Election

Read the latest General Election news, views and analysis.

Sunday

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Could Jeremy Corbyn become a left-wing Nigel Farage?

Why can’t Jeremy Corbyn be a left-wing Farage? Why can’t he threaten Labour as Ukip and its successor parties threatened and continue to threaten the Tories? There is a gap in the market for a party to the left of Labour, and Corbyn seems just the man to fill it.  Those of us who intensely disliked his leadership of the Labour party disliked most of all the gormless personality cult which surrounded him and did so much to destroy the left’s claim to possess a sceptical intelligence. But there is no doubt that, if you want to build a new movement, having tens of thousands, and in all likelihood hundreds of

Andy Maciver

Sunak won’t be much help to the Scottish Tories

The first few days of this general election campaign have been characterised by Rishi Sunak’s dismal campaign management. From wet suits and sinking ships, his whistlestop tour of the four nations seemed more like a box-ticking exercise than anything else. The key to any Tory success is to augment the notion that independence is still a threat A prime minister from the Conservative and Unionist party must find some way to appeal to Northern Ireland and Scotland, the two parts of that union which in the longer term still represent a realistic flight risk. It was, however, hard not to reflect on Sunak’s irrelevance in these parts of the UK. Irrelevant

Saturday

Elisabeth Braw

Sunak is right, Britain needs national service

The Tories have announced that, if re-elected, they will introduce national service. And it won’t be the miserable existence imposed on all young men in conscription years past. Instead, the Tories will invite 18-year-olds to compete for selective 12-month spots in areas including cyber security, logistics and civil response. That’s the model Norway has successfully been operating for over three decades. In addition, young people will be asked to volunteer on a monthly basis with the NHS, the fire service or charities looking after elderly and lonely people. Such service is a win-win: it’s beneficial for the young people involved in it, and even more importantly it helps make our

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why Rishi Sunak wants to introduce national service

The first big new policy announcement of the election campaign is in from the Tories, and it’s likely to be a talker. Where Keir Starmer appears to be opting for a ‘Ming vase’ strategy – trying not to rock the boat ahead of polling day – the Tories are leaning towards the opposite. At 20 points behind in the polls, aides believe they need headline-grabbing, bold policies in order to get the public’s attention. The first of which is the return of mandatory national service. In what the Tories are billing as ‘a bold new model for national service for 18-year-olds’, they propose to make it mandatory for all 18-year-olds

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Michael Gove set to become the next Strictly star?

As the exodus of Conservative MPs continues, Mr S is rather curious about what alternative careers retiring Tories have in their sights. The number of Conservative politicians stepping down at the general election is 78 and counting — and on Friday night, a resignation announcement from a high-profile Tory veteran stunned the nation. Michael Gove, currently Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, announced just days after Sunak called the snap election that he would not be contesting his Surrey Heath seat, despite having a rather impressive majority of over 18,000. The Tory Trot wrote that: I know the toll office can take, as do those closest to

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How many Tory big beasts will the Lib Dems oust?

It’s four days since Rishi Sunak surprised his colleagues and announced a summer election. So far a lot of the commentary has been on how Labour’s Keir Starmer could be the big winner from that call – with the party over 20 points ahead in the polls. Yet when it comes to the threat many of the cabinet are most worried about, it is actually the Liberal Democrats. There is much chatter among ministers today over Michael Gove’s shock decision to stand down. As Tim Shipman reports in the Sunday Times, Gove was long of the view that he would hold his constituency of Surrey Heath (majority: 18,349) so long

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

The smoking ban won’t go away

Has Rishi Sunak’s surprise summer election spared Britain some nanny state interventions? At first glance it seemed so, as it was revealed yesterday that the Prime Minister’s legacy legislation – the Tobacco and Vapes Bill – did not make it into the pile of ‘wash-up’ legislation that Parliament will try to pass before its dissolution next week. The Tories abandoned the defence of liberty a long time ago Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Sunak expressed his ‘disappointment’ that he was ‘not able to get that through by the end of the session’ but still cited his crackdown on flavoured vapes and a proposed ban on tobacco sales for anyone born after January

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The glories and blunders of Michael Gove

On the way to work, I pass a Lidl supermarket that has a new school built on top of it. Parents gather with children in uniforms that didn’t exist a few years ago; teachers who didn’t have jobs a few years ago come together in what’s already one of the best primary schools in the country. And if it wasn’t for Michael Gove, personally, none of this would exist. I can’t think of many more important or meaningful legacies for the political career that, we now learn, will end at the July election. A few weeks ago, Katy and I were at an event that Gove chaired where he asked

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Who dares, wins? Not Michael Gove

Michael Gove has just announced he is standing down at the election. He spent the past few days agonising privately over the decision, and published a letter on Twitter paying tribute to the Conservative party’s legacy in government – mostly his legacy, in fact. He names education reform, funding for modernising prisons and rehabilitation, progressive environmental policies, levelling up, housing reform, Brexit and building safety. It is notable that he says he was ‘pleased to be able to introduce the most wide-ranging reforms to leasehold, social housing, and supported housing in a generation’. That is true, but the leasehold reforms did not go as far as Gove had wanted, and

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

John Swinney is making a mess of the SNP’s election campaign

Humza Yousaf lasted just over 400 days as SNP leader. Will his replacement John Swinney get that far? The question arises so soon into his tenure because of Swinney’s decision to oppose the suspension of a former cabinet colleague. Michael Matheson resigned as health secretary in February after the taxpayer was left with an £11,000 bill for iPad data usage incurred while he was on a family holiday in Morocco. After initially claiming ignorance as to how the bill was run up, Matheson later claimed that his sons had hotspotted the data to watch football matches. Yousaf stood by Matheson, calling him a ‘man of integrity’, a locution the opposition

Steerpike Steerpike

JK Rowling takes aim at Starmer over Duffield snub

Oh dear. It’s not yet 48 hours since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a general election and already tensions are running high. Now it transpires that Labour backbencher and vocal women’s rights campaigner Rosie Duffield was not invited to her own party’s election launch in Kent despite being an, er, Kent MP. Making a rather public show of party infighting is hardly a good start to election season… A rather unimpressed Duffield took to Twitter — after she found out about the launch event on the social media platform — to write: ‘Well, day one has gone well then..! Strong women can’t be broken that easily, lads. And I have

Iain Macwhirter

Can Scottish Labour really vanquish the SNP?

There is a distinct air of unreality about the position of the Scottish Labour party as it enters this election campaign. Frankly, many in the party don’t believe opinion polls suggesting, as YouGov did last week, that they are 10 per cent ahead of the SNP and could return up to 35 MPs on 4 July. ‘In yer dreams, pal’ say canvassers tramping the rainy pavements of urban Scotland. The collapse in the fortunes of the Scottish National party, and their own corresponding rise, has just been too sudden. Perhaps Anas Sarwar’s biggest task is to get his battered troops to believe After all, the Scottish Labour party currently has

James Heale James Heale

Sunak’s smoking ‘legacy’ goes up in flames 

When Rishi Sunak announced his decision to call a July election, he used his rain-soaked speech to list his apparent achievements in office. This included his plans for a ‘smoke-free generation’: We set out a comprehensive plan to reform our welfare system to make it fair to those who pay for it as well as those who need it. Immigration is finally coming down and we will stop the boats with our Rwanda partnership. We will ensure that the next generation grows up smoke free. I hope that my work since I became Prime Minister shows that we have a plan and are prepared to take the bold action necessary for our country to flourish. Only did Sunak speak a little too soon? Ahead of the dissolution of parliament next Thursday, MPs are in a

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Michael Gove leads the Tory exodus

When Rishi Sunak told cabinet colleagues about his decision to call a general election, Michael Gove sought to raise spirits by declaring ‘who dares, wins!’. But a great many Tory MPs have been making a different calculation: that with Labour 20 points ahead in the polls, it may be better not to dare – and just not fight the next election. This is what Gove has now ended up doing. In a letter released this evening, he’s leaving the once-safe seat of Surrey Heath to someone else and is joining a very long line of other refuseniks who are deciding not to join Sunak in the trenches. So far, 78

Steerpike Steerpike

Corbyn to stand as an independent MP

Amidst the election drama it would be easy to forget about one rather eccentric politician. Today Jeremy Corbyn has announced today that he will stand as an independent candidate for the seat of Islington North — after significant speculation about whether he would be welcomed back into the Labour fold. After holding the seat for 40 years, Corbyn says he will not defend views held by either the Tories or his former party Labour — including the two-child benefit cap and rent controls. Blocked from standing again for Labour, and suspended for remarks he made after the equalities watchdog report into antisemitism in the part, Jezza will be expelled for

Nick Boles

Why it’s time to vote Labour

Most people don’t belong to a political tribe. They vote pragmatically. When an election comes round, they ask themselves how well the party in power has performed in government and try to decide whether it looks likely to improve their living standards in the future. In next month’s general election, millions of pragmatic middle-of-the-road voters, who have supported the Conservatives in every election since 2010, will be wondering whether the party deserves their support yet again in 2024. The current team at the top of the Labour party are serious people of integrity and ability. For nearly 20 years I was a member of the Conservative tribe. A councillor for

Ed West Ed West

How bad will a Labour government be?

I’m old enough to remember the sense of optimism, hope and promise felt when Tony Blair was elected back in 1997; not by me, obviously, but I could at least appreciate that other people felt that ‘things can only get better’. Whether you think they did or not, Blair transformed the country in his own image, just as his predecessor Margaret Thatcher had done during her similarly long reign. No one could say the same of the recent 14 years of Tory-led governments, a period that has been marked by a continual drift away from conservatism both within civil society and in many ways driven by the administration itself. Labour is

Thursday

James Heale James Heale

Reform’s election launch overshadowed by Farage

It’s been a big morning on the right of British politics. First, net migration figures were published showing 685,000 people arrived in the 12 months between 2022 and 2023. Rishi Sunak then admitted that no flights to Rwanda will take off before polling day on 4 July. This was followed shortly after by Nigel Farage ruling himself out as a candidate in the snap election. Reform UK leader Richard Tice then took to his feet to launch his party’s election campaign. Tice’s party will likely still hurt the Tories There was little that was new on policy or messaging as Tice, Reform deputy leader Ben Habib and ex-Tory cabinet minister

Iain Macwhirter

This election couldn’t come at a worse time for the SNP

The last time John Swinney was leader of the SNP, 20 years ago, the party went on to return only six MPs in the next general election. Labour returned 41 north of the border. Swinney had resigned the year before, but this was his electoral legacy.  The party has had a traumatic year since the precipitate departure of Nicola Sturgeon Could history be about to repeat itself now he is leader once again? The most recent YouGov poll, conducted after Swinney became leader and First Minister, suggests that Labour has a ten point lead over the SNP in Scotland. If that were maintained on polling day, the nationalists would be reduced from 43 MPs

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Rishi’s Rwanda row back shows he is hopeless at politics

Rwanda removals policy, for so long an anticipated cornerstone of the Tory re-election effort, has today officially become an ‘over the rainbow’ idea wide open to mockery from opposition parties. Not only will the deterrent impact on small boat crossings of the ‘regular drumbeat’ of flights that the Prime Minister promised us not have had time to be measured by polling day, but there won’t actually have been any flights whatsoever. Sunak originally promised flights would be happening by the end of spring Rishi Sunak, who originally promised flights would be happening by the end of spring, confirmed in a series of interviews that the plan actually getting implemented now