and platforms”.

The King has formally approved an Order in Council to prorogue parliament ahead of the general election.

Charles held a quickly convened Privy Council at Buckingham Palace on Thursday where he undertook his duties in preparation for the country going to the polls on July 4.

Prorogation of parliament is the end of the parliamentary session, which will happen on Friday.
The next stage for the King will be to order the dissolution of parliament which will take effect next Thursday. Dissolution is when a parliament is terminated and followed by a general election.

It is not the first time the King has prorogued parliament; he did so last October. But it is the first time he has done so during his reign for an election.

Voting for the Liberal Democrats “cannot deliver anything apart from” a Labour government, the Conservative Party chairman has said.

Responding to Sir Ed Davey’s campaign launch in Cheltenham, Richard Holden said: “A vote for the Liberal Democrats cannot deliver anything apart from a Keir Starmer-led Labour government which would increase taxes on hard-working families by £2,094, taking us back to square one.

“Sir Keir Starmer wants people to vote for the Liberal Democrats because he knows this means more seats for Labour in parliament.

“The choice at the election is clear: stick with the plan in an increasingly uncertain world by choosing bold action for a safer, more secure and more prosperous future with Rishi Sunak, or go back to square one with Sir Keir Starmer and the same old Labour.”

The number 68,564 migrants were granted asylum over the last year as a result of Rishi Sunak’s drive to clear a backlog of claims, government figures have revealed.

A total of 68,564 individuals were granted asylum in the UK last year, which accounted for 62 per cent of the total number of decisions made and the highest since records began in 1984.

The high number of asylum seekers granted the right to stay was driven by the prime minister’s pledge to clear a backlog of 92,601 so-called “legacy” claims made before July 2022.

He almost managed to meet the pledge after doubling the number of asylum caseworkers, leading to a record number of asylum applications being processed.

However, there were still 2,353 asylum applications outstanding from that backlog at the end of March 2024. This is in addition to 118,329 people who arrived since June 2022 and are now waiting a decision on their claim. This is down by a third from 172,758 compared to the previous 12 months.

But Dr Peter William Walsh from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford warned that the government “is now running out of road” and the asylum backlog risks spiralling to a new record high.

The Liberal Democrats said the backlog figures were “sky high”.

Nickie Aiken, the outgoing Tory MP for the Cities of London & Westminster, has said it was “ridiculous” for Sunak to give his election announcement speech in the rain on Wednesday.

Aiken told BBC Radio London: “I absolutely have no problem with him calling the election. I think it’s the right thing to do, we’ve got to get the speculation over.

“We’ve got to give the British people a clear choice, and there is a clear choice — but don’t do it in the pouring rain.”

Rosie Duffield, the only MP to be elected for Labour in Kent, was not invited to the party’s campaign launch in the county.

The MP has been critical of the party’s position on trans issues in the past. Sir Keir Starmer said last month that Duffield was right to say only women have a cervix, three years after criticising her for the description.

Just over a week ago, Duffield said she met the Labour leader for “17 minutes” and received no apology for being “investigated for 12 months”.

John Swinney, the first minister of Scotland and SNP leader, has framed July 4 as a potential Scottish “independence day”, in a reference to the US celebration on the same day.

He told supporters in Edinburgh: “We will win our country’s independence and win the powers to bring about a better Scotland through democratic pressure. The SNP will always fight to further Scotland’s interests under any constitutional circ*mstances.”

Health charities are furious that the government’s flagship legislation to ban smoking for younger generations looks set to fall by the wayside due to the election.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “If the government confirm the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will not make it through wash-up, this will be a disheartening day for people affected by cancer, health professionals and campaigners who have worked tirelessly on the legislation.”

She added: “It’s vital that all parties commit in their manifestos to bring this bill back in the first King’s Speech after the general election.”

Last-minute negotiations are under way to save Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban falling victim to the election.

The tobacco and vapes bill was omitted from measures that will be rushed through parliament in the next two days, with government sources insisting there was no time to get through legislation that has not progressed to the House of Lords.

Some in government say the smoking bill is now “highly unlikely” to pass, also pointing to procedural difficulties in forcing through legislation on which MPs were given a free vote.

This would prove embarrassing for Sunak, who made a ban on anyone under 14 ever buying cigarettes a personal priority.

However, Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons insist that negotiations with Labour were “ongoing” about the smoking bill and other legislation, insisting there was still hope of passing other measures.

Labour has backed the smoking bill and insist they will help get the measure through, but Tory sources say they have so far not received any offers of support from the opposition to fast-track the measure.

Unless a compromise can be found in the next few hours, the bill will run out of time to pass before parliament is prorogued on Friday.

One of the first gaffes of the election campaign happened during Rishi Sunak’s visit to see workers at a brewery in South Wales.

The prime minister asked if they were looking forward to “all the football”, before being quickly reminded that Wales haven’t qualified for the European Championship this summer.

Compensation for victims of the infected blood scandal and quashing convictions for postmasters in the Horizon scandal will be passed before the dissolution of parliament on May 30.

The Victims and Prisoners Bill, which includes the compensation scheme, will be passed, as will the Post Office Offences Bill.

The compensation must be decided within three months of royal assent, which will take place before the end of next week.

But Lucy Powell, the shadow leader of the Commons, said many government commitments and bills were now “up in the air or in the bin” thanks to the prime minister’s “abrupt dissolution of parliament”.

Three Tory MPs have today announced they will not be running in the general election, meaning more than one in five of the governing parliamentary party are standing aside (Max Kendix writes).

A total of 69 Tories are among the 112 who have confirmed they will not stand for re-election.

Today, Jo Churchill, the employment minister, James Grundy, the MP for Leigh since 2019, and Dame Eleanor Laing, the deputy speaker of the House of Commons, have all stood down.

Laing, who has been the MP for Epping Forest for 27 years, said she wanted to “give others the opportunities that I have been so fortunate to have”.

Rishi Sunak’s flagship smoking bill is in doubt after it was not included on the list of legislation to be passed before parliament is broken up for the election.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which also includes a crackdown on underage vaping, faces being scrapped and included in the Tory manifesto for the election instead.

The 28 pieces of legislation making their way through parliament are included in the period of “wash-up”, which will only last until the close of play on Friday.

It is thought the free vote agreed for the smoking bill, which will ban the sale of cigarettes for anyone before 2009, means there will not be enough time for it to be included in the wash-up.

Richard Tice has said he plans to wipe out One Nation Conservatives after he announced he would be standing in Boston & Skegness.

The Reform UK leader will go up against Matt Warman, who is the deputy chairman of the Tory moderate One Nation Caucus.

Tice told The Times: “He [Warman] is not a real Conservative, I call him a socialist, that’s the truth. He voted for all the things that have broken Britain.”

He said it was a “great constituency” and was “nice and close” to Ashfield, where the Tory defector Lee Anderson will stand for Reform.

Tice also said that Nigel Farage had given up his presenting job on GB News for the duration of the campaign so he can help Reform UK.

At the Covid inquiry, Simon Case, the head of the civil service, said he now “deeply regrets” WhatsApp messages sent during the pandemic in which he questioned and ridiculed Boris Johnson’s response.

He said messages in which he described the government as a “terrible, tragic joke” and said Johnson “cannot lead” were “raw, in-the-moment” expressions.

Case said: “Those are examples that I obviously now deeply regret of expressing my in-the-moment frustrations with the former prime minister.

“Each prime minister has their own approach to doing it and as I say, in my job, I found it very frustrating. I just don’t think I understood how difficult he was finding it personally.”

Nigel Farage’s decision not to re-enter the political fray and lead Reform into the election is an undoubted relief for Tory strategists.

Polling by YouGov for The Times last week found that if Farage had decided to join the fray, support for Reform would have increased by three points from its current level of 13 per cent.

Not only that but the former UKIP leader is a formidable campaigner with a proven record of shaping the political debate in a way that Reform’s current leader Richard Tice is not.

The hope in Tory HQ is that, without a charismatic frontman like Farage, Reform will struggle to get its message across and its vote can be squeezed.

The message will be that a vote for Reform is a vote for Labour and an end to the Rwandan deportation scheme backed by the majority of the party’s supporters.

Tory strategists also hope that the snap election will prove a challenge to Reform, which lacks both funding and a well-organised campaign structure.

Nevertheless, even without Farage, Reform still poses a significant threat to Conservatives in red wall seats that they need to hold if they are to have any chance of remaining in power.

To put it in context: in the 2019 election the Brexit party won just 2 per cent of the vote across the country. The Tories will have to pull off a remarkable feat to squeeze Reform’s current support to anywhere near that level.

The Tory party has responded to Reform UK’s campaign launch with a Scooby Doo cartoon suggesting that a vote for them will put Keir Starmer in power.

Richard Tice, the leader of Reform, said the meme showed the Tories were rattled. He said: “What is it? It’s Scooby Doo! Isn’t it great? The fact they focus on us proves how terrified they are. The more memes the better.”

Plans for an independent regulator for English football are set to be shelved as a result of the general election.

The Football Governance Bill, one of the 28 pieces of legislation making their way through parliament, will have to be either passed or dropped by close of play on Friday.

The Boris Johnson-era proposals, fiercely opposed by the Premier League but backed by the lower leagues, will not make it through that period, but may well be introduced by whoever forms the new government.

The Liberal Democrats have ruled out any deal that would keep the Tories in power.

Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader, told Sky News: “We have ruled out doing any deal whatsoever with this Conservative government because it is really quite clear that there are lifelong Conservative voters who can no longer stomach voting for this Conservative Party, they simply don’t recognise it anymore.”

When it was put to her that Nick Clegg said the same thing before the 2010 election, after which he joined a five-year coalition with David Cameron, Cooper said: “A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.”

Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, has said candidates will stand in 630 constituencies as he launched his party’s campaign.

At the last election the Brexit Party, since rebranded as Reform UK, did not stand in seats won by Conservatives at the previous election. It was a decision credited with helping Boris Johnson secure a large majority.

Tice said he would run in Boston & Skegness, a seat with a Conservative majority of more than 25,000. He dubbed July 4 the “immigration election”, adding: “The choice at this election for British people is, do you want more of the same from the main two parties or do you want change?”

Charities and opposition parties seized upon Rishi Sunak’s confirmation that Rwanda flights will not take off before the election, declaring the controversial policy a “dead duck”.

Sir Keir Starmer claimed Sunak “clearly does not believe in his Rwanda plan,” adding: “I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election.”

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the Rwanda plan would “go down in the history of British policymaking as an Alice in Wonderland adventure that was both absurd and inhumane”.

The charity Freedom from Torture said Sunak’s confirmation of no flights before the election was “a victory for compassionate people”.

Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesman, branded it “an utter humiliation and admission of defeat from a prime minister who has thrown millions at his failing vanity project”.

Jo Churchill, a junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, has become the 109th MP to announce they will not stand again at the general election, citing “family reasons”.

Churchill, 60, a Conservative MP for the safe Suffolk seat of Bury St Edmunds since 2015, becomes the 66th MP from the governing party to step aside.

Almost one in five of the present Conservative parliamentary party will not fight the election, double the rate in 2019. The total number of MPs standing down is the highest since the 2010 election.

Labour will decide whether Diane Abbott will stand for the party at the election “within the next few days”, its campaign co-ordinator has said.

Abbott, who was shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, has been sitting as an independent MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington for more than a year after the Labour whip was removed.

She had been suspended for claiming Jewish people could not suffer from racism. An independent investigation was then launched by the party, which has not been resolved.

Candidates must be nominated by Friday, June 7, in just two weeks.

Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “I’m not involved in the selection of candidates. Any of these issues with candidates will be sorted within the next few days. We’ll have a full suite of candidates going into the election. It’ll all be sorted out.”

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to confirm he will stand as an independent candidate in his constituency of Islington North.

The former Labour leader was not on the shortlist of two candidates released by Labour yesterday.

JK Rowling has supported a plea from feminists to politicians to back single-sex spaces if they want women’s votes in the general election.

The author threw her support behind a campaign for MPs to commit to giving women the right to female-only spaces. Rowling, tweeting a link to the campaign, said: “If you want women’s votes, protect our rights.”

Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, the group behind the campaign, said: “The next government must stand up for single-sex services.

“This means it has to know what a woman is, and be willing to say it. Standing up for single-sex services is not a political ‘gotcha’; still less is it waging a ‘culture war’. This is a serious, real-life issue for all women and girls.”

Sir Keir Starmer joked that the last time there was a Labour government Manchester City, the Premier League champions, were in the same league as Gillingham FC.

Appearing among Labour activists on the pitch at Priestfield Stadium, the home of League Two club Gillingham, Starmer said: “It is great to be here in Gillingham. Last time under a Labour government, Gillingham was in the same league as Manchester City, so that is a good place to start.”

The clubs were last in the same division at the beginning of the 2001-02 season, when Manchester City were promoted to the Premier League.

That same year, Tony Blair’s Labour Party was re-elected with a 167-seat majority, winning the seat of Gillingham in the process.

Starmer was also pictured greeting a baby and was heard saying “Up the Gills” — the nickname of the local club.

Sir Keir Starmer has told the British public “if you want change you have to vote for it” as he made his first public appearance of the election campaign.

Speaking at the stadium of Gillingham Football Club in Kent alongside Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, he said: “This election is about a choice, two different countries two different futures: decline and chaos continuing under the Tories or rebuild under Labour.

“All we ask now humbly is the opportunity to change our country and put it back in the service of working people.”

The seat of Gillingham & Rainham has been Conservative since 2010 but is a key target for Labour despite the Tories holding a majority of more than 15,000 votes.

Jacob Rees-Mogg compared Rishi Sunak to Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain as he described the election launch speech as “magnificent”.

The Conservative MP told Times Radio: “I thought it was absolutely magnificent. I thought it was just the best British stoicism, the stiff upper lip. We carry on regardless. The British are drip dry.

“We don’t care about a little bit of drizzle. It was like carrying on a Test match when a little bit of rain comes in and not wimping out for bad light. I thought it showed proper British grit.”

Asked whether he looked forward to knocking on doors in the rain, Rees-Mogg said: “I love knocking on doors. And I have a good raincoat.”

Net migration stood at 685,000 at the end of last year, official figures have revealed. The latest Office for National Statistics immigration data showed a 10 per cent decline on the record high of 764,000 in 2022.

However, the December 2023 figure is three times the level recorded in 2019 when the Conservative Party pledged in its election manifesto to reduce overall numbers coming to the UK.

The figures deliver another challenge for Rishi Sunak, who has said current levels of immigration are “unacceptable” and has doubled down on the 2019 pledge to slash numbers.

The Home Office attempted to get ahead of the ONS figures yesterday by publishing its own figures on visa numbers, which are more up to date and cover the period since five significant new restrictions came into effect. They showed a 79 per cent decline in students bringing their family members to the UK and a 58 per cent drop in migrant health and care workers bringing relatives.

Rishi Sunak has been confronted by a member of the public who said his wife has been on the NHS waiting list for three years.

Speaking to about 50 staff at a distribution centre in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, Sunak was asked about the future of the health service by a man who said he was concerned that “nothing is being done” to tackle waiting lists.

He said he is on a 12-week list for a prostate scan while his wife has been waiting three years for treatment.

Sunak responded by saying he had a plan to train more doctors and placed a greater role for pharmacists in dealing with the backlog. He highlighted the effect of industrial action on the waiting lists, which now stand at about seven million people.

Rishi Sunak has said he is “really proud” of the past 14 years of Conservative government. He told Today on BBC Radio 4: “I’m happy to focus on 14 years, I’m really proud of what the Conservatives have done in office.

“When we came into office 14 years ago, Labour bankrupted the economy. They left a note saying and laughing about the fact that there was no money left. Since then, we’ve created more jobs than pretty much anywhere in Europe.

“We’ve halved crime, we’ve got Brexit done and ensured that we’re one of the biggest export economies in the world … So I’m proud of that record. I’m not going to pretend that every single thing is perfect.”

Nigel Farage will not stand to be an MP in the election. The former leader of Ukip released a statement on social media saying: “I will do my bit to help in the campaign, but it is not the right time for me to go any further than that.”

Rishi Sunak’s confirmation that Rwanda flights won’t take off before the July 4 election is an admission of reality (Matt Dathan writes).

Last night Home Office sources had said it was “very, very unlikely” that flights would take off before the election. That was because of several reasons.

Firstly, legal challenges. No judge would feel comfortable giving the green light to such a high-profile, controversial policy that looks set to be a key dividing line between the two parties at the election, especially given that very policy could be scrapped days later if Labour wins power.

Secondly, there was significant doubt over whether officials would agree to comply with a ministerial decision to ignore an interim injunction suspending flights from the European Court of Human Rights during an election campaign.

By ruling out flights before the election on the first day of the campaign, Sunak has got ahead of repeated speculation about the first flights and negative coverage about pitfalls, whether operational or legal.

And it won’t stop Sunak using the Rwanda policy to attack Sir Keir Starmer at every opportunity over claims he has “no plan” to stop the boats. As Sunak says himself: “If you re-elect me on July 5 those flights will go.”

Simon Case, the most senior civil servant, will appear to give evidence at the UK Covid inquiry today looking into the decisions made by the top of government during the pandemic.

The head of the civil service has featured heavily in the inquiry so far with several critical WhatsApp messages he wrote at the height of the pandemic about the then prime minister Boris Johnson shown.

This included him saying Johnson “changes direction every day” and he “cannot lead”. Case arrived this morning holding a walking stick. It comes after his testimony, originally scheduled for last year, was delayed due to medical leave.

Labour enjoyed a 25 percentage point lead as the prime minister announced the date of the general election.

Exclusive polling for The Times by YouGov, carried out over Tuesday and Wednesday, shows the Conservatives at 21 per cent (up 1 point from last week), Labour at 46 per cent (down 1 point) the Liberal Democrats at 9 per cent (level), Reform UK at 12 per cent (up 1 point), and the Greens at 7 per cent (down 1 point).

Akshata Murty has shared a motivational post on social media in support of Rishi Sunak’s election campaign.

“I’m with you every step of the way,” the prime minister’s wife added on Instagram alongside a heart-shaped emoji.

The Liberal Democrats have accused the prime minister of “lying like Boris Johnson” about a 2019 commitment to build 40 new hospitals.

Rishi Sunak told BBC Breakfast that the key pledge would be fulfilled by 2030.

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat’s health spokeswoman, said: “It is an insult to voters that some of these supposed new hospitals don’t even have planning permission yet, let alone spades in the ground.”

It was “a bit wet” during the general election announcement outside No 10 yesterday, the prime minister has admitted.

Rishi Sunak decided to issue his statement outside in the rain because he wanted to continue the “traditions of our country” by speaking on the steps of Downing Street, telling LBC: “I’m not going to deny that it was a bit wet. I’m not a fair-weather politician.

“I believe very strongly in the traditions of our country, and when you’re making a statement of that magnitude as prime minister, I believe in just doing it in the traditional way, come rain and shine, in front of the steps of Downing Street.”

Sunak told the BBC that Britons “were not focused on the weather”.

“We are British — we talk about the weather a lot but I think, in this election, we will be more focused on the issues you and I have been talking about.

“People will be pleased to know I have got an umbrella with me today, just in case.”

Sir Keir Starmer has his “sleeves rolled up” ready to serve the British people, his national campaign co-ordinator has said.

Pat McFadden said Labour were “somewhat surprised” by the timing of Rishi Sunak’s announcement yesterday but that Sir Keir Starmer is ready to lead.

“What people will see in the next six weeks is someone who is driven by a patriotic idea of public service. He’s got his sleeves rolled up, he’s published the first steps he wants to enact and he’s ready to serve the British people.”

With candidates being selected for seats across the country, McFadden was unable to say whether Diane Abbott, an MP for almost 40 years, would be among them. She has been suspended as a Labour MP since early last year.

“I can’t speak to that,” he said. “Anywhere we don’t have a candidate we will in the next few days.”

The prime minister has accused Sir Keir Starmer of opposing laws that have put almost a thousand people connected with illegal migration in prison.

Referring to the Nationality and Borders Act, passed in 2022, and the Illegal Migration Act, passed in 2023, Rishi Sunak told GB News: “He voted against those laws, so he can say all these nice-sounding things.

“But when it came to it, he voted against those laws that allowed us to put hundreds of people in prison for hundreds of years.”

The prime minister has said flights to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda will not launch until after the election.

Asked when the first flights will take off, Rishi Sunak told BBC Breakfast: “The first flights will go in July, and we’ve already put the preparations in place for that. We’ve hired hundreds of caseworkers, identified the cohort, and as people have been watching on their TV screens or in the newspapers, we’ve already started detaining people.

“We’ve hired the escorts, we’ve got an airfield on standby, we’ve booked the flights. So all of that work is already ongoing. And the choice of this election is clear, because if I’m re-elected as prime minister on the 5th of July, these flights will go. We will get our Rwanda scheme up and running.”

A summer election was called to avoid a clash with the presidential election in America, a senior Tory MP has said

Tobias Ellwood, former chairman of the House of Commons defence select committee, told Times Radio that Britain and America would not want to be “involved in domestic issues when an adversary, a competitor, would take full advantage of us looking in a different way, distracted, it is a prime opportunity to do something significant”.

He added: “This is where I look at things from the security perspective. It’s long been known that you cannot have Britain and America — it’s like an unwritten rule — going to the polls at the same time … all I’m saying is it limited the calendar.”

Several Conservative MPs have expressed unease about Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a general election for the summer.

Dame Tracey Crouch, the Conservative MP for Chatham & Aylesford, who is stepping down after 14 years, said she still had important issues to raise in the House of Commons.

“I am feeling quite emotional about all this. I was anticipating an autumn departure from parliament and still had important issues to raise on behalf of my constituents between now and then. I am sad that I won’t now get to do that,” she wrote.

Dehenna Davison, the Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland, said she still had “so much more to do”.

“I think my team and I were prepared for autumn, so emotionally this is a lot to digest. We had so much more to do, and thought we had a little more time. Alas.”

May 24 Parliament prorogued, subject to the progress of business, 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. It is highly likely that candidates for some of the 650 constituencies across the UK have yet to be picked.

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 and to apply for a Voter ID certificate, if you do not already have a valid form of photo identification. This will be the first general election where all voters will need to show a valid form of photo ID.

July 4 Election day. Polls will open from 7am to 10pm.

Rishi Sunak opened cabinet on Wednesday afternoon by setting aside the formal agenda. “I don’t think anyone will mind,” he said as he told colleagues that he was calling a general election.

The economic outlook, he said, was improving and it was time to be bold. “We have got to own the choice and frame the choice,” he said.

The prime minister’s decision to go early was not universally welcomed. Esther McVey, the Cabinet Office minister, disagreed and argued that the Tories needed more time for the improved economic outlook to feed through to voters.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, said he would not have gone early but added that he was “100 per cent” behind the prime minister. In fact, Sunak made the decision to call the election nearly a month ago, shortly before the local election results were announced.

Read in full: Inside the cabinet debate where decision was made

When you spring a surprise general election you surprise the opposition, you surprise the press — but you also surprise your own party. After 14 years there was never going to be a good time for the Tories to call an election but this makes more sense than clinging on, writes Daniel Finkelstein: read the full story.

Rishi Sunak gambled on an early general election as he declared that “now is the moment for Britain to choose its future”.

Taking his own cabinet by surprise, the prime minister announced that the country would go to the polls on July 4.

He said that he was the man to protect Britain in “the most uncertain of times”, vowing never to “leave the people of this country to face the dark”.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, promised “a politics that treads more lightly on people’s lives” as he argued that only a change of government could bring stability after 14 years of Conservative rule, when “nothing seems to work any more”.

Read the full report of yesterday’s developments