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

Some news is coming in from the Covid Inquiry, which could have a bearing on the general election. Simon Case, the UK’s most senior civil servant, is currently giving evidence. His session was originally due to be heard last year, but was delayed due to health issues.

He’s just told the Covid Inquiry that he had not heard of Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme until the day it was announced. Now why is this important?

Previously, both Sir Patrick Vallance, who was chief scientific adviser, and Sir Chris Whitty, who is still chief medical officer, said they were not informed about the scheme until the announcement. Vallance said he would have advised against the scheme as it was “highly likely” to have fuelled deaths.

When Sunak gave evidence in December, he denied keeping the scientific experts in the dark, saying this was normal procedure. He added that it was the “right thing to do to protect” workers from the “devastating consequences” of job losses. However, now Case has also said he wasn’t informed

Two serving Government ministers are among the Conservative MPs who have announced they will not seek re-election on the first day of the General Election campaign.

Transport minister Huw Merriman and work and pensions minister Jo Churchill shared resignation letters featuring the House of Commons letterhead on Thursday.

Other MPs who have already said they will not stand are having to say goodbye to Parliament sooner than expected.

Ms Churchill cited “family reasons” in her resignation letter, and said she had the “utmost respect for the difficult job” of the Prime Minister.

In his letter, Bexhill and Battle MP Mr Merriman did not specify a reason for his departure but thanked his staff, local Conservative association and the Prime Minister, and paid tribute to his constituency.

Dame Eleanor Laing, the Deputy Commons Speaker who was elected as a Conservative MP but relinquished party affiliation to take up her role, also announced she would stand down.

The MP for Epping Forest, who has served for 27 years, said in a post on X that she had informed Mr Sunak “several days ago”.

Labour former minister Kevan Jones has announced he will not stand at the General Election.

The North Durham MP said it would be “impossible” for him to fight the campaign as he is undergoing surgery and treatment in early June for “an ongoing condition”.

He described his decision not to stand as “difficult”, adding: “I am sad to be leaving the House of Commons but would like to thank the people of North Durham and my supporters who gave me the opportunity to serve them.”

Conservative former minister Sir Michael Ellis has announced he will not be standing for re-election.

The Northampton North MP, who has served in several prominent 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 former prime minister Spencer Perceval, a Northampton MP, and the only premier to have ever been assassinated.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said that he will continue to defend his seat in Islington North as an independent.

Corbyn lost the Labour whip following the party’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations while he was leader. He lost the whip in 2020 and has sat as an independent MP since.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Corbyn said: “I am standing as an independent candidate for the people of Islington North. As your MP, I will continue to be an independent voice for equality, democracy and peace.

“Let’s prove that when we come together, we can win.”

The future of MP Diane Abbott, who served in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, within the Labour Party is still to be determined after she lost the party whip in 2023.

She lost the whip after saying that racism experienced by Jewish, Irish, and Traveller communities was not comparable to racism experienced by black people.

The veteran MP is still under investigation but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that the matter will be “resolved” before the general election.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has been on the broadcast round this morning. Here are a few of the key things he said:

TV debates: Rishi Sunak has challenged Starmer to six TV debates, one a week until election day. The Labour leader has reportedly offered to do two. Today, he said: “He is sounding increasingly desperate, I have to say. Of course there are going to be TV debates. They are part and parcel of the election cycle now. I obviously want to spend as much of my time talking to voters directly.”

Two-child benefit cap: This is a policy which for years Labour figures have said has caused immense poverty, however Starmer has said an incoming government could not afford to get rid of it. He said he would scrap it “in an ideal world, of course”. “But we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment,” he added.

Diane Abbott: the investigation into the veteran Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP will be concluded before the election, Starmer said. He told LBC: “It will be resolved, yes of course it will. We have got a cut-off date for, I think it is 4 June, or thereabouts.”

Jeremy Corbyn: Starmer said former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to stand as an independent is “a matter for him”. He added: “We will have an excellent Labour candidate in Islington North, as we’ve got excellent Labour candidates across the country.”

The Renters Reform Bill has not made it into wash up, which is where the government and opposition parties agree to push through legislation which is nearing completion. That means the Conservatives have failed to deliver their promise to ban no-fault evictions from their 2019 manifesto.

Tom Darling, campaign manager of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, a campaign group of 20 leading housing and renter organisations, commented: “In 2019 the Conservative Manifesto promised to deliver a better deal for private renters and an end to no-fault evictions.

“Renters in England – trapped in an unhealthy, unaffordable and insecure renting system – have been waiting five long years for action on that pledge. Today we get confirmation that the Renters (Reform) Bill won’t pass – meaning the Bill is dead and the task of fixing England’s broken renting system will fall to the next government. Renters have been so badly let down.”

As NationalWorld previously reported, several landlord Tory MPs put a lot of pressure on Michael Gove, the Housing Secretary, to water down the bill. Shadow Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, said: “The Tories' decision to cave in to vested interests and abandon their already weakened Renters Reform Bill leaves in tatters the promises they made to private tenants five years ago.

“If the Tories get back in, renters will remain exposed to spiralling costs, poor housing standards and the risk of homelessness from no-fault evictions.

“Labour will turn the page on 14 years of Tory chaos, deliver where the Tories have failed and pass robust renters reform legislation that abolishes Section 21 no-fault evictions immediately and decisively levels the playing field between landlords and tenants.”

The first bit of policy heft of this general election campaign comes from the Lib Dems. Leader Sir Ed Davey has unveiled plans to give patients a right to see a GP in seven days.

Davey announced the pledge on a visit to Eastbourne, a target constituency for the party where the Lib Dems came second behind Conservative MP Caroline Ansell.

Speaking at Eastbourne Pier, the party leader said: “So many people tell us they can’t get a GP appointment in the time they want. They’re having to wait days and weeks in some cases.

“We’re so excited that we’re coming forward with new ideas about how we can transform our health system that will really help people struggling at the moment.”

News has just come in that Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, which would have prevented young people from ever being able to smoke, will not make it through wash up, and so will not be passed. Yet bizarrely, the Prime Minister has claimed this is an example of his “bold action”. I’m not sure that will wash with the public.

He told reporters in Northern Ireland that he was “of course disappointed not to be able to get that through at the end of the session given the time available”.

“But what I’d say is that’s evidence of the bold action that I’m prepared to take. That’s the type of Prime Minister I am. That’s the type of leadership that I bring. I stepped up to do something that is bold, that will make an enormous difference in the future of our country.”

Some people might argue that if you were so passionate about passing this legislation, why not call the election after it had actually become law. A similar case is being made about Rwanda, after the PM admitted that no flights will take off.

News has just come in that Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, which would have prevented young people from ever being able to smoke, will not make it through wash up, and so will not be passed. Yet bizarrely, the Prime Minister has claimed this is an example of his “bold action”. I’m not sure that will wash with the public.

He told reporters in Northern Ireland that he was “of course disappointed not to be able to get that through at the end of the session given the time available”.

“But what I’d say is that’s evidence of the bold action that I’m prepared to take. That’s the type of Prime Minister I am. That’s the type of leadership that I bring. I stepped up to do something that is bold, that will make an enormous difference in the future of our country.”

Some people might argue that if you were so passionate about passing this legislation, why not call the election after it had actually become law. A similar case is being made about Rwanda, after the PM admitted that no flights will take off.