Oliver Dowden reportedly reveals preferred choice for next Tory leader – UK general election live

Reform UK candidate who has quit the party, alleging that the vast majority of those standing for it in the general election are “racist, misogynistic and bigoted”.

David, who had been Reform’s candidate for West Ham and Beckton, issued a statement through the Conservatives, the party she is now backing.

“I just discovered earlier on today she was what the party called a ‘democracy candidate’ i.e. will anyone please stand?” Farage said. He said that Reform is a “start up” so it is suffering from “some start up problems” as fielding over 600 candidates was a “very, very difficult thing to do with a snap election”.

Despite allegations of prejudice in its ranks, Reform still appears to be in a strong polling position, which would indicate that the party could exacerbate a defeat looming over the Conservatives. Farage denies there is any widespread misogyny or racism in the party.

the i reports.

In a leaked recording, Dowden – who is a close politically ally to Sunak – reportedly said Atkins was the only other “star of his generation” capable of leading the Tories.

Speaking at an “end of year social” constituency event in Hertsmere in December, where Atkins was a special guest, Dowden said:

This is honestly the truth, when people ask me when I entered parliament, ‘who are the two stars, who are the stars of your generation?’ I said there’s only two people from my generation that I could see leading the Conservative party: Rishi Sunak or Vicky Atkins.

Atkins last week did not deny speculation she may run for leader after the election. She has a safe seat, which is more than many cabinet colleagues could say, including even Sunak himself who, according to some polls, is at risk of losing his Richmond and Northallerton seat. Atkins’ 2019 majority was not far short of 29,000.

Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Grant Shapps, Penny Mordaunt, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat are among the other potential leadership contenders (this is a useful explainer on the likely contenders here).

Yesterday, Sunak hinted that he might not quit as Tory leader immediately if he loses the election on Thursday. The prime minister may come under pressure to stay on for a period of time so the party can reflect on what went wrong (assuming they lose badly) and to stop a rushed leadership election.

of the report:

Sky News understands that the Tories are planning to publish a letter signed by between 100 and 150 SME bosses that will argue that a Labour government would risk damaging their business.

Sources said the letter was expected to be released on Wednesday, the final day before Britain goes to the polls.

Neither the text of the letter nor the names of the signatories were clear on Tuesday.

A business-owner approached to sign it, but who declined, said he was surprised the Tories had not done more to exploit differences between the two main parties on potential capital gains tax changes during the campaign.

One insider described it as “a last-ditch bid” to reverse some of the momentum behind Labour, which has published a series of letters during the election campaign backed by businesspeople.

Labour has been borrowing from the Conservatives’ playbook in getting business leaders to endorse their economic plans ahead of the general election (as what happened in May when dozens of businesses leaders signed a letter backing the party’s economic plans). Facing the likelihood of heavy electoral losses on Thursday, the Conservatives appear to be targeting businesses and warning about Labour’s economic proposals in a last-ditch effort to reverse some of this momentum.

analysis of the results that Labour’s national lead is below 20% in its polling for the first time since 10 March. The latest poll was conducted from 28 June to 2 July.

17.08).

Labour insiders have said the party would force through planning permission for new prisons but have not said how it would deal with an immediate overcrowding crisis.

Starmer has made tackling serious crime a key pillar of his policy agenda and has vowed to introduce new penalties for offenders. This, along with more police officers on the streets, will likely lead to more people being charged and prosecuted, potentially making the overcrowding crisis in prisons more acute.

The Guardian’s home affairs editor, Rajeev Syal, has done some excellent analysis of the feasibility of Labour’s crime proposals here:

Politico reports, speaking to reporters, he said:

You’ve got to just play the cards that you are dealt … There’s no point sitting there, going ‘well I wish someone had given me four aces’.

That is all from me for today. Yohannes Lowe is taking over now.

freedom of information (FOI) requests by the BBC.

The FOI showed that by the end of April this year, 49 people owed the Student Loans Company (SLC) over £200,000 each, with the highest recorded total of £252,000. Some 61,000 people each owed more than £100,000.

Nearly 1.8 million current or former students owed at least £50,000 in tuition and maintenance loans and interest, the FOI revealed. The government’s most recent figures show that the average outstanding balance for graduates in England was £48,000 in 2023-24.

The SLC said people with high balances “may be in receipt of several student loan products”, such as loans for further education courses, combined with funding for undergraduate, postgraduate master’s and PhD-level courses. Some students receive additional funding due to “compelling personal reasons,” the SLC said.

In some cases the high outstanding loan balances will be the result of high or penal interest rates compounded over several years. A starting balance of £60,000 with an annual average interest rate of 6% would rise above £100,000 in nine years, assuming no repayments.

reported that Keir Starmer has “accepted £76,000 worth of entertainment, clothes and similar freebies from UK donors since the 2019 general election, more than almost any other MP”. It said the gifts and hospitality, recorded in the register of MPs’ interests, included concerts, sports events, hotel stays, clothing and football matches.

Asked about the story today, Starmer said all hospitality of this kind had to be properly registered, and that was what had happened,

He also argued that, for security reasons, often it was easier for him to accept corporate hospitality. He said:

Quite a lot of that was Arsenal hospitality, and particularly away games where you can appreciate my desire to go in the stands is not always met with approval by the security teams around me, which means that I’m in corporate hospitality if I want to see the game.

report by Make Votes Matter published earlier this year showed that on average, over the past 50 years, cabinet ministers have stayed in post for just over two years – which is less time than in most other European countries.

the supreme court ruling giving the US president some immunity from criminal prosecution for what they do in an official capacity.

Biden said it set a dangerous precedent because it undermined the principle that no one in the US was above the law.

But, asked if he agreed, Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, declined to express an opinion. He said:

That’s the constitutional arrangements in the US. The court’s made its ruling. And it’s clear where they’ve drawn the line.

I think it’s probably now sort of to be defined exactly how that is applied in each of the individual cases.

But that is how their system works. That’s the ruling of the court. And, you know, I respect the legal system in America.

a report today showing why these concerns are justified. In their story Eleanor Rose, Simon Lock and Lucy Nash say:

TBIJ arranged a series of multiple small payments to each of the six major parties. The payments were individually less than £500 – the lower limit of the legal definition of a political donation – but passed that threshold once added together.

Labour was the only party to correctly identify and block the money. The Conservatives, Reform UK, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Scottish National Party (SNP) all failed to bar or return the payments.

When approached with TBIJ’s findings, parties disagreed about whether they were required to spot the donations or report them to the Electoral Commission, highlighting the confusion around the rules.

Experts said the findings show “deeply concerning” flaws in party donations processes as well as the “Swiss cheese” nature of rules intended to ensure fair elections and prevent foreign influence.

Source: theguardian.com