General election 2024 live: five more police officers being investigated in gambling-gate probe

I’ve just been passed another Tory campaign letter, which is being sent out to voters. The tactics are a bit Back To The Future, with the letter purportedly written by the voter from July 2044 as a warning about voting Reform.

Clearly the Conservatives do not have much confidence, if they’re worried about being out of power for 20 years. The letter says: “Yes, it’s me. Or it’s you, I should say. I’m writing to you from July 2044, 20 years on from the day you voted Reform.

“I wanted to let you know how it all turned for you. And for me. Long story short: not well.” It says Reform didn’t get any MPs and Labour didn’t care about us.

The letter adds: “I’ve been living with a Labour supermajority for the last two decades.” So the Tories are predicting they would lose the next five elections. Crikey.

A seven-year Tory MP and current candidate in Winchester, Flick Drummond, has said in a letter to constituents that she has been “as frustrated as you” with the Conservative government.

In the letter, Drummond says: "I know you might not agree with everything my party has done. I know you feel frustrated. I've often been as frustrated as you." Hardly a ringing endorsement of Rishi Sunak.

She also falsely claims Labour wants to bring in a national ULEZ scheme, a pay-per-mile road tax and give the vote to "immigrants and foreigners". None of these are Labour Party policy.

My colleague Tom Morton has sent in this dispatch from the Winchester constituency. Interestingly, the Green Party has been doing well in local elections, showing it’s not only in lefty Bristol and Brighton where it is getting support. Tom writes:

At first glance the area would seem to be solidly and stolidly Conservative. The “old” Winchester seat was held by Tory Steve Brine, and under the new boundaries it will encompass much of the old Meon Valley seat, which has now been abolished and was held by Flick Drummond since 2019 and George Holingbery before that, since its creation in 2010. The last three elections saw Meon Valley give Tory majorities of about 25,000. 

But that doesn’t tell the story; on the one hand, Winchester City Council (which now, again, overlaps with the “new” parliamentary seat) is under Lib Dem control, with the Tories battered down to a rump of eight seats after the last local election. And this area is also seeing its own version of a story being replicated in many places across the UK - the rise of the Greens.

The Central Meon Valley seat of Winchester council now has three Green councillors, and the area also returned a county councillor - Hampshire’s only Green - this year. And this goes with, elsewhere in the county four Greens winning seats on the traditionally all-blue Havant Borough Council, and two on Basingstoke’s council. It seems to be a quiet march.

Malcolm Wallace represents the Greens on Winchester City and the county council, and is campaigning this year for Lorraine Estelle for the parliamentary seat. He has seen the rise in influence first-hand, and said: “Just over two years ago there were no elected Greens in Hampshire. But people are not enamoured with the Conservatives right now. A lot of it is to do with hope and opportunity. It’s exciting what the Greens can bring. We are offering people a different voice. Protecting the local environment is really important to people. Improving facilities - that resonates with people.”

Read the full piece here.

Two Reform candidates have dropped out of the election campaign, claiming the “vast majority” of candidates are “racist, misogynistic and bigoted”.

Georgie David, the Reform candidate for West Ham and Beckton, said she believes the party leadership is “not racist” but it has failed to “tackle this issue in any meaningful way”. David’s move follows that of Liam Booth-Isherwood, who was standing in the seat of Erewash under the Reform banner but also dropped out of the race saying he had become “increasingly disillusioned” with the behaviour of the party, citing a “significant moral issue” within its ranks.

Nigel Farage’s party has been embroiled by racism allegations since campaigners for Reform in Clacton were recorded by an undercover journalist from Channel 4 making racist and homophobic comments, including about the Prime Minister, who is of Indian descent.

While Farage has called the Channel 4 report a “set-up” – an assertion the broadcaster has strenuously denied – social media activity of candidates expressing racist, xenophobic or homophobic ideation has continued to raise questions for the party leadership on the views held by those within their ranks.

Reform has confirmed it has dropped support for candidates Leslie Lilley in Southend East and Rochford; Edward Oakenfull in Derbyshire Dales; and Robert Lomas in Barnsley North. David said she would be leaving Reform with “immediate effect” and endorsing the Conservative Party candidate in the seat, Holly Alice Ramsey.

She said: “I am in no doubt that the party and its senior leadership are not racist. However, as the vast majority of candidates are indeed racist, misogynistic, and bigoted, I do not wish to be directly associated with people who hold such views that are so vastly opposing to my own and what I stand for.

“I also have been significantly frustrated and dismayed by the failure of the Reform Party’s leadership to tackle this issue in any meaningful way, and their attempts to instead try to brush it under the carpet or cry foul play. As such, I have now suspended my campaign with Reform, and I am endorsing the Conservative Party. I would encourage all of my fellow patriots to do the same.”

A spokesman for Reform said they were “very disappointed” with David’s course of action. They said: “We strongly disagree with her sweeping comments about the ‘vast majority’ of our 600-plus candidates, the vast majority of whom she can never even have met.

“And we find it sad and strange that she chose not to bring up any of her concerns with the party leadership before publicly trashing so many of her blameless colleagues who are giving their all to get Reform UK elected. Ms David was a last-minute addition to our candidate list and we apologise to the voters of West Ham and Beckton for any inconvenience.”

On Tuesday, the Times revealed Reform’s Orkney and Shetland candidate Robert Smith posted numerous insults about prominent women on social media, including calling European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde “head bitch of the globalists” and advocating for Nicola Sturgeon to be shot. Reform chairman Richard Tice described such insults as “appalling” but said “like anybody, we make some mistakes”.

Sir Keir Starmer, whose wife is Jewish, has come under fire from senior Tories after saying he wanted to avoid work after 6pm on a Friday to spend time with his family – although he acknowledged that would not always be possible.

The Tories said that would make him a “part-time” prime minister while Cabinet ministers mocked him, suggesting he would refuse to go to work if there was an international crisis on a Friday evening.

Friday night Shabbat dinners are important in the Jewish faith and Starmer has talked about making sure his children are aware of their heritage. Lord Mann, a Labour peer who was appointed as antisemitism adviser by Theresa May, said: “The attack on Keir Starmer for asserting his right to family time on a Friday night, as he has done for many, many years, is so dangerous. So insidious from those aware of why he chooses to be with his family specifically on Friday evenings.”

He told the PA news agency: “It’s a very strange thing to attack over. I’m the independent adviser to the Prime Minister and my advice would be this is not an area to stray into.” He pointed out that Friday nights had a wider cultural significance within the Jewish community, likening it to Sundays in Christian communities.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “The attacks on him are a total disgrace and it shows how far these people have fallen, how heavily they’re scraping the barrel and why they need to be removed from office on Thursday.”

Asked on Times Radio if he would work beyond 6pm on a Friday, Streeting said: “I’m sure I will be and I’m sure Keir will be doing so too.” The Tories have repeatedly attacked Starmer since he made the comments on a Virgin Radio interview on Monday morning.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said on X: “Virtually every military intervention we’ve carried out has happened at night, partly to keep our servicemen & women safe. The British people will wonder who would be standing in for Starmer between 6pm & 9am – Angela Rayner, David Lammy, Ed Miliband? Defending Britain’s security isn’t a daylight hours only job.”

The postal voting system requires “huge reform”, the SNP’s Westminster leader has said, following reports some voters could miss out.

Some Scots have said they are without their postal voting pack and will not be able to cast a ballot ahead of Thursday’s election due to being on holiday. The 4 July poll is taking place in the first week of the school holidays north of the border, with a higher than usual number of people expected to vote ahead of time.

Speaking to the BBC, Stephen Flynn said the issues risk disenfranchising voters.

“I’m massively concerned about that, like almost every candidate across Scotland that I believe to be the case. I’ve had numerous emails from people who have not received their postal ballot, that’s simply not good enough,” he said.

“You know, we warned the Prime Minister of this when it became apparent that he was going to choose the election date because, of course, for a huge majority of the people of Scotland, it’s now the school holidays, people are away on holiday.

“If their postal vote didn’t land in time, then they’re now disenfranchised from this election, they’re not able to vote for who they want to represent them at Westminster, whether that’s the SNP, or otherwise, that’s simply not good enough.”

The Westminster leader, who is running to return to Westminster in Aberdeen South, added: “I see some individuals are blaming the Royal Mail but the reality is the system is not fit for purpose, and we need to see huge reform.

“We also need to see a big reflection on how we’ve managed to get into a situation where a prime minister can at his own whim declare an election, the Tories decided this was the way that they want the elections to operate in the UK.”

The government is “urgently” investigating delays to the postal voting system, a Conservative minister has said. Maria Caulfield was on the morning broadcast round, and told Sky News she was aware of a number of constituencies where people have not received their ballots.

The issues is once a voter applies for a postal vote they can no longer vote in person. So if their ballot does not come in time they would effectively be disenfranchised. Even if the ballots arrive in time, with just two days to go until the election there’s also concern that they won’t be returned by polling day.

Post Affairs Minister Kevin Hollinrake has called on Royal Mail “to do all they can” to make sure people get postal votes in time. The Telegraph has reported that more than 90 constituencies have raised concerns.

Caulfield said: “Kevin is investigating this urgently. I know there's extra resources going into this to try and do a sweep of all the sorting offices and make sure they're out there."

Home Secretary James Cleverly has done the morning media round, and was asked on LBC about England’s dramatic victory at the Euros last night.

He said: “I mean, that was a match that was painful to watch until the 90th minute, wasn't it? I'm not going to try and draw too many metaphoric links between what happened in the football.”

When pressed he added: “The point is nothing's over ‘til it's over. Football punditry-term politics is always a bit of a funny one, but nothing is over ‘til it's over. We're going to keep campaigning right up until the last minutes on 4 July.

“And, as I say, the British people don't have to be dictated to by the opinion polls. They can do what they believe to be right and if they want low taxes, if they want their borders protected, if they want plenty of coppers on the street, they should vote Conservative.”

There are only three days left until polling day. It seems an age ago that Rishi Sunak announced the general election in the pouring rain. Since then the gloom has followed the Prime Minister around, and he could be set for a historically low vote share come Thursday.

Sunak is certainly on the defensive and you can tell by his campaign stops today. He is going to Staffordshire, to try and protect Conservative seats there while Keir Starmer is on the attack.

He has three campaign stops this morning across the Home Counties, in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire. This shows the ambition of Labour, to take on the Tories in previously safe seats.

In a statement to Channel 4 News, Nigel Farage said: “I am dismayed by the reported comments of a handful of people associated with my local campaign, particularly those who are volunteers. They will no longer be with the campaign.

“The appalling sentiments expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views, those of the vast majority of our supporters or Reform UK policy. Some of the language used was reprehensible.

“Reform UK is a party for everybody who believes in Britain. I am proud that our supporters, candidates and national campaign team come from all backgrounds and identities.

While campaign manager Peter Harris said: “I am appalled by these reported comments. All parties in such a short campaign are having to deal with the challenges of working with many activists they may not have met before.

“Any individuals who have been identified as making unacceptable comments and holding those views are not welcome in our campaign. We are running a campaign to represent all voters in Clacton.”

While Andrew Parker said: “I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration.

“I have never discussed Immigration with either Nigel Farage or the Reform Party and that any comments made by me during those recordings are my own personal views on any subject I commented on. At no time before I was sent out to canvass did I discuss my personal views with any representative of the Reform Party or Nigel Farage.

“I would therefore like to apologise profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention. I offered to help the Reform Party on their canvassing as I believe that they are the only party that offer the UK voter a practical solution to the illegal immigration problem that we have in the UK.”